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From: Black Mesa Projects/ ISCO <bigmnt@efn.org>
Bob, could you please share this with your list as a sample
letter for
people to write to the Secretary of Interior? Thank you, Beth,
ISCO
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
November 1, 1999
Secretary Bruce Babbitt:
I am concerned about the impending forced eviction of traditional
Dine'h
(Navajo) from Hopi Partition Lands (HPL) in Arizona. Please instruct
the
US Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation to not certify
relocation
housing for traditional Dine'h on the contaminated "New Lands"
in Arizona!
Dine'h who have not signed "Accommodation Agreement"
leases face eviction
hearings in US District Court in Phoenix after February 1, 2000.
By law,
evictions cannot be enforced until relocation housing is completed
and
certified by the Department of Interior. You must not allow this!
As you may recall, when you were Governor of Arizona in 1979,
an earthen
dam broke at a United Nuclear Corporation mill near Church Rock,
New
Mexico, spilling 1,100 tons of milled uranium ore and 94 million
gallons
of heavy metal effluent into the Rio Puerco traveling downriver
into Arizona.
The UNC mill spill contaminated the groundwater and riverbed
for untold
miles, so that wells required redrilling or in some cases were
declared
unfit for human consumption. Lingering alpha radiation and radon
gas
will potentially contaminate livestock grazing along the Puerco
and
Little Colorado watersheds, concentrating in the organs relished
by the Dine'h.
During congressional hearings on the spill in 1980 you were
critical of
the disregarded safety measures at the UNC mill and advocated
the health
of Arizona residents. Despite this, that same year, contaminated
ranches
were swapped for pristine BLM lands and designated for Dine'h
relocation.
As Secretary of Interior overseeing the Office of Navajo and
Hopi Indian
Relocation, your trust responsibility to American Indians includes
preventing the tragic forced eviction of Dine'h to the radioactive
"New
Lands". Please reject the relocation housing and forbid
resettlement, to
fulfill those obligations!
Sincerely,
Beth Newberry, President
Indigenous Support Coalition of Oregon