Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Background


SINCE 1974, federal relocation policy has forced 14,000 Dine’ (Navajo) people from their ancestral homeland in Arizona.
This genocidal policy was crafted by government agents and energy company representatives in order to gain access to the mineral resources of Black Mesa – billions of tons of coal, uranium and natural gas.

For over 30 years, traditional Dine’ at Black Mesa have lived in resistance, steadfastly refusing to relocate as strip-mines rip apart their sacred lands and generating plants poison the desert air.

  • Further Reading:
    • The Navajo Hopi Land Dispute: An American Tragedy by David M. Brugge
    • Dine’: A History of the Navajos by Peter Iverson
    • The Book of the Navajo by Raymond Friday Locke
    • The Wind Won’t Know Me: A History of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute by Emily Benedek
    • Struggle For The Land: Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization by Ward Churchill
    • Cry Sacred Ground by Anita Parlow
    • Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the American Southwest by Charles Wilkinson – In-depth info about Boyden history, biased against Navajos.