From: Jeff Davis <jeff@circleoflifefoundation.org>
>> To: luna@envirolink.org
>> Subject: Big Mountain Alert/Julia Butterfly
>> Date: Thu, Jan 27, 2000, 6:32 PM
>>
>>
>> Dear Luna and Ancient Forest supporters,
>>
>> Hundreds including Julia Butterfly Hill Gather on Black
Mesa to Support
>> Resistance of Dineh Elders
>>
>> This February 1 marks the beginning of a complex campaign
to remove
>> Dineh from their homes, initiated by Senator and presidential
hopeful
>> John McCain. Elders of the Sovereign Dineh Nation have
been resisting
>> relocation at the hands of the United States government
and major energy
>> corporations including Peabody Western Coal Company.
Since the presence
>> of the highest deposits of coal, oil and uranium in
North America were
>> discovered below the Hopi and Navajo reservation.
>>
>> Peabody Coal and the U.S government have been waging
a long-term
>> campaign to drive the traditional Dineh from their ancestral
homeland.
>> Since the 1970s more than 14,000 Dineh people residing
on the Hopi
>> Partition Land, designated exclusively for Hopi use,
have been relocated
>> to neighboring cities. Within six years of the first
relocation program
>> 25% of the Dineh relocated had died from relocation
related illnesses.
>> Today open uranium mines still lie uncovered, water,
and ground
>> contaminated by Peabody Coal Company*s mining
facilities.
>>
>> Julia Butterfly Hill, recently descended from her two-year
vigil atop
>> an ancient redwood tree in Humboldt County, plans to
join Dineh elders
>> in Big Mountain to support their resistance efforts.
*We recognize the
>> scars caused by our government and corporations which
have violated
>> indigenous people and the sacred land. We must do all
we can to keep
>> this form of genocide from being perpetrated.*?>>
>> The traditional Dineh elders residing on Hopi Partitioned
Land have
>> taken a vow never to leave their sacred homeland. They
say they will
>> die defending it.