Press Release: Big Mountain Spring Survival Gathering 2004

Background:

In 1974 the United States government passed Public Law 93-531 which has resulted in the ongoing forced relocation of and moratoriums for Dineh (Navajo) people living in the former Joint Use Area (JUA) off of what is now “Hopi land.” Supposedly a humane approach to settling a “century old land dispute” between the Dineh and Hopi tribes, it seems more likely, given the long proven history of alliance between the two tribes, that the law had more to do with coal than Indian interests. Peabody Western Coal steadily encroaches onto the former JUA relentlessly strip mining day and night. They contribute monetarily to both tribal governments and have a long history of involvement in the area ever since mining interest evolved in the 1950s. Including, but not limited to, the imposition of tribal governments (a “western” concept completely foreign and adverse to traditional Dineh-Hopi sovereignty), large scale bribery and the destruction of community (familial and tribal), and the fabrication of the “range war” between the two neighboring tribes through a media campaign so successful that Congress enacted the relocation programs. Read more

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The Spring Survival Gathering

(In the following report, “Hopi Tribe” refers to a tribal government imposed by the United States over the objections of traditional Hopi, and still opposed by many Hopis who support those Dineh facing relocation.)

In the tradition of resistance to relocation, a Spring Survival Gathering was held in honor of the late Roberta Blackgoat, resistance leader and traditional matriarch, on her ancestral land at Big Mountain, just a few miles as the crow flies south of the Peabody Black Mesa coal mine. Read more

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