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News Release: Protest Halts Snowbowl Wastewater Pipeline Construction

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday June 19, 2011
Contact: Beth Lavely protectpeaks@gmail.com

Protest Halts Snowbowl Waste water Pipeline Construction
End Destruction and Desecration of Holy San Francisco Peaks

Flagstaff, AZ – At sunrise on Thursday, June 16, 2011, more than a dozen people stopped ski area construction on the Holy San Francisco Peaks.  Six individuals used various devices to lock themselves to heavy machinery and to each other inside the waste water pipeline trench. 

Kristopher Barney, Dine’ (Navajo) & one of the six who locked himself to an excavator stated, “This is a continuation of years of prayers and resistance. It is our hope that all Indigenous Peoples, and all others,  throughout the North, East, South and West come together to offer support to the San Francisco Peaks and help put a stop to Snowbowl’s plan to further destroy and desecrate such a sacred, beautiful and pristine mountain!”

“What part of sacred don’t they understand? Through our actions today, we say enough! The destruction and desecration has to end!” said Marlena Teresa Garcia, 16, a young Diné woman and one of the six who chose to lock down. “The Holy San Francisco Peaks is home, tradition, culture, and a sanctuary to me, and all this is being desecrated by the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort.  So now I, as a young Diné woman, stand by Dook’o’osliid’s side taking action to stop cultural genocide.  I encourage all indigenous youth to stand against the desecration that is happening on the Holy San Francisco Peaks and all other sacred sites”, said Garcia after being arrested and released.

A banner was hung on the side of the trench that read “Defend the Sacred!” where two protesters were locked together.  Over the half mile of open construction, the group chanted, “Protect Sacred Sites, Defend Human Rights!”, “No desecration for recreation!” “Stop the cultural genocide!  Protect the Peaks!”, and “Human health over corporate wealth”.

“This waste water pipeline will poison the environment and to children who may eat snow made from it.  Snowbowl plans to spray millions of gallons of waste water snow, which is filled with cancer causing and other harmful contaminants, as well as clear-cut over 30,000 trees. The Peaks are a pristine and beautiful place, a fragile ecosystem, and home to rare and endangered species of plants and animals,” said Evan Hawbaker, one of the protesters who locked themselves to the excavator.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, the City of Flagstaff Mayor and Council, and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality are all responsible for permitting Snowbowl to endanger public health, destroy the environment, and desecrate the Holy Peaks,” said Nadia del Callejo, one of the protesters who locked themselves in the trench. “Throughout history, acts of resistance and civil disobedience have been taken by young and old against injustices such as this.  This action is not isolated but part of a continued resistance to human rights violations, to colonialism, to corporate greed, and destruction of Mother Earth,” added Del Callejo.

A separate group of supporters, some wearing hazmat suits, “quarantined” the entrance to Snowbowl Road. Banners were stretched across the road that read “Protect Sacred Sites” and “Danger! Health Hazard – Snowbowl”.

Shortly after initiating the action, a Snowbowl security guard spotted two people locked to an excavator.  By 6:00 a.m. more than 15 armed agents, including the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department, City of Flagstaff Police, & the FBI stormed the mountain. At approximately 7:30 a.m., the Flagstaff Fire Department, assisted by County Sheriffs, started aggressively cutting two people from the excavator.

“We took every possible measure to ensure our safety.  Our actions were taken to safeguard Indigenous Peoples’ cultural survival, our community’s health and this sensitive mountain ecosystem.  Those who cut us out endangered our well being ignoring the screams to stop.  They treated our bodies the way they’re treating this holy mountain. If they had their way, we wouldn’t even exist.  There is more danger in doing nothing. To idly stand by and allow this destruction and desecration is to allow cultural genocide”, said the other young Dine’ woman who chose to lock down.

“The police’s use of excessive force was in complete disregard for my safety.  They pulled at my arms and forced my body and head further into the machine, all the while using heavy duty power saws within inches of my hand,” said Evan Hawbaker.

After being cut out, the two were treated by paramedics and arrested for trespassing. The police, firefighters, and paramedics then proceeded to cut two people locked in a nearby trench.  Extraction took about forty minutes and the two were immediately seen by paramedics after being unlocked.  One of the individuals sustained injuries to their arm from abusive force.  Both were charged with trespassing, with an added charge of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor”, for one of the individuals.  Police proceeded to unlock the last group who was also inside the trench nearby.

“Our only offense was resistance; resistance of the implications that’s Snowbowl’s development exudes. The police’s defense was to implement tactics of fear to reach a goal, essentially to continue construction as soon as possible. Our safety was prioritized second to Snowbowl’s demands.  I was one of the demonstrators in the trench, locked at the neck with a partner. I was not aggressive. My lock was sawed through, inches away from both of our heads, secured solely and recklessly by the hands of a deputy. During the process, we were repeatedly asked to chant to reaffirm our consciousness. The police’s response was hasty, taking about ten minutes in total–it was dehumanizing,” said Hailey Sherwood, one of the last protester to be cut out.

Both women were also seen by paramedics.  One was sent to the hospital for heat exhaustion although she denied feeling dehydrated.  She started to faint during the extraction when police, EMTs, and firefighters attempted to force the pair to stand and move them from their location.  Both women repeatedly expressed that they were being hurt and choked by law enforcement officers and firefighters.  Both of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, with additional charges to one of them for “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” and “endangerment”.
Four of the protesters were taken to County Jail.  The two young people were taken to Coconino County Juvenile Detention Center. 

FBI agents attempted to question four of those arrested. As word spread about the demonstration to protect the Peaks, overwhelming support and solidarity poured in from throughout the community and internationally.

Bail was raised shortly after the arrests.  All demonstrators were released by 3:30 p.m.  Three of the protesters, including Marlena Teresa Garcia, immediately filed a report for excessive use of force after being released.

“How can we be trespassers on our Holy Site?” questioned Barney. “I do not agree with these and the other charges, we will continue our resistance.”

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The Supreme Court Ruled Against Diné water rights. Surprised?

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This is how resource colonialism operates.

Excerpts from Covid-19, Resource Colonialism & Indigenous Resistance by Klee Benally

Approximately 33% of Diné have no running water or electricity.

For 41 years coal mining operations on Black Mesa consumed 1.2 billion gallons a year of water from the Navajo aquifer beneath the area. Although the mines are now closed and the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) coal-fired power plant they fed is also shuttered, the impacts to health, the environment, and vital water sources in the area have been severe.

Since 1974 US congress has attempted to forcibly relocate Diné from this area.

The NGS project was initially established with the purpose of providing power to pump water to the massive metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson.

For decades, while powerlines criss-crossed over Diné family’s homes and water was pumped hundreds of miles away for swimming pools and golf courses, thousands of Diné went without running water and electricity.

Today there are currently more than 20,000 natural gas wells and thousands more proposed in and near the Navajo Nation in the San Juan Basin.

The US EPA identifies the San Juan Basin as “the most productive coalbed methane basin in North America.” In 2007 alone, corporations extracted 1.32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the area, making it the largest source in the United States.

Halliburton, who “pioneered” hydraulic fracturing in 1947, has initiated “refracturing” of wells in the area. Fracking also wastes and pollutes an extreme amount of water. A single coalbed methane well can use up to 350,000 gallons, while a single horizontal shale well can use up to 10 million gallons of water.

The Navajo Nation government supports these leases including around the sacred area of Chaco Canyon.

The San Juan Basin is also viewed as “the most prolific producer of uranium in the United States.”

In 1979 the single largest accidental release of radioactivity occurred on Diné Bikéyah at the Church Rock uranium mill. More than more than 1,100 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive tailings poured into the Puerco River when an earthen dam broke. Today, water in the downstream community of “Sanders, Arizona” is poisoned with radioactive contamination from the spill.

There are more than 2,000 estimated toxic abandoned uranium mines on & around the Navajo Nation. Twenty-two wells that provide water for more than 50,000 Diné have been closed by the EPA due to high levels of radioactive contamination.

There has never been a comprehensive human health study on the impacts of uranium mining in the area.

In 2015 the EPA accidentally released more than 3 million gallons of toxic waste from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River. The toxic spill flowed throughout Diné communities polluting the “San Juan” river which many Diné farmers rely on. Crops were spoiled that year. As a measure of relief for the water crisis, the EPA initially sent rinsed out fracking barrels.

Diné have been fighting on multiple fronts against the US & our own colonially imposed government for generations to defend the sacred. 

While some celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on ICWA as an affirmation of “Tribal sovereignty” we knew that the colonizer’s justice only serves to further colonial power

If capitalism & colonialism got us into this mess, it won’t get us out of it. When we stop begging politicians for change and expecting voting or anything to change a system that is anti-Earth and anti-Indigenous by design, then we’ll be moving towards liberation. 

Recall when the vice president of the World Bank stated that “the wars of the next century will be fought over water.” There are consequences for waging war against another Earth & it’s only going to get a whole lot worse. Respect existence or expect resistance.

Read the full piece here: https://www.indigenousaction.org/covid-19-resource-colonialism-indigenous-resistance/

Support autonomous Diné water projects! 
Tó Nizhóní Ání: www.tonizhoniani.org
DINE’ LAND & WATER: facebook.com/dinelandnwater
(beware the large non-profit$)

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ALERT: Imminent Uranium Mining Threat at Grand Canyon – Haul No!

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Underground blasting & above ground work has begun at Pinyon Plain/Canyon Mine, just miles from the Grand Canyon. 

Workers are readying to start mining uranium at the mine. According to the Forest Service, workers are blasting daily though no ore is being moved yet. Once Energy Fuels starts hauling out radioactive ore, they plan to haul 30 tons per day through Northern Arizona to the company’s processing mill 300 miles away. 

The Grand Canyon, sacred site Red Butte, precious water, and communities along the haul route are in danger! 

As all legal options have failed, we need you to join us to stand up and stop this nuclear catastrophe from permanently poisoning our communities!

Join our telegram channel to connect for actions and support: https://t.me/haulno

For more info & to donate for legal defense: www.haulno.com

Pinyon Plain/Canyon Mine Haul Route Facts:

* Total distance of 300 miles.

* 12 trucks with capacity to haul up to 30 tons of highly radioactive ore per day.

* Truck loads to be covered with thin tarps, the only shielding from uranium and only protection from environmental contamination.

* Proposed route will go through high population areas such as Valle, Williams, and Flagstaff; as well as through rural Navajo reservation communities including Cameron, Tuba City, and Kayenta; near the Hopi reservation, and finally arrive at Energy Fuel’s White Mesa Mill only three miles from the Ute Mountain Ute tribal community of White Mesa, Utah.

#haulno #stoppinyonplainmine

#nonukes

#dontnukethegrandcanyon

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The Intercept and Grist begin release of 50,000 TigerSwan spy documents

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Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News
Reprinted with permission.

April 14, 2023

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075796248532

The Intercept and Grist began releasing new TigerSwan spy documents in new coverage of the mercenaries hired by the Dakota Access Pipeline. They now have 50,000 TigerSwan spy documents, and another 9,000 are held up in the court battle for now. The documents reveal TigerSwan spying on Water Protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota, Bold Iowa, and at other locations.

Reporters Alleen Brown and Naveena Sadasivam expose the new spy documents in their article, After Spying on Standing Rock, TigerSwan Shopped Anti-Protest ‘Countinsurgency’ to Other Oil Companies.

The article follows an expensive court battle by The Intercept seeking the release of the documents. The North Dakota Supreme Court ordered the release after TigerSwan was found operating without a license in North Dakota.

“The released documents provide startling new details about how TigerSwan used social media monitoring, aerial surveillance, radio eavesdropping, undercover personnel, and subscription-based records databases to build watchlists and dossiers on Indigenous activists and environmental organizations,” The Intercept writes. Read the article at The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/

Paiute journalist, drone activist and filmmaker Myron Dewey was among those that TigerSwan spied on and stalked at Standing Rock 2016-2017, as revealed in the new documents that were ordered released by the court.

On Tuesday, the driver that killed Myron Dewey on an isolated road near his family’s home in Yomba, Nevada, entered a surprise plea bargain deal that was cut with a new prosecutor assigned to the case in Nye County, Nevada.  John Walsh pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.

This TigerSwan spy document, showing TigerSwan stalking Myron Dewey and Prolific the Rapper at Standing Rock on Dec. 17, 2016, is from the new documents at The Intercept. Document link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773105-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161217

Below: From the TigerSwan spy files just released: The power of the global movement, with its heart in Standing Rock.

Below: The first flood of documents show how rattled DAPL was over the involvement of celebrities, the Standing Rock Chairman at the United Nations, Bernie Sanders, the Palestinian flag flying, and big orgs. The doc is from a pitch that TigerSwan made for more work, hustling another pipeline to spy on resistance.

Above: TigerSwan surveillance used drones and helicopters.https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773104-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161014

Above: TigerSwan spy file at Bold Iowa. The mercenaries hired by the Dakota Access Pipeline called Bold Iowa Water Protectors “belligerents.” Document link:

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23773109/tigerswan-document-information-summary-20161012.pdf

TigerSwan spied on, and stalked the media, including Paiute journalist Myron Dewey, Amy Goodman at Democracy Now, and myself, publisher of Censored News, as revealed in the newly released documents by The Intercept and Grist. TigerSwan used its surveillance on the media in its pitches for more spy work to other oil and pipeline companies.

TigerSwan turned its surveillance at Standing Rock into a potential money maker, using it for powerpoints in its pitches to other oil and pipeline companies for spy work.

T

TigerSwan even stalked the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in its high-stakes spying for dollars.

TigerSwan’s Opposition Model, shown below, was used as a potential maker in PowerPoints to other oil and pipeline companies.

The Intercept described the battle for these documents.

“A discovery request filed as part of the case forced thousands of new internal TigerSwan documents into the public record. Energy Transfer’s lawyers fought for nearly two years to keep the documents secret, until North Dakota’s Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the material falls under the state’s open records statute,” The Intercept said.

“Because an arrangement between North Dakota and Energy Transfer allows the fossil fuel company to weigh in on which documents should be redacted, the state has yet to release over 9,000 disputed pages containing material that Energy Transfer is, for now at least, fighting to keep out of the public eye.”

TigerSwan spy documents on Water Protectors

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773105-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161217
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773100-tigerswan-document-presentation-for-dominion

Note: The documents show that TigerSwan spied on Censored News, as shown in today’s article at The Intercept.

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