About Us

All-volunteer Staff Bios:

Tree (Theresa) Gigante was born in the Great Lakes region to children of Irish and Italian immigrants. She  has been a sheepherder, supporter and support organizer for the Big Mountain and surrounding communities since early 1997.  She spends several months there every year with her sons living with the elders and  tending  their traditional sheep camps. This involves a lot of train rides across the country as Tree lives in the Appalachian mountains of Virgina, where she also supports those communities in their own struggle against the effects of coal mining.  The elders of Black Mesa can be credited with truly radicalizing Tree, and she has spent much of the last  15 years participating in direct action to support indigenous struggles for life and land across the country, and plans to continue to do so. In her spare time she does flower farming, homeschooling, vehicle repair,  and lots of laundry.  Tree also continues to choose to live without the use of electricity in her own home, “It’s a dirty business, that electricity.”

Berkley Carnine is an Oregon raised queer organizer, writer, teacher of European descent, a lover of long bodied dogs, justice, elderly folks, and postcolonial, queer, Indigenous, migrant and anti-racist theory, history and movements. Berkley currently lives in Tempe, Az and enjoys trying to slow down time, shake things up at MTV university (ASU), harvest food, make music, write short stories, teach creative writing in the prison system, spend time up at Black Mesa and be a part of shifting the climate of hate in Az to one of love and liberation.

Liza Minno Bloom is of Slovak and Anglo descent and was raised north of Philadelphia, PA.  Liza is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in American Studies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where she is writing a thesis on the intersections of Queer Theory and Indigenous Studies, is involved in efforts to unionize graduate student employees, and shamelessly spoils her dog, Frankie. Liza misses the ocean something fierce, but is enjoying the epic Martian landscapes of the Southwest.  Liza began on-land support for Black Mesa in 2008 and joined the BMIS collective shortly thereafter. The substance of Liza’s hope for a decolonial future consists of collective organizing for justice, social movements grounded in love and a connection to the earth that we all share, and communities caring for each other in creative and healthful ways.

Derek Minno Bloom was born on occupied Lenni Lenape land north of Philadelphia and is of German, Polish and Italian decent. He has been a BMIS collective member since 2008. Derek lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has anti-racist, queer politics somewhere in between anarcho syndicalism and anarcho primitivism. He worked as a radical history teacher/activist for two years in Brooklyn and Harlem New York, has been involved in counter military recruiting and the anti-war /anti-globalization movement, has been working on housing justice issues as a social worker for nine years and has most recently been involved with (Un)Occupy ABQ and ABQ Copwatch. Derek enjoys long walks in what is left of wild places, reading, writing, liberation and earth theologies, and spending time with friends and family.

Hallie Boas was raised in New York City and the shores of the Long Island Sound in Connecticut and is an organizer, activist and artist of European Jewish descent. Her heart and passions are centered in visions for building grassroots movements for social, racial and ecological justice. She enjoys planting seeds, practicing and teaching yoga and meditation, post apocalyptic distopian feminist science fiction, making trinkets out of metal and other found things, and spending time at Black Mesa/Big Mountain, Arizona. Hallie has worked with the Global Justice Ecology Project for over four years as the New Voices Coordinator on Climate Change and now serves on the Board of Directors. She is also part of the Progressive Communicators Network . She is currently living in Austin, Texas pursuing a Masters/PhD in Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin.

To achieve our goals, Black Mesa Indigenous Support depends on a diverse network of talented, committed grass-roots organizers, coordinators and workers spread throughout many regions who volunteer their time in supporting the indigenous peoples of Black Mesa in their resistance to massive coal mining operations and forced relocation. We welcome you to join the growing support network. There may be supporters in your area and we can connect you.

(Please check back soon learn about more details about the international support network.)