Dear Big Mountain Supporters,

This article appeared on the front page of the Navajo-Hopi Observer on May 5,
1999. The Navajo-Hopi Observer is a weekly paper.

Posted by,
Marsha Monestersky
Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation

Navajo -Hopi Observer
Wednesday, May 5, 1999

“Religious Intolerance in the U.S.”

NEW YORK, (New York)-Peggy Francis Scott, Leonard Bennally and Kee Watchman
were among those who presented oral statements on indigenous people and
religious intolerance in the United States before delegates of the 55th
Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva,
Switzerland last month.

Abdelfattah Amor, a UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance who
visited Black Mesa in February of 1998, presented the commission with a
report linking human rights violations and religious intolerance in the
United States, China, Pakistan, Iran, Greece, Sudan, Australia and Germany.

During this visit to Arizona, Amor investigated charges of religious and
human rights violations by the United States government against the Dine’
people in Black Mesa, located in northeastern Arizona. The special
rapporteur is an independent expert who reports only to the Commission and
the UN General Assembly.

The complaint, filed by several traditional Dine’ people to the UN Human
Rights Commission, accused the United States of destroying 4,000 ancient
Anasazi ruins and sacred burial sites. Additionally, the complaint charged
that U.S. federal laws have denied the people access to water, legalized the
confiscation of their livestock, prevented the gathering of firewood to heat
their homes, and prohibited any housing improvements.

During his visit to Black Mesa, Amor took testimony from residents. Several
NGO (non-governmental organization) representatives were invited by the
traditional Dine’ to witness Amor’s visit. In his report, Amor observed that
the U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisprudence points to “no enforceable safeguards
for worship at sacred sites.”

Peggy Francis Scott gave oral testimony before the commission on April 13:

“Dine’ sacred sites intermingle with our homes, livestock, and farms. Today,
more than 12,000 Dine’ have been relocated from their homes, plucked away
from their livelihood and their sacred ritual and burial sites. Our religion
binds us inseparably to our land, which we believe is saved. Coal mining
violates the integrity of our land and therefore tears apart every fabric of
our religious identity.

“The Navajo relocation program instituted by the U.S. government deprives our
people of ancestral lands and their inherent property rights. It also severs
our sacred tie to our land and denies us the venue to practice our religious
ceremonies.

“The unsustainable environmental practices of runaway mutli-national mining
corporations inflict environmental racism upon us. Current U.S. governmental
laws such as the Native American Grave Protect and Repatriation Act and the
Antiquities Act remain to be enforced.

“The U.S. government must recognize that no territorial settlement should
ever deprive Indigenous Peoples of their right to remain on their traditional
land or to practice their religion thereupon. Our land is sacred and we do
not believe it should be expropriated form us. The U.S. government cannot
and must not subordinate our survival as a people to economic interests whose
dividends we do not partake from. The tribal councils operate on behalf of
these economic interests more than in support of Indigenous Peoples’
interests.”

Leonard Bennally gave oral testimony on April 19. “In 1996, he said, “the
U.S. Congress passed a law requiring our final eviction (from the Hopi
Partition Land) by February 1, 2000. Some of our people were offered leases
that allowed us to remain as tenants upon our own ancestral land with no
civil rights and without a means of survival. those who refused to sign, and
the thousands of us that the government does not count, face forced eviction
in the next 10 months.

“...Resistance to impoundments is met severely. The current campaign is for
the permanent elimination of our herds and the ultimate removal of our
people....

“It is time the United States focused attention on its own marginalized
peoples living in conditions not unlike many Third World countries. For over
three decades, the U.S. has forbidden us to make any repairs on our homes,
even to repair broken windows. Water sources are fenced, capped off and
dismantled. Firewood is confiscated in winter and law enforcement officials
harass and threaten us with eviction and jail sentences. there are many of
us who are targeted for attacks who are over the age of 65, some are even 90.
We live in terror, not knowing our fate the next morning.

“Over the past 25 years, some 14,000 Dine’ were forcibly relocated in what
the former director of the Navajo Hopi Indian Relocation Commission, Leon
Berger called ‘a tragedy of genocide and injustice that will be a blot on the
conscience of this country for many generations.’ The current and sole site
identified for our relocation is the New Lands, an area near Chambers. This
land is contaminated by radioactive waste, the largest spill in U.S. history.
The thousands moved into cities, for which Dine’ lack survival skills, are
thrust into a circle of homelessness, illegal drug use, alcoholism and
suicide.”

In his written report, Amor concluded that legal protections for the practice
of religion by Native Americans in this country were insufficient.

 

”As far as legislation is concerned, while noting advances in recent years in
the instruments emerging from the legislature and the executive which are
designed to protect Native Americans’ religion...the special rapporteur
identified weaknesses and gaps which diminish the effectiveness and hinder
the application of these legal standards.”

“Because of economic and religious conflicts affecting in particular sacred
sites, the special rapporteur wishes to point out that the freedom of belief,
in this case that of the Native Americans, is a fundamental matter and
requires still greater protection.”

He further recommended Native Americans’ cultural values be taken into
account when laws were written. “In the legal sphere Native Americans’
system of values and traditions should be fully recognized, particularly as
regards the concept of collective property rights, inalienability of sacred
sites and secrecy with regard to their location.

And about Black Mesa in particular, the special rapporteur “calls for the
observance of international law on freedom of religion and its
manifestations.”

Kee Watchman gave this statement before the Commission on Human Rights:

“I am the spokesperson for the traditional Dine’ (Navajo) of Cactus
Valley/Red Willow Springs Sovereign communities at Big Mountain, Arizona.

“I am also a plaintiff in the case of Jenny Manybeads v. The United States of
American, et al., pending in the U.S. court since 1988, which concerns our
forced relocation under a law the U.S. Congress passed without our consent,
resulting in violations of our traditional Dine’ Indigenous religion. We
presented testimony about these violations to Mr. Amor when he visited our
community. The special rapporteur verified in his report that United States
law and its court system including the Supreme Court remains blind to our
international human right to practice our religion. It gives more importance
to the economic interests of big business than to the religious freedom of
Indigenous Peoples.

“Today, the coal mining at Black Mesa continues to desecrate our sacred
places, including burial sites. We are experiencing impoundments of our
livestock animals, which are sacred to us and the basis for our survival and
subsistence. People are being arrested for trying to prevent the harassment
of our elders who only want to continue their sacred way of life.

“The dine’ demand our right to practice our traditional religion as we have
since time immemorial, as we were instructed by the Creator, and to protect
our sacred places from desecration.”

Amor’s report on religious intolerance in the United States can be found on
the United Nations website at www.un.org. The document number is

E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.1.

Dineh