Statement by Roberta Blackgoat, Dine Elder, Big Mountain, Arizona

April 14th 1999

My name is Roberta Blackgoat, I am speaking to you from Thin Rock Mesa,
the place where I live, the place where I've been born, and raised,
and been taught how to live in this area. For twenty-five years I've
been dealing with the government trying to move me off my ancestral
lands. My great, great ancestors have been born here, and they've been
buried in this area,.... around here there is a lot of my ancestors
graveyard sites.

My grandfather had taught me how to care for life on the land in the
sacred ways, with the sacred prayers and the sacred songs, and he
told me how in the very beginning the world was created and how the
Great Spirit has surveyed it for the Dine people in this
area, between the Sacred Mountains, Mount Blanca in Colorado, Mount
Taylor in New Mexico, San Francisco peaks in Arizona, and Mount
Hesperus in Colorado. Between these four Sacred Mountains is a room
for the Dine people, where it has been made like a church, and way
out on the west side, by the San Francisco Peaks, inside the room is
our altar.

And this is the main point, ... that we are being told to move off the
land. This is our altar that we can't give up. We can't sell it, we
can't buy it, we just have to take care of it and have people live in
this area. And now we're being told to move off from our altar.
This is why I really need it to be understood. ... That the government
.. what they want this land for is what the Mother earth is living on.
She is supposed to have a liver, and lungs, and a heart, and all these
things are what we are sitting on. Just like our bodies, the Mother
Earth has internal organs, ... these are the precious and valuable
minerals that she needs, and so, all the equipment and things we make,
all our food, even ourselves is made out of the Mother Earth,... and
even money is a part of her body that has been turned into money. And
now the greed is always working against our Mother Earth, and Mother
Earth is suffering.

We've been hearing a lot about tornadoes, ... and earthquakes, ... a
lot of these warnings have been going on, ... That's Her breath,
because She is suffering and her breath is giving us warnings.
These are the main things that we need to have understood. ... That
the people need to be allowed to live in the way that they have been
all their lives.

PLEASE, I am wanting to have this understood ... by writing letters
to the Congressional leaders, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and all
these people to know we have a pain feeling for our Mother Earth. She's
getting more surgery, and no patch to it. It's just when a human being
has surgery, and something is patched, but I don't believe Mother earth
has any patches, they just keep on killing her more and more. I believe
more understanding is needed in this way. I am just needing for this to
be heard. I am not begging for money or anything, but I'm really
hanging on to the world for my Dine people and every living
thing.

There is a great loss on the mountains, ... the wildlife people
are living there, and the people that fly, they live on the trees, and
they all are losing their homes and, and the food of the wildlife
four-legged people, ... And even the water, ... the people that live
in the water are struggling with all the pollution, and the sickness in
the spirit of the water, and also all the human beings, ... us Indians,
.. all the different tribes, ... they are all facing the same
struggles with their land and their food,... they are suffering also,
not just the Navajos are suffering, it's all Indians living in this
Indian Country are suffering. I do hope to be having a great help from
all you people who are aware, by having you write to President Clinton,
and Also Senator McLain (McCain), and Bruce Babbitt. Please let
them have their hearts to be touched.

I have heard of the Whiteman's story, ... how the Creator made the
first man, ... and He saw that he was lonely and so He created a woman
for him, ... and He told them that all the things they could see were
for them, BUT they must not eat the apple on the tree, ... so it is for
us Dine people, ... the Creator has told us we MUST look after the land
in between the four sacred mountains, so write to the politicians and
tell them that if they want us Dine people to move off our sacred land
they should SUE THE CREATOR. I think this will be all. Thank you.

For more information please communicate directly with the people on the
land ...

Roberta Blackgoat
PO Box 349
Kykotsmovi
AZ 86039