LETTERWRITING- STOP EVICTIONS OF DINE'H IN AZ !
Make a Difference for Big Mountain-Black Mesa!

Remember to be polite. Use your anger about injustice to motivate you to
write a compelling letter. If you need to write about more than one
subject, then write more than one letter. Ask a friend to read it over
and check for spelling, grammar, typo's and your tone. Please send us a
copy of your letter and their replies, thanks ! ISCO

 

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Eric Holder, Assistant Attorney General (202) 514-2101
United States Department of Justice (202) 514-0467 Fax
PO Box 44378 cc: Attorney General Janet Reno, US DOJ
Washington DC 20026 cc: US Attorney's Office, District of Arizona

Ask Asst. Attorney General Eric Holder to direct the Department of Justice
and US Attorneys for the District of Arizona to not seek eviction orders
from the US District Court in Phoenix to forcibly remove traditional
Dine'h (Navajo) from Hopi Partition Lands in Arizona. He may help while
Attorney General Janet Reno and the Dept of Justice are under investigation.

Express your concern that this be handled non-violently with sensitivity
to the traditional Elders and different culture of the Dine'h people.
Remind him of the terrible outcome of their raid on the Branch Dividians
at Waco, Texas. Since the DOJ is being investigated for it's role in
the Waco fire, and the FBI were found responsible for a shooting death at
Ruby Ridge in Idaho, the DOJ should halt any threatening actions against
US citizens whose beliefs counter US policies that directly affect their
children, such as traditional Dine'h resisting forced relocation from the
HPL (regardless of their AA lease status). Ask for true justice for
American Indians, starting with the Dine'h on Hopi Partition Lands.

Regardless of any "perceived" land dispute between traditional Dine'h
(Navajo) residents or the Navajo and the Hopi Tribal Councils, forced
relocation continues to violate Dine'h religious and human rights.

Forbidding construction or repair of housing for 33 years under the
"Bennett Freeze Act" to force Dine'h to move is a cruel and inappropriate
measure to solve problems the US has created. Forcing Dine'h to sign
leases to settle legal claims the Hopi Tribe has with the United States is
neither permanent nor fair. The United States must be more
"accommodating" and learn to stop bullying American Indians or it will
only continue to exasperate the ongoing situation. Forced evictions can
only bring tragedy and national disgrace. Instead, the DOJ should protect
the human and religious rights of traditional Dine'h on the HPL.

Please cc: your letters to Holder to the below DOJ officials:

Attorney General Janet Reno, US DOJ, same address as above for Eric Holder

United States Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona (602) 514-7500
US Courthouse, 230 N. First Ave. Rm. 4000 Phoenix, AZ 85025-0085
(202) 514-7693 Fax

 

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President William Clinton, United States of America (202) 456-1111
The White House then "0" for a person
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW (202) 456-2461 Fax
Washington DC 20500 president@whitehouse.gov

Ask Clinton to issue an Executive Order forbidding any forced evictions
of Dine'h from the HPL in Arizona. Remind him that the next "deadline"
is February 1, 2000 and that the Department of Justice could forcibly
evict after then. Urge him to show his commitment to human rights here
at home. This is his opportunity to leave a legacy of his presidency by
righting the wrongs against American Indians, starting with the
traditional Dine'h.

 

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Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of Interior (202) 208-7351
1849 C St. NW exsec@ios.doi.gov (202) 208-6956 Fax
Washington DC 20240 Fraud, Waste & Abuse: (800) 424-5081 Toll Free

Ask him to instruct the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation to
not certify the relocation housing on the radioactive "New Lands."
Remind him he was Governor of Arizona when the United Nuclear dam broke
in 1979 spilling 1,100 tons of milled uranium ore sludge and 94 million
gallons of heavy metal effluent into the Rio Puerco in New Mexico,
contaminating the ground water and river bed for hundreds of miles
downstream into Arizona. As a clean water champion, he should safeguard
the Dine'h from alpha radiation and radon gas lingering in wells and the
Rio Puerco riverbed on or nearby the "New Lands" relocation housing sites.

Ask that he direct the Secretary of Indian Affairs and BIA to create a
voluntary livestock management plan with Dine'h residents living on the
HPL and the Hopi Tribal Council, and to cease forced impoundments.
They've had rain this summer and may have snow soon.

Remind him, as Secretary of Interior, that his "trust responsibility" to
American Indians includes preventing tragic forced evictions of Dine'h
who refuse to sign leases or relocate.

 

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INDIGENOUS SUPPORT COALITION OF OREGON
PO BOX 11715 EUGENE, OR 97440
(541) 683-2789 bigmnt@efn.org

 

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