Hopis Say Conservationists Unwelcome on Tribal Land

by Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
29 September 2009
   

The Hopi Nation's Tribal Council sent a message Monday to the Sierra Club and a handful of other environmental groups: Stay off the reservation.

Tina May, a council spokeswoman, said council members meeting in Kykotsmovi unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that the conservation groups are unwelcome on Hopi lands because they have damaged the tribe's economy by pushing for closure of a coal-fired power plant near Page.

The resolution says environmentalists have "spread misinformation"    about    Hopi    water    and     energy

John Stanley / The Arizona Republic Hopis are angry with environmental groups for pushing for closure of the Navajo Generating Station (shown in 2003), a coal-fired power plant near Page.
resources, attempting to "instill unfounded fears into the hearts and minds of Hopi public."

The public castigation of conservation groups represents an unusual breach between a Native American tribe and environmental groups, which often work hand-in-hand on political causes, according to Ben Nuvamsa, a former tribal chairman.

Hopis, Navajos and other tribes have worked for years with the Sierra Club and similar groups, for example, to shut down ski slopes on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

May said the resolution was meant as a symbolic expression by tribal leaders, and environmentalists will not be arrested if they enter Hopi country.

Nuvamsa said: "This group here has done so much to damage our tribal reputation and to violate our civil rights. As tribal members, we are all environmentalists because we're supposed to take care of Mother Earth."

Andy Bessler, a Sierra Club official in Flagstaff, expressed dismay at the resolution.

He noted that another group, Hopis Organized for Political Initiative, supports conservationist efforts to close the power plant.

This spring, a coalition involving the Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Trust, and several Native American groups called on the Environmental Protection Agency to review the Navajo Generating Station's role in smoggy skies over the Grand Canyon. They claimed the power plant is a source of "excessive pollution" and should be forced to reduce emissions.

The power plant and Hopi coal mines that fuel it support hundreds of families, providing more than 70 percent of the Indian nation's governmental revenues, said Scott Canty, tribal counsel.

In 2005, environmentalists succeeded in closing the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev. The Hopis claim that shutdown cost the tribe more than $6.5 million per year, and closure of Navajo Generating Station would wipe out another $11 million.

Nada Talayumptewa, chairwoman of the council's energy team, said in a news release: "We need to make public that we don't want the environmental groups coming in and causing trouble for the Hopi Tribe. It's time we take a stand."

Nuvamsa, who resigned last year during bitter political infighting among elected leaders, said tribal council actions are illegitimate because executive positions remain unfilled.

Under the Hopi Nation's constitution, he and others asserted, "There is no Tribal Council."

Canty said the council has legitimate authority under Hopi law, and opinions to the contrary are irrelevant. He said tribal members who support environmental groups are "shills" who have been mislead.

Canty said closure of the power plant and mine would be devastating for all Hopis: "The tribe would essentially be penniless."

 

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LETTER: Appalled by Shirley's Statements on Environmentalists
Written by Calvin Johnson, Leupp, Arizona
Navajo Times
02 October 2009

President Shirley released a statement on September 30, 2009 stating that “he strongly supports the Hopi Tribe’s resolution to declare local and national environmental groups unwelcome on Hopi land and environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty, tribal self-determination, and our quest for independence.”

This statement stems from the Hopi Council’s and Shirley’s belief that environmental groups helped the closure of the Mohave Generating Station, the demise of Navajo logging and the closure of a sawmill at Navajo, New Mexico, shutdown of the Black Mesa Mine and now Desert Rock Energy Project.

This statement is appalling and misleading because as elected leaders, we are suppose to protect our people and mother earth from harmful containments that cause numerous health diseases, destroy sacred sites and deplete and contaminate precious water resources attributed by mining and power plants (coal).

Providing information that Desert Rock Energy Project is cleanest coal plant is also misleading. I want to reintegrate that the best machines in the world can not remove 100% of the sulfur, mercury and other pollutants from coal and burn it free of emissions. Th is “Clean Coal” is non existent. If there was such a thing as “clean coal” (free of pollutants), our people would be embracing Desert Rock happily.

Shirley also states that most often they (environmental groups) do not try to work with us but against us, giving aid and comfort to those opposed to the sovereign decision-making of tribes.

This statement is also misrepresented because most environmental groups are made up by impacted grassroots indigenous individuals (youth, elders and future generations) whom want their concerns and voices to be heard instead of meetings and planning’s that are held with Peabody, Sithe Global, Mohave Generating Station and the Gaming Commission (Twin Arrows Casino) behind closed doors.

Over the past few decades, impacted residents have been brushed aside and forgotten about because all we focus on is the dollars being promised. That is why they (grassroots) seek help from other environmentalist whom have a goal to help protect the health of the people including our mother earth that we all live on.

Shirley states that our people die as a result of poverty which manifests as social problems like alcoholism, drunk driving, drug abuse, child neglect, child abuse, domestic violence, divorce, teen pregnancy, gangs, and lethal violence. This could be reduced by investing millions into small local businesses across the reservation such as grocery stores, auto shops, feed stores, restaurants, shopping centers, laundromats, hotels,20farming, ranching, in partnerships with local vendors, which would create thousands of jobs, generate taxes and revenues which would fund education, police departments, and health agencies. The money generated would stay on the Navajo Nation. This can be accomplished by involving and including impacted grassroots from the very beginning to the end.

Creating power plants and casinos and blaming and disrespecting our own grassroots people (youth, elders, and future generations) is not the answer to these problems.

Calvin Johnson
Leupp, Arizona

Navajo Times Note: Opinions expressed through letters and commentary may not necessarily be that of the Native American Times publisher or staff. 

   

    


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