The San Francisco Peaks
(Near Flagstaff, Arizona)
The San Francisco Peaks, a mountain located in Northern Arizona, is held holy by more than 13 Indigenous Nations.
THREAT:
Ski area proposed development including clear-cutting up to 100 acres of old growth trees, snowmaking with more than 180 million gallons of treated sewage effluent per season on 205 acres. Tribes and environmental groups unified and filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service to stop the proposal.
UPDATE:
On March 12, 2007 the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower courts ruling allowing the proposed development. The Forest Service and the Ski Area have recently filed appeals to the decision. No word has been given if the court will rehear the case or allow an appeal “en banc”. If the 9th Circuit Court doesn’t rehear the case or allow the appeal, the legal battle could go to the Supreme Court.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Send a letter to the Flagstaff City Council urging them to stop the sale of wastewater to the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Area. Visit www.savethepeaks.org for more info.
Flagstaff City Council: 211 W. Aspen Avenue, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 USA - email: council@ci.flagstaff.az.us
LINKS:
www.savethepeaks.org
www.stopsnowbowl.com
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Medicine Lake
(Located in Northern California)
Medicine Lake is a ceremonial place of spiritual and physical healing for the Pit River, Wintu, Modoc, Shasta, Klamath and other nations.
THREAT:
Proposed geothermal power plant development that will desecrate the sacred site.
UPDATE:
Judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed a 2004 district court ruling and disapproved lease extensions issued in 1998 by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to a private energy company, Calpine, for a proposed geothermal power plant in the Medicine Lake Highlands. Efforts continue to prevent the case from going to the Supreme Court.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Conact: Mark LeBeau 916.801.4422 or Radley Davis 530.917.6064 for more information.
LINK:
www.treatycouncil.org
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Black Mesa
(Navajo Nation - Northern Arizona)
Residents on Black Mesa continue to struggle against mining interests, forced relocation, forced livestock reduction, and more.
CURRENT THREATS:
Forced Relocation - Since 1974 more than 14,000 Dine’ (Navajo) families have been forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands. A fabricated land dispute with the neighboring Hopi tribe was created by mining interests to access the coal beneath Black Mesa. Today families continue to refuse to be forced from their homes.
Black Mesa Project - Peabody Western Coal, the world’s largest coal company, has plans to extend its mining operations on Black Mesa and has filed a lease extension application with the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM). Peabody plans to obtain a ‘Life of Mine’ permit -which means it would be permitted to continue its unsustainable and dirty coal mining practices until all of the coal is removed!
To transport the coal, the company plans on continuing its practice of taking billions of gallons of water a year from the only water sources in the area, drawing down both high quality, residential water aquifers: Navajo Aquifer and Coconino Aquifer. These developments threaten the viability of the region’s primary water source. Plans also include relocating at least 17 families.
UPDATES:
In 2006 the Mojave Generating Station, a coal burning power plant, was shut down. Peabody Coal Company had been grinding coal from their mining operations and pumping millions of gallons of water from beneath Black Mesa in a 270 mile “slurry line” to the Mojave Station. The pumping of the water from the aquifer below the region increased the already drought like conditions. Due to environmental groups, community members’ efforts and regulatory issues, the power plant was closed. Subsequently Peabody had to shut down operations at it’s Black Mesa mine.
Bennett Freeze lifted - The Bennett Freeze, named after former Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Robert Bennett, was administratively issued in 1966 to restrict the Navajo tribe from constructing and repairing their dwellings on land that was subject to a government instigated “land dispute” with the Hopi Tribe. The Freeze was a deprivation tactic designed by the U.S. government to deprive Dine’ (Navajo) of all human rights and impose intolerable conditions upon Dine’ in order to force them off their ancestral lands in order to give Peabody Coal Company unobstructed access to the land and underlying aquifer.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS:
Peabody Energy is a transnational company with operations throughout the world.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Volunteer for direct on-land support. Donate.
LINKS:
www.blackmesais.org, www.stoppeabody.org,
www.blackmesawatercoalition.org
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Dooda’ (No) Desert Rock
(Navajo Nation - Burnham, New Mexico)
Sithe Global & Dine’ Power Authority (DPA) are proposing to build the Desert Rock power plant , a 1,500 MW Coal Fired plant in the Four Corners area on the Navajo Reservation.
THE THREAT:
This is an area already polluted by 2 other major coal power plants ( Four Corners and San Juan power plants ). Local Navajo residence and community members oppose this project for many harmful reasons. In Burnham, New Mexico community members have established a blockade to prevent preliminary work for the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant. This Desert Rock power plant is still in the environmental review process and has NOT yet been permitted.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS:
Sithe Global Power, LLC is an international development company engaged in the development, construction, acquisition and operation of electric generation facilities in attractive markets around the world. Sithe Global is affiliated with Blackstone Capital Partners, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group (which owns approximately 80% of the company) and the Reservoir Capital Group (which owns approximately 20% of the company). The Blackstone Group, a private investment bank with offices in New York, London, Paris and Hamburg.
UPDATE:
Dine’ resisters have recently recovered their resistance camp from tribal authorities. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been released and comments are due by Oct. 9th, 2007.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
The resistance camp is in urgent need of donations and supplies. SEND COMMENTS TODAY!
Please contact them for more info:
Send a donation: Elouise Brown - Doodá Desert Rock President - Phone:505.947.6159 - email: thebrownmachine(at)hotmail.com
Contact the president of the Navajo Nation urging him to deny this project and pursue more sustainable and environmentally
respectful development on the Navajo Nation.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley’s Office
P.O. Box 9000 Window Rock, Arizona, 86515
phone #: (928) 871- 6352
PRESSURE THE INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS:
www.blackstone.com
London
The Blackstone Group International Limited
40 Berkeley Square
London, W1J 5AL
U.K.
Phone: +44 20 7451 4000
Fax: +44 20 7451 4001
Paris
The Blackstone Group International Limited
11-13 Avenue de Friedland
75008 Paris
France
Phone: +33 (0)1 56 69 16 30
Fax: +33 (0)1 56 69 16 31
Hamburg
The Blackstone Group Deutschland GmbH
Grosse Elbstrasse 43
22767 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 70 29 80
Fax: +49 (0)40 70 29 81 34
LINK:
www.desert-rock-blog.com
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Gila River Alliance for a Clean
Environment (GRACE)
(Gila River, Arizona)
GRACE members are working to evict a chemical recycling plant on tribal lands which brings hazardous waste from all over the world.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact: contaminatedinaz(at)yahoo.com
LINK:
www.geocities.com/contaminatedinaz/index.html
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Skelkwek’welt
(Secwepemc Territory - British Columbia, Canada)
This is a sacred site for the Secwepemc Peoples.
THREAT:
Sun Peaks Resort Corp, owned by Nippon Cable from Japan, is currently desecrating this sacred site and threatens more expansion and destruction. More than 70 arrests of Secwepemc and their allies has occurred, 9 homes destroyed or forcibly dismantled, and 2 sweat lodges desecrated and destroyed.
The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in this area, increasing threats of the destruction of these sacred lands.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Boycott the 2010 Olympics. Organize a fundraiser/awareness event.
Contact: 604-682-3269ext.7845 - email: nymcommunications(at)hotmail.com
LINK:
www.skwelkwekwelt.net,
www.no2010.com
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Mount Graham
(Southern Arizona)
Arizona’s Mount Graham is a unique ecological treasure that is sacred to the San Carlos Apache.
THREAT:
For decades, Apaches, scientists, conservationists, and university students have resisted the University of Arizona’s attempts to build several large telescopes on the mountain’s summit.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS:
The Vatican is a partner with the University of Arizona in the development.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact the Apache Survival Coalition at: emeraldpeak(at)hotmail.com
LINK:
www.mountgraham.org
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Bear Butte
Located in South Dakota, Bear Butte is held sacred by thirty Native Nations.
THREAT:
Despite protests, petitions, and the recall of elected Meade County officials, a giant 600-acre biker bar is being built near the sacred Bear Butte. This summer hundreds of people from throughout the world came to take a stand at a summit at the base of the sacred mountain.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Sign the online petition & make donations.
Mail donations to: Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, PO Box 201, Manderson, SD 57756 USA.
LINK:
www.defendbearbutte.org
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Tsoodzí? - Mt.Taylor
(New Mexico)
Tsoodzil is the southern most sacred mountain for the Dine’ (Navajo) people. Mt. Taylor is also held holy by the Acoma Nation.
THREAT:
Recently eight Uranium Mining companies have filed for exploratory permits around Mt. Taylor alone. More than 50 exploratory drillings, between 1,000 to 1,500 feet deep have been proposed. The area is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and borders the Navajo Nation.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Contact Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining and support them. Email: admin(at)endaum.org
Donate: ENDAUM SRIC P.O. Box 4524 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
LINKS:
www.endaum.org, www.sric.org
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Bay Area Shell Mounds
(Bay Area, California)
The Bay Area Shell Mounds are traditional cemeteries and ancient monuments of the First Nations including the Ohlones, Coast Miwok, Bay Miwok, Mutsun, Plains Miwok, Yokuts, Patwin and many other nations.
THREATS:
The majority of shell mounds have been leveled and bulldozed, built over, and used for fill and road-paving material such as the Emeryville Shell Mound that currently has burials underneath what now is the Bay Street Mall. Thousands of human remains have been removed and/or destroyed by development.
Over the years as burial mounds were disturbed by construction projects, the University of California at Berkeley seized hundreds of remains. The university now refuses to return to the Ohlone people the remains of their ancestors. There are currently over 14,000 remains housed within cardboard boxes and lockers in the Hearst gym at UC Berkeley.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Educate and create awareness within your community about what shell mounds are and why it is necessary to boycott Bay St. Mall.
Participate/contribute/donate to the Shell Mound Peace Walk -Every October concerned community members hold a Sacred Sites/Shellmound walk.
Contact the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe: shellmoundwalk(at)yahoo.com
LINKS:
www.vallejointertribalcouncil.org,
www.savetheshellmounds.org
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ADDITIONAL ISSUES & ORGANIZATIONS
www.shundahai.org
Shundahai Network opposes all nuclear weapons research, development, testing and production. Shundahai Network also opposes all nuclear waste dumping on indigenous peoples lands. We are fighting to halt the proposed high-level nuclear waste dumps at Yucca Mountain and Skull Valley Reservation.
www.leonardpeltier.net
Leonard Peltier is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Dakota/Lakota Nations who has been unjustly imprisoned since 1976.
www.longestwalk.org - The Longest Walk II - February, 2008 - July 11, 2008
Our mission is to walk across the U.S. continent from Alcatraz in San Francisco, to Washington D.C., to commemorate The Longest Walk of 1978.
transformcolumbusday.org
mohawknationnews.com
peaceanddignityjourneys.com
deletetheborder.org
wolvesnotsheep.resist.ca
narconews.com
freewebs.com/mnnym
bsnorrell.blogspot.com
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