Statement from a Dineh man from The Mountain

07/22/05

To the supporters around the world:

The relocation of the Dineh Nation (Navajo) of Big Mountain, Black Mesa is still happening to this day. Sen. John McCain has introduced a bill (S.1003) that is to complete the forced removal of the Dineh of the Hopi Partitioned Land (HPL). The HPL was given to the Hopi Nation under the Relocation Act of 1974. In that act there is no fairness or equality, and what the Navajo Nation has been given is broken promises instead of new schools, hospitals and other public services. It is just like the past of broken treaties. The people who have relocated gave up their beautiful way of life, that beautiful land, in exchange for these broken promises.

The Relocation Act of 1974 should be revisited, repealed, and abolished, not ammended into future laws that oppress us. The only solution is to give back the land base to the indigenous. So in that way they can be in harmony and balance with the earth. Imminent relocation means forced relocation. We do not want to move! We want to continue our way of life, we want to keep our livestock. Our livestock has been confiscated and we are told we are “overgrazing”, but it is just a cover for harrassment and intimidation. We have been denied our human rights and environmental justice. We have been denied our place of worship and our beliefs. We know the U.S. gov’t is all about corporate control and corruption. That is how the mining of Black Mesa, and the relocation laws have come about. Right now we have a concern. A concern to all the people of the world that we are killing our mother, the earth on a global scale. We have alot of power plants in the four-corners area and they need to be shut down. Maybe it is too late but the young generations need us to resist.

Wake up America! Wake up to the desecration of the sacred and the genocide that the United States is founded on. This relocation equals genocide here.
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(a Dineh man from The Mountain)