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."
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 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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