Big Mountain, Black Mesa Elder Faces Threat of Her Ceremonial Lodge.

From: “Black Mesa Indigenous Support” <blackmesais@riseup.net >

Please Forward Widely to Everyone You Know!

URGENT! PLEASE ACT NOW!  Big Mountain, Black Mesa Elder Faces Threat
of her Ceremonial Lodge/Home being dismantled while Peabody Coal
Company is pushing their massive coal-mining expansion plans on the
sacred ancestral homelands of the Dine’ (Navajo) & Hopi peoples of
Black Mesa, AZ.  Your voices are urgently needed before these two
very important deadlines close!

PEABODY COAL COMPANY ‘S PLANS UNDERMINES PLANETARY LIFE SUPPORT
SYSTEMS BY ACCELERATING ECOLOGICAL & CULTURAL COLLAPSE! We cannot
allow a small cartel of energy corporations and their financial
backers to knowingly de-stabilize our planet’s climate and devastate
whole communities & ecosystems for their own personal gain. This may
turn out to be the most devastating crime ever perpetrated against
humanity, the planet and future generations. We are at a critical
juncture. Indigenous and land-based people globally have maintained
the understanding that our collective survival is deeply dependent on
our relationship to the Earth.

Please, act now in support of the communities on the front lines of resistance!

Big Mountain, Black Mesa Elder Faces Threat of her Ceremonial
Lodge/Home being dismantled on her ancestral homeland. Elder Served
Notice That Rebuilding Ceremonial Lodge is Illegal.

On Wednesday, May 20th,Traditional elder and resister to relocation
laws, Pauline Whitesinger was served notice that her recently rebuilt
ceremonial lodge was illegal and under threat to be dismantled. She
was ordered to halt all construction of her earthen lodge, called a
hogon, as it is being prepared for an upcoming ceremony. She is
refusing to cooperate and is requesting assistance to finish her
ceremonial hogon.
Whitesinger, in her mid-eighties and living alone, has been an active
resitor to the U.S. Government’s laws and efforts to relocate her
off of her traditional homeland. She has also been an outspoken
opponent to the existing coal mine on her homeland of Black Mesa,
owned by Peabody Coal, as well as current plans for expansion of the
strip mine, construction of pipelines and the mining of the area’s
aquifers, stating that “Our very mother is being carved up there (at
the coal mine)…if the mine is further permitted or expaanded, the coal
company will eventually kill her.† This recent BIA funded action is
an affront not only to this elder and her people but to all advocates
of the indigenous lifeways that maintain the health of the planet.

Read the report in full:
http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

*  Volunteers are needed right now to stay with Pauline to assist her
with herding sheep,  to monitor for more threats,  and to complete the
hogon.
*  Demand that Pauline be left alone on her ancestral homeland. Send a
letter on her behalf TODAY! For more information and where to send
comments and/or demands:
http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/

———————————————————-
URGENT ACTION ALERT! On May 23, 2008 the Office Of Surface Mining
(OSM) opened a 45 day public comment period concerning the proposed
Black Mesa Project: Peabody Coal Company’s massive coal-mining
expansion plans on the sacred ancestral homelands of the Dine’
(Navajo) & Hopi peoples of Black Mesa, AZ.  Peabody Coal’s plans
would devastate whole communities & ecosystems and de-stabilize our
planet’s climate for their own personal gain. Your voices are
urgently needed before the comment period closes July 7, 2008!

Please send a letter to OSM to Protect the Indigenous ancestral
homelands of Black Mesa!
Stop Predatory Development and Catastrophic Climate Change!
Support a Community-Led Just Transition to a Green Economy!
No to mining fossil fuels!
No to Peabody’s Preferred Alternative B.
Yes to The People’s Preferred Alternative C which is a ‘No
Action’. (No dirty coal mining expansion!)

STAY POSTED UNTIL FURTHER DIRECTION COMES FROM THE COMMUNITIES WHO ARE
ON THE FRONT LINES OF RESISTANCE!  A SAMPLE LETTER WILL BE POSTED OUT
IN THE NEXT COUPLE DAYS. (Visit http://www.blackmesais.org and other
websites listed below for a sample letter &/or for additional info.)

The Black Mesa Project Environmental Impact Statement (BMP-EIS)
outlines harmful impacts to every level of the ecological and cultural
systems on Black Mesa and has global repercussions. If we don’t stop
these plans, Peabody will have the green light to:

* Lock in mining rights until the coal runs out or until 2025!

* Substantially accelerate global warming and cause an ecological  meltdown.

* Destroy thousands of acres of canyon lands, vanishing indigenous
vegetation and shrines or burials.

* Blast the land for coal & deplete air quality, increasing the health
risk of the local residents and their livestock.

* Deplete an underground source of water that residents depend on to
survive by pumping massive amounts of water.

* Uproot & relocate families from their ancestral homelands where the
coal mining expansion are.

* Sacrifice human dignity and planetary health for elite profit!
Peabody would cause many more problems than what is reflected here.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN SEND YOUR COMMENTS: (STAY POSTED FOR A SAMPLE
LETTER SOON!) You can send as many
comments as you want on different issues, as long is it’s before the
deadline on July 7, 2008. Your comments must directly address
components of the EIS. Alternative C, (No Action), is our preferred
alternative. Alternative B is Peabody Coal’s preferred alternative.
Stay posted for a sample letter or write your own. At the top of your
letter or in the subject line of your e-mail message, indicate: “BMP
Draft EIS Comments.” Include your name and return address in your
letter or e-mail message.

The Draft Black Mesa Project Environmental Impact Statement for
Peabody Coal’s preferred Alternative B is available for review on
OSM’s Internet Web site at:
http://www.wrcc.osmre.gov/WR/BlackMesaEIS.htm

*EMAIL: BMKEIS@osmre.gov. You should receive a confirmation that OSM
has received your e-mail comment, or contact (303) 293-5048.

*WRITTEN COMMENTS sent by first-class or priority U.S. Postal Service:
Dennis Winterringer, Leader, Black Mesa Project EIS,
OSM Western Region, P.O. Box 46667,
Denver, Colorado 80201-6667.

*COMMENTS DELIVERED by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail or by
courier service:
Dennis Winterringer, Leader,
Black Mesa Project EIS, OSM Western Region,
1999 Broadway, Suite 3320,
Denver, Colorado 80202-5733.

FURTHER INFO:
The Black Mesa Water Coalition has additional information about
protecting Black Mesa and is spearheading the Just Transition
Campaign, “an innovative plan to transition tribal economy,
employment, and energy off fossil fuel extraction and onto a
sustainable renewable energy path”.
Visit http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org to learn more and to show
your support.

Black Mesa Indigenous Support will have updated to share as community
organizers issue new info. BMIS is requesting funds for Dine’
community organizers to visit their relatives and organize meetings to
protect Black Mesa.  http://www.blackmesais.org

Sierra Club Environmental Partnerships Program:
http://www.sierraclub.org/partnerships/tribal

Peabody coal company, like most corporations mining the Earth for
profit, is rooted in sacrificing human dignity and planetary health
for elite profit and is out of alignment with common sense values. Its
roots remain sunk deeply in the history of colonial genocide,
corporate power grabs, and ecological devastation.

http://www.blackmesais.org
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Tom B.K. Goldtooth
Executive Director
Indigenous Environmental Network
PO Box 485
Bemidji, MN 56619 USA
Email: ien@igc.org
Web: www.ienearth.org