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Statement on Recent Aggressive Confiscation of Dineh Resisters’ Sheep Herds by NaBahe Katenay Keedihiihii

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UPDATE: Due to public concern the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office (NHLCO) issued a statement on Oct 24, 2014: “To avoid creating a situation that will harm both tribes and the HPL residents, (NHLCO) requests that the Hopi Tribe cease and desist from further impoundment activities and allow NHLCO an opportunity to confer with the residents to request they remove their livestock in excess of permitted from the HPL.”

closed-BM-road-2

Signs on Back Mesa were posted in response to the recent assault reading “Closed” “To all Evil Forces of Gaah’ Hop & Peabody-Bahana Terrorists”

Oct 24, 2014 (Big Mountain Sovereign Dineh Nation) – In the last few days, traditional Dineh (Navajos) elders who have maintained a 40 year resistance to federal relocation policies came under attack by the U.S. Justice of Department supported, Hopi tribal law agencies. Law enforcement personnel composing of federally-deputized Bureau of Indian Affairs and Hopi tribal police, who also assisted armed Hopi tribal rangers, confiscated an approximate total of 200 sheep and goats. Rangers and police personnel arrived directly in front of the sheep corral gates and pushed the complete herd into several stock trailers. The Dineh owners and herders were not allowed to interfere or question and so far, one Dineh man has been arrested.

40 years of resistance and conflict has taken a horrible psychological toll on traditional Dineh cultural lifestyle especially by having sheep and other livestock. Sheep are an intimate part of Dineh livelihood as well as religion, and it is not mythological like that popular western theory about Spaniards’ “introduction” of sheep. Wild mountain sheep and goats have been utilized by prehistoric and historic indigenous inhabitants long before European invasion. Sheep are like the buffalos or domesticated reindeer that a culturally-intact society relies on and thus, for the traditional Dineh, it is a part of their being.

These recent events of forcible confiscation of sheep and goat herds is an attack because in is more than a range management effort dictated by the relocation program, but it is psychological retaliation against the Dineh’s long-standing defiance and intended to rip out a large piece of their hearts. Most of the owners of the sheep herds in the resistance communities are elderly, non-English speaking and have been traumatized from years of witnessing cultural deterioration due to policies of U.S. government and it coal mining conglomerates.

This story of Dineh plight can no longer be shrugged off as a controversial, “Indian vs. Indian” scenario. As obvious as American citizens have witnessed the processes of U.S. energy policies of mass fossil fuel extraction and their unsafe transport, as well as, the destructive encroachment upon aboriginal peoples’ lands, Peabody Energy have been pushing the federal government to facilitate their “long-over-due” expansion. As far as indigenous Hopi interest for these pristine territories that the U.S. Congress in 1974 designated as Hopi reservation, there had been no proven facts that justified any kind of historical Dineh invasion. The 1974 law of land partition, if looked into deeply, will only show that coal and aquifer extraction potentials were behind the push to create this inhumane corporate policy.

Now it is the time to see how that romanticized notion of the name, Hopi, to mean People of Peace can only be seen, from this day on, that Hopi law enforcement are perpetrators of colonial aggression in order to further promote fossil fuel extraction and global climate change.

Citizens of the world need to demand that the U.S. and its colonial Indian tribal agencies to withdraw its aggressive campaigns from the Big Mountain region and release the Dineh livelihood, their very essences of being, the confiscated sheep and goats herds.

NaBahe Katenay Keedihiihii

Interpreter for the Big Mountain Traditional Dineh Resistance, since 1977.

TAKE ACTION NOW!
Hopi Chairman Herman G. Honanie
Email: hehonanie@hopi.nsn.us
Phone: (928) 734-3102

Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office: (928) 871-6441

Office of Range Management(928) 734-3702

BIA Superintendent Wendell Honanie
Email: Wendell.Honanie@bia.gov
Phone: 928-738-2228

Hopi Tribal Council
Email: hopicouncil@hopi.nsn.us
Phone: 928.734.3134

Hopi Tribal Council via Neva Poneoma, legislative secretary
Phone: 928-734-3133
Email: ptalayumptewa@hopi.nsn.us

Director, Natural Resources Clayton Honyumptewa
Email: chonyumptewa@hopi.nsn.us

 

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6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Christine Prat

    October 28, 2014 at 8:03 AM

  2. NaBahe Keediniihii

    October 28, 2014 at 1:38 PM

    This morning, Oct. 28th – 0620 hrs., Gaah’ Hopi Police & BIA Police, with guns drawn, the Begay resident in Red Willow Springs was surrounded. Main dirt road entrances were guarded by heavily armed police as well. Two teens who were niece and nephew of Etta Begay went out near the sheep corral to take pictures but cops put guns to their heads, and were handcuffed and released at the end of confiscation of the sheep and goats. Etta and her brothers were forced back into their house and police surrounded that house. Nearly 100 sheep and goats were taken but it has been assumed that the police did not have enough room for the 40 more sheep and they were left behind. The situation between non-Native supporters (only ones who acknowledged this resistance against corporate America’s genocide), Dineh elders and the BIA ordered invasion is getting more intense and may get volatile.

  3. James Zarindast

    October 29, 2014 at 12:46 PM

    Currently a gigantic meyhane cloud seen from space is hovering over entire four corners . It’s corroborated by NASA and Los Alamo’s Laboratories

  4. Mickey Clayton

    October 29, 2014 at 1:51 PM

    NaBahe, is there any way we can help donate to cover Etta’s impound fine and get her sheep back?

  5. CJ

    October 29, 2014 at 3:16 PM

    You sang Hopis’ are being bullies now. Stop acting like the White man. It’s not Dineh people’s fault you were ripped off.

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#policestate

O’odham Executed by Border Patrol: Statement by Raymond Mattia Family

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Raymond Mattia of the Tohono O’odham Nation was executed by US border patrol agents on May 18th at his home. He was reportedly shot 38 times.

A peaceful gathering to support all victims of the
unmonitored violent actions of the Border Patrol and other agencies will be held at The Border
Patrol Station in Why, Az, and Tucson on Golf Links Road this Saturday, May 27th, from
10:00am-Noon.

For more information please visit: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/05/us-border-patrol-shoots-tohono-oodham.html

Statement by Mattia Raymond’s family:

We have been trying to find the strength to write this statement. This tragedy is so
grievous because it is apparent what had happened. Raymond called for help and, in turn, was
shot down at his doorstep. Raymond’s rights were violated by the authorities whom we trust to
protect our Nation. Improper and unprofessional actions of the agencies involved were witnessed
by family members present near the crime scene. Loved ones sat in agony, not knowing of
Raymond’s condition until they were told that he had passed hours later. Raymond lay in front of
his home for seven hours before a coroner from Tucson arrived.
In our eyes and hearts, we believe that Raymond was approached with excessive and
deadly force that took his life. He was a father, brother, uncle, friend, and an involved
community member. Raymond always fought for what was right, and he will continue to fight
even after his death. This is not an isolated incident, but it should bring awareness of the
oppression our people live through.
We want to thank so many of you for your condolences and support. A GoFundMe for
defense funds will be available soon. A peaceful gathering to support all victims of the
unmonitored violent actions of the Border Patrol and other agencies will be held at The Border Patrol Station in Why, Az, and Tucson on Golf Links Road this Saturday, May 27th, from 10:00am-Noon.

Contact for support: justiceforraymattia@gmail.com

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#waterislife

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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#indigenouspeoplesday

Indigenous Peoples’ Day of Rage 2022

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This is a call for an Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage Against Colonialism on Sunday, October 9, 2022, everywhere.

We heard that mass actions are a bit out of fashion this season & lone wolfs or affinity groups are all the rage.

Counter the spectacle of the “good, respectable Indian” and their mundane celebrations of assimilation. Your ancestors invite you to embrace the veracious criminality of anti-colonial struggle and be smart (don’t get caught).
A banner drop? An attack on colonial symbols, monuments, etc. Spray paint? A broken window here, a burning xxxxxxx there? Be fierce and fabulously unpredictable and strike in the darkest part of the night (points if you use glitter). Even the smallest Indigenous dreams of liberation are greater than the settler nightmares we live everyday.

We won’t be making any lists or asking for emails this year due to a heightened sense for the need of greater security culture. Though we will post any securely and anonymously sent reports and pics in the aftermath.

In the spirit of Jane’s Revenge, abort colonialism. Colonizer (c)laws off our bodies!
– The insurrectionary anti-colonial invisible council of IPDR.
https://indigenouspeoplesdayofrage.org/

 

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