Thousands of Claims Threaten Public Health & Sacred Lands

By Klee Benally

Grand Canyon, AZ — In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Stop Snowbowl! Protest Sat. Dec. 19 At Flagstaff City Hall!

When: Saturday, December 19th starting at 10AM

Where: Flagstaff City Hall on the Rt. 66 side

The struggle to protect the Holy San Francisco Peaks and community health from ski resort expansion and wastewater snowmaking continues.

Although a current lawsuit filed by the Save the Peaks Coalition and community members has halted the ski business’ efforts to make sewage snow, community support is still needed.

In the face of political pressure from the State of Arizona’s Congressional Delegation, (more) the US Forest Service approved a component of the ski area’s proposed development that is not associated with snowmaking. 

Regardless of the approval Snowbowl cannot currently expand due to the lawsuit.

While it is unclear as to how long the court case will stop Snowbowl from expanding and making sewer water snow, in the context of the legal battle the Obama administration is doing everything in their power to put wastewater snow on the holy San Francisco Peaks. 

When the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort opened on Thursday, a small group of protesters held signs and banners to ensure that skiers were aware of public health threats and the desecration of the sacred mountain.

Arizona Snowbowl employees called the Forest Service and County Sheriffs in an attempt to have the protesters and others with them arrested for “trespassing” on public lands. No charges were made.

You can join us in our stand for the protection of sacred places and community health.

PROTEST SNOWBOWL!

When: Saturday, December 19th starting at 10AM

Where: Flagstaff City Hall on the Rt. 66 side

If you can’t join us please visit www.savethepeaks.org for more information on what you can do to help stop Snowbowl and protect sacred places!

You can contact Congress and urge them to convene immediate hearings on the protection of Sacred Places.

Contact info is included below. 

Klee Benally

indigenousaction@gmail.com

Online database of current US Congress contacts: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Ann Kirkpatrick, Arizona (D)

1123 Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2315 Fax: (202) 226-9739
https://forms.house.gov/kirkpatrick/dc-contact-form.shtml

Flagstaff Office

1515 East Cedar Avenue, A6, Flagstaff, AZ 86004

Phone: (928) 226-6914  Fax: (928) 226-2876

John Kyle, Arizona (R)

730 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone: (202) 224-4521 Fax: (202) 224-2207

http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

John McCain, Arizona (R)

241 Russell Senate Office Building
, Washington, D.C. 20510-0303
  Phone: 202-224-2235  
Fax: 202-228-2862

http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Contact.Home

John Conyers, Jr., Michigan, (D)
House Committee on the Judiciary, Chair

2426 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5126
  Fax: 202-225-0072

Email: john.conyers@mail.house.gov

NOTE: On July 11, 2008, more than 1,000 Native rights and environmental justice advocates arrived in Washington, DC after walking across the US to raise awareness about key issues affecting Native peoples and the environment. The successful journey, known as the Longest Walk 2, delivered a 30-page manifesto and list of demands to Congress, which included the protection of sacred places.

House Judiciary Chair, US Representative John Conyers (D-MI) promised representatives from the Longest Walk 2 that their issues would be addressed but set no timetable. “The Committee on the Judiciary will hold hearings on each one of these items that you have outlined here,” stated Rep. Conyers.

To read the Longest Walk resolutions go to: www.longestwalk.org

Supreme Court Affirms Tribes Have No Religious Rights,

Tribes and others Call For Congressional Action to Protect Sacred Places

Flagstaff, AZ — On Monday, June 8^th 2009, the Supreme Court denied the petition by Tribes & Environmental groups to hear the case to protect the holy San Francisco Peaks.

For nearly a decade, the Save the Peaks Coalition, Tribes, Environmental groups, and community members lead an effort to stop the Snowbowl ski area’s plan to expand it’s development on the Peaks, and make snow from treated sewage effluent. The ski resort operates on the Holy Mountain through a lease by the United States Forest Service, which sanctioned the proposed development in 2004.

Read the rest of this entry »

We just set up www.doodadesertrock.com and updated the short 2006 documentary “Making A Stand At Desert Rock.”

On December 12th, 2006 community members in Chaco Rio, New Mexico established a blockade to prevent preliminary work for proposed development of a massive coal-fired power plant. Learn more at www.doodadesertrock.com.

Take Action: Contact a US Congressional representative here.

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, January 6th 2009

Contact: Klee Benally – Save the Peaks Coalition
Email: indigenousaction@gmail.com
Website: www.savethepeaks.org

Tribes & Environmental Groups Petition Supreme Court in Appeal to Protect Religious Freedom & Environmental Integrity of Sacred Mountain

FLAGSTAFF, AZ – On Monday, January 5th 2009, Tribes & environmental groups in Arizona filed a unified petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeals in a precedent setting legal battle to protect religious freedom and the ecological integrity of the holy San Francisco Peaks. Read the rest of this entry »

Black Mesa, AZ — On Monday, December 22nd, 2008 The U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) issued a decision to approve the Black Mesa Project. This decision continues the legacy of the United States Government’s genocidal policies against those living in the Black Mesa region.

For more than 30 years Dine’ and Hopi traditionalists, mainly elders, have resisted continued assaults on their lives and land because of coal mining operations. Through policies such as PL93-531, the U.S. has already forcibly relocated more than 14,000 Dine’ people from their ancestral homelands.
Although PL93-531 has been portrayed as a resolution to this so-called “Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute”, elders from the Black Mesa region have resisted and held that the coal beneath their homes has been the real interests of the Federal and Tribal governments.

This decision has been widely viewed as a foregone conclusion because of the colonial history of the area relating to resource extraction. Activist’s also decried the decision making process due to OSM’s lack of meaningful outreach to impacted communities and refusal to extend public comment deadlines.

In February 2004, Peabody Energy submitted to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) a permit application proposing substantial revisions to its mining plans at the Kayenta and Black Mesa Mines on Black Mesa, which is located in Northern Arizona.

Additional impacts of the Black Mesa Project include (from www.blackmesais.org):

• Establish permanent mining rights until the coal runs out or until at least 2026!

• Substantially accelerate global climate disruption and cause an ecological meltdown.
• Destroy thousands of acres of pristine canyon lands, causing animal and plant ecology and cultural sites to vanish.
• Increase the detonation of coal on a daily basis, affecting air quality and health of miners, local residents, and their livestock.
• Deplete the already scarce water tables and regional aquifer that are all essential to residential survival.
• Uproot & relocate families from their ancestral homelands due to coal mining expansion.
• Sacrifice human dignity and planetary health for elite profit! Peabody would cause many more problems than what is reflected here. Its roots remain sunk deeply in the history of colonial genocide, corporate power grabs, and ecological devastation.

In 30 years of controversial operation, Peabody’s Black Mesa Mine has been the source of an estimated 325 million tons of CO2 that have been discharged into the atmosphere.* If expansion plans are permitted, it would exacerbate already devastating environmental and cultural impacts on local communities and significantly add fuel to the fire of the current climate chaos we face globally. Coal from the Black Mesa mine could contribute an additional 290 million tons of CO2 to the global warming crisis!* (info from www.blackmesais.org)

Coal from the Black Mesa Mine was delivered to the Mohave Generating Station until it’s doors were shut on December 31, 2005 due to non-compliance with a 1999 consent degree that required the owners to install pollution controls. The coal was transported to the plant in a slurry (about 50/50 water and crushed coal) through the Black Mesa Pipeline, owned and operated by Black Mesa Pipeline, Inc. As a part of the Black Mesa Project, this coal-delivery system was intended to be rebuilt but those plans appear to have been abandoned. Southern California Edison and other co-owners of the Mohave Generating Station were initially proposing to construct and operate a new water-supply system to convey water from a well field near Leupp, Arizona, using water from the Coconino (C) aquifer, to the Black Mesa Mine for the coal slurry, and mine related uses.

Lawsuits against OSM to protect the land and people of Black Mesa are expected to be filed by multiple groups.

Pressure can also be put on the incoming Obama Administration considering that intended energy policies include further use of so-called “Clean Coal”.

Additional groups such as Navajo Green Jobs are also proposing alternative energy transitions on the Navajo & Hopi Nations to reduce dependency on non-renewable resources.

Of course, we must not just shift dependencies to a more “green lifestyle”, we must find more sustainable and meaningful ways to better our relations with mother earth. No matter how green our lifestyles, capitalism will never be sustainable.

For more information visit: www.blackmesais.org

To read the full decision visit: http://www.wrcc.osmre.gov/default.htm

(Sources cited such as blackmesais.org are not associated with the following info, nor does it reflect the views of any other org)

Nike has introduced what it is calling the “Air Native N7″, a shoe designed especially for us Natives. Not only is Nike proud in producing its first shoe for a “specific” ethnic group, the company is also touting this product as a contribution to the fight against diabetes!

Before we start praising this billion-dollar multinational corporation for its recognition and attempt to promote wellness in our Indigenous communities, we should critically question the true intentions behind this gesture, their slick marketing scheme, and especially their business practices.

A recent AP article states that the shoe “will be distributed solely to American Indians; tribal wellness programs and tribal schools nationwide will be able to purchase the shoe at wholesale price and then pass it along to individuals, often at no cost.”

At no cost? Sounds like a deal too good to be true. What about the cost to tribal schools and wellness programs already strapped for funding?

The AP article further states that “[Nike] anticipates selling at least 10,000 pairs and raising $200,000 for tribal programs.” The article acknowledges that “At $42.80 wholesale, it represents less of a financial opportunity than a good will and branding effort.”

Aside from burnishing Nike’s corporate image, what direct and meaningful benefits will this gesture bring to our communities? I know that $200,000 can go a long way on any Rez, but when a corporation reports $15 Billion dollars in total revenue and $1.392 Billion in net income in 2006,I would think that they could do better. The founder of Nike, Philip Knight is reportedly worth more than 5 Billion dollars. Nike and Philip Knight would do better to donate directly to health services on our 560+ Nations. Then I could believe in their professed concern for the health of our people.

In a recent news release Nike stated that the shoe “honors the traditional Native American Seventh Generation philosophy, an approach that respects the impact of decisions made today on seven generations. The shoe’s design draws inspiration directly from Native American culture.” As Indigenous Peoples we have to ask ourselves if Nike is sincerely recognizing and honoring our traditional cultural beliefs or if this is just a marketing opportunity used to mask Nike’s unethical and frequently illegal labor practices. We follow the Seventh Generation philosophy because we know that our actions impact future generations. Can we really trust that respect, understanding, and altruism underlie this effort?

A 2000 Corpwatch press release, which was signed by numerous Human Rights advocates and submitted to the United Nations, stated “Nike, one of the Global Compact partners and an international symbol of sweatshops and corporate greed, is the target of one of the most active global campaigns for corporate accountability. The company has made announcements of changes to its behavior only after enormous public pressure. It has also aggressively opposed the only union and human rights-group supported independent monitoring program–the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC).”

Nonetheless Nike also aims to “…elevate the issue of Native American health and wellness.” Does Nike think that they’ll help bring meaningful and active awareness to our social/cultural issues or will their actions just pave the way for other corporations to profit off spiritual appropriation masked as cultural recognition and community service? This message concerns me deeply and should inform the community’s public reaction to this effort by Nike.

Dr. Rodney Stapp, Chief Executive Officer for the Urban Inter-Tribal Center of Texas and consultant for Nike says that the shoe “comes at a critical time for the health and well-being of the Native American population.” He further states “Today, more than ever, we are faced with rising rates of chronic diseases brought on in large part by overweight and inactivity and for which physical activity is a noted step in the prevention of such diseases.”

“Nike is aware of the growing health issues facing Native Americans,” explained Sam McCracken, Manager of Nike’s Native American Business program in the same release.

Mark Parker, the President and CEO of Nike, says that his corporation wants to “…improve Native American communities…” and that “The Nike Air Native N7 marks an important moment for us and is a great example of what can be achieved when we challenge ourselves to innovate for a better world”.

I’m sure they don’t really think that these shoes are going to save us, but if they are taking such a conscious stance then why aren’t they promoting and supporting other Tribal programs, organizations or services? It further amazes me (but doesn’t surprise me) that Nike can make these statements but continue to ignore the ongoing and dire issues facing the workers in their sweatshops.

Although Nike has made moves to improve its corporate image and distance itself from the sweatshop reputation, to this day they still refuse to pay a living wage, allow independent monitoring in its factories, and secure worker’s rights to organize unions in their factories. Our communities should not partner with and support a corporation involved in denying people across the world rights and benefits in the name of profit.

Furthermore, in the context of sports teams perpetuating and profiting off of racist depictions of our peoples, could any kind of appropriation add insult to injury more than this? If Nike really wanted to honor Indigenous peoples and the Seven Generations then they would stand with us and work to ban racist mascots in the industry that they definitely have the most impact on and they would immediately end their deplorable labor practices.

Mark Parker says that his corporation wants to “…improve Native American communities.” Parker later states, “The Nike Air Native N7 marks an important moment for us and is a great example of what can be achieved when we challenge ourselves to innovate for a better world”.

Our Indigenous communities should challenge Nike to have fair & just labor practices if they truly desire “a better world”. At least that would be a step in the right direction for the Seven Generations.

Klee Benally
Indigenous Action Media
indigenousaction.org

Before you trade your moccasins in for these corporate shoes, you should check these links (also sources for info in this article):

From Corpwatch (www.corpwatch.org):
“Nike, one of the Global Compact partners and an international symbol of sweatshops and corporate greed, is the target of one of the most active global campaigns for corporate accountability. The company has made announcements of changes to its behavior only after enormous public pressure. It has also aggressively opposed the only union and human rights-group supported independent monitoring program–the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). CEO Phil Knight withdrew a $30 million donation to the University of Oregon after the University joined the WRC. Nike also cut its multimillion dollar contracts with the University of Michigan and Brown University after they joined the WRC. Nike became a sweatshop poster child not just through complicity in labor abuses but through active searching for countries with non-union labor, low wages, and low environmental standards for its manufacturing operations. This has made Nike a leader in the ‘race to the bottom’ -a trend that epitomizes the negative tendencies of corporate-led globalization.”

Read this: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/faq.html

Check these links (some are a little old but they have relevant info and give context):

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/

http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/corpwatch?q=nike&is=corpwatch.org&x=0&y=0

http://www.saigon.com/~nike/

http://www.toolness.com/nike/

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12463

Maybe check these shoes out instead:
http://www.adbusters.org/metas/corpo/blackspotshoes/index.php

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Read the AP press release here: http://www.comcast.net/news/national/index.jsp?cat=DOMESTIC&fn=/2007/09/26/772757.html

Read Nike’s press release here: http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/news/pressrelease.jhtml;bsessi..V3M2P0IMKXD5ACQFTBECF4YKAWMEUIZB?year=2007&m..09&letter=d

See the shoes here: http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=2&item=airnative
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