[News] Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/


<http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/09/navajo-hopi-and-lakota-delegation.html>Navajo, 
Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers of consequences of 
mining sacred Black Mesa

By Brenda Norrell
UN OBSERVER & International Report

NEW YORK -- A delegation of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota warned Lehman 
Brothers stockholders of the dire consequences of their actions in 
2001. In a rare move, censored by most media, the Navajo, Hopi and 
Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers, after it acquired the 
financial interests of Peabody Coal, of the spiritual consequences of 
mining coal on sacred Black Mesa and the aftermath of Peabody Coal's 
machinations that led to the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute.

Lehman Brothers is now in the midst of financial collapse, with its 
bankruptcy producing a rippling effect throughout the world's economy.

At the time of the Lehman Brothers stockholders meeting in 2001, 
Arlene Hamilton bought two shares of stocks in Lehman Brothers to 
pave the way for the delegation to address the stockholders. Hamilton 
said her life was threatened because of this action. Shortly 
afterwards, Hamilton was killed in a car crash. Longtime Navajo 
relocation resister Roberta Blackgoat died in San Francisco at 
Hamilton's memorial.

A Hopi elder was among those addressing the Lehman Brothers 
stockholders. His admonitions followed those of the late Hopi Sinom 
elders Thomas Banyacya and Dan Evehema, among the Hopi elders who 
warned of dire consequences, including natural disasters and 
worldwide consequences, if Peabody mined coal on Black Mesa and 
Navajos were relocated from this sacred region. The Hopi Sinom never 
authorized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they 
referred to as a puppet government of the United States.

The Hopi elder in the delegation told stockholders, "Lehman Brothers, 
even though we are just a few here, we speak for the Creator, who is 
the majority."Therefore we demand you stop the Peabody coal mining 
and the slurry. We demand again," said the Hopi elder who asked that 
his name not be published in the media.
"Traditional and priesthood people don't want this mining. The Hopi 
prophecies say that we have to protect land and life. If we don't 
protect our beautiful Earth --our Heaven, our Mother, we will suffer 
with her." He told stockholders that Hopis never signed a treaty with 
the United States and the current Hopi Tribal Council is not 
legitimate since it was created by less than 30 percent of the people.

Referring to the beginning of the turmoil, he said, "John Boyden was 
a lawyer who worked for Peabody Coal. He was instrumental to the 
creation of the Hopi Tribal Council.

"Our ancestors warned that someday this would happen. White men will 
say that it is our own people that sold this land. I will not accept this.

"Our roots are rooted in our villages and it goes up to the whole 
universe. If we break these roots the world will get out of balance.

"I pray for you and hope that we open your eyes and you find the 
majority in your heart."
Roberta Blackgoat, longtime resister and sheepherder from Cactus 
Valley, told stockholders the region of San Francisco Peaks is holy 
to the Navajo people. Mining in the area of this sacred mountain is 
the same as desecrating an altar and church. It is making the people 
sick."We can not go away to other places," Blackgoat said, adding 
that livestock confiscation is "starving the people."

"When you have a pinprick on your finger, just take it off and the 
pain will go away. But there are too many pins on the Mother Earth. 
Barbed wire is all over the country, dividing the people."

Blackgoat was among the families resisting forced relocation. After 
Peabody orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute, more 
than 12,000 Navajos were relocated to make way for Peabody's coal 
mining. Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., was among those responsible for 
Navajo relocation.

Leonard Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain on Black Mesa in Arizona, 
said the delegation told Lehman Brothers that it is time to transform 
operations to renewable forms of energy, including solar and wind power.

"It was like opening this marble door to the Lehman Brothers. We got 
our foot in there. They were willing to listen. By going there, the 
delegation touched their hearts." Benally said the delegation also 
dispelled myths.

"They say it's a land dispute, but it is not. The traditional Hopi 
and Navajo are standing together, they are the original inhabitants 
of Black Mesa. We are the caretakers."Benally said the people have 
been struggling for 32 years because of the turmoil created by Hopi 
and Navajo tribal leaders intent on making money from the 92 billion 
tons of coal beneath the ground at Black Mesa. But, he said, the 
resistance actually goes back 500 years to the Spanish invasion, 
followed by the European invasion. Finally there was the Kit Carson invasion.

"That's when the people were put in the death camps."

While Navajos were incarcerated at Fort Sumner, he said, "The 
military made promises, mountains of promises they never kept."While 
the Navajo Nation government in Window Rock celebrated Sovereignty 
Day in April (2001), Benally said tribal leaders force their own 
people to suffer respiratory disease and death from coal mining, 
sacrificing them for mining royalties.

"Sovereignty Day? That's a joke. For us, we live it. They oppress 
their own race. They make them bleed."In the 1970s, the Four Corners 
region was considered a National Sacrifice area, but Benally said it 
is time to change that classification to a National Historic Site.

"The sacredness is still here. Mother Earth is still here. She still 
breathes. As long as the air blows, the rivers run, Indigenous people 
will be out here."

Benally said the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation moved in 
solidarity with the Zapatistas whose caravan through Mexico gave them 
hope in 2001.

"We felt the wind, it came from the South. It is telling the 
Indigenous people to rise up for their beliefs, their culture. These 
things are not being respected by anyone but the Indigenous people."
In New York, Joe Chasing Horse, Sundance Chief at Big Mountain, 
addressed the protest rally and spoke to Lehman Brothers Merchant 
Banking Fund stockholders."You have taken all of our land, now we 
have come to show you how to take care of it," Chasing Horse said.

"The traditionalists have the wisdom, we are the wisdom keepers."

Glenna Begay, Navajo protesting in New York, said, "I traveled 
3,000miles to be here and to voice my concern about what's happening 
to us out there on the land. I want the mining to stop."

Louise Benally of Big Mountain said, "We need to hold the owners 
accountable by letting them know the hardship we live with every day."

Arlene Hamilton, coordinator of the Weaving for Freedom project and 
wife of Leonard Benally, personally bought two shares in the 
corporation to ensure entrance into the stockholders meeting. She and 
Benally negotiated with Lehman Brothers to allow the elders time to 
address stockholders.

"These were some of the richest men and women in the world. The 
delegation was so beautiful, and so with the truth. Their presence was holy."

Back in Flagstaff in 2001, Hamilton said Lehman Brothers and Peabody 
Coal now have the opportunity to make a difference in the future of mankind.

"We want the dehumanizing and militarizing to stop. There is a lot of 
suffering going on. We want to make sure the ceremonies are not 
surrounded by guns and the people have clean drinking water.

"There is no life without water." Hamilton said Navajo elders 
resisting relocation often become dehydrated during the hot summer 
months because of the scarcity of clean water, while Peabody Coal 
pumps 10,000 gallons of water a minute to slurry coal.She has taken 
human rights concerns to Peabody management for years, but she said 
they have done little to improve the quality of living as promised.
"It's really just diversion and distraction while the people are 
suffering out there. Everything is based on making way for mining."

The delegation presented a list of demands to Lehman Brothers, 
demanding that Peabody leave the water and coal alone because they 
are the lungs and liver of Mother Earth. They called for a halt to 
mining and the initiation of a solar project, availability of clean 
drinking water, and a halt to military over flights and the 
intimidation of elders and youths by armed rangers.

Hamilton said the Weaving for Freedom project is a collective of 
Dine' weavers in resistance struggling for religious freedom to 
practice their ancient craft while protecting their sacred land. 
Hamilton said, "This work is very risky now. We protect each other by 
traveling in large groups." Leonard Benally said, "The whole thing is 
about materialism, money. In our culture, money doesn't matter. It is 
about how you live in harmony with nature, in harmony with your prayers.

"That's why we are fighting for our lands, even though the media and 
politicians are telling us we don't have a right to exist."

Meanwhile, Bill Ahearn, spokesman for Lehman Brothers, said the 
protesters were welcome to speak at the meeting but said the firm 
would be unable to help them. He said the issues must be resolved by 
the tribes and BIA.

"We're very sympathetic and we feel badly for them, but there's 
nothing we can do for them because it's not a problem with us."




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