>January 12, 2000
>Carol Snyder Halberstadt
>
A NATIONAL SACRIFICE OF U.S. CITIZENS--ECOCIDE & ETHNOCIDE
ON BLACK MESA:
NO ONE IS SAFE
>While President Clinton designated today more unpopulated
land in the vicinity
>of the Grand Canyon as protected wilderness areas--and rightly
so--no one
>seems to
>be paying much attention to the plight of the original Americans
living
>just 60
>or so miles away. These U.S. citizens, traditional and deeply
religious, have
>been the victims of the unending war on the Indians still
going on in this
>country.
>
>Since it was discovered that just below the surface of the
sacred land
>they have
>been living on for hundreds of years and many generations
were billions of
>dollars worth of coal, they have been designated for national
sacrifice.
>
>With their bodies, these Navajo Indians, the Dine', are literally
holding the
>Earth on Black Mesa from total destruction. Only their presence
stands between
>the monstrous engines of "commerce"--which are stripmining
the land and
>draining
>the water aquifer--and the survival of sacred place. The survival
of home.
>From
>the air more than 100 square miles of the mesa looks like
the aftermath of
>a firestorm, or a
>bombing.
>
>Imagine bulldozers in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, pushing
down the Dome of
>the Rock, destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque, reducing the Western
Wall to a
>pile of
>rubble. Imagine them at the gates of the Vatican, chewing
their way
>through the
>Holy Door opened by the Pope on New Year's Eve. Imagine them
at the Church of
>the Holy Sepulchre, or in Bethlehem. Imagine your drinking
water being used to
>transport coal, while you turn your taps and filth comes out.
Imagine the land
>drying up, and the tree roots dying, and no water coming out
at all...
>
>Yet, these monstrous bulldozers--the largest land machines
in the
>world--do the
>equivalent on Black Mesa, destroying holy sites, sacred land,
medicinal plants
>and herbs, the homes of animals and people. Peabody Coal pumps
out the
>irreplaceable
>drinking water aquifer under the mesa--source of water and
life for Hopi and
>Dine' both. Then the stripmined coal is mixed with the water
in order to
>move it via a
>272-mile long pipeline to the Mojave generating plant in Laughlin,
Nevada.
>There the exhausted water is thrown away and the coal is burned
to drive
>the air
>conditioners of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Five billion gallons
a year. While
>the Bureau of Indian Affairs steals the subsistence livestock--sheep,
donkeys,
>goats, horses--from the Dine', because they say the land is
too "dry" for
>them to
>graze...
>
>How did Peabody Coal become exempt from EPA regulations to
build this "slurry"
>line--the only one in the United States?
>
>Surrounded by pristine, "protected" national parks
and wilderness areas, the
>Dine' and Black Mesa have been designated for "national
sacrifice." To be
>sacrificed for what?
>For coal to air condition Las Vegas; for uranium to build
more nuclear
>weapons. The Dine' and the Hopi were living here long before
the Europeans
>arrived. They built no empires, conquered no one, but lived
in reasonable and
>sane balance on the Earth. Imperfect. Outside the mainstream.
Human.
>
>If it can happen to these Americans, it can happen to anyone...
>
-- Carol S. Halberstadt, Migrations (carol@migrations.com)
Native American art and crafts
http://www.migrations.com
"A generation goes, and a generation comes, and the earth
abides forever."
(Ecclesiastes 1:4)
"...then weave for us a garment of brightness,
that we may walk fittingly where birds sing..."
(from a Tewa prayer)
"Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look on the earth
beneath,
for the heavens will vanish like smoke and the earth wear away
like a garment..."
(Isaiah 51:6)