Sell outs?
Protestors say council puts mining interests before its citizens

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. appears before the tribal council and presents his State of the Nation address on Monday as the council began its spring session in Window Rock. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

Mable Benally sits on the base of a light pole Monday in front of the Navajo Nation Tribal Council chambers as she participates in a protest against the Black Mesa mines. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

WINDOW ROCK — In some people's minds, the 20th Navajo Nation Council may go down in history as the one which sold out the grassroots people, but Black Mesa/Rough Rock/Forest Lake delegate Amos Johnson said Monday that he is not going down with them.

From the front sidewalk leading to the council chambers, as well as on the floor, Johnson said, "I'm not going to sell my people out. I'm not going to sell our coal, our water for the next 25-50 years. I'm not going to be the one that's going to sell out to the energy company just so the Navajo Nation can get a little bit of money."

Johnson spoke of Peabody Coal Co's proposed expansion of Black Mesa and Kayenta mines and the company's transition from the fairly pristine N-aquifer to the lesser-quality C-aquifer for the purpose of slurrying coal to Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. The switchover also involves an increase in the volume of water to be used.

Children, grandmas, and young adults from Black Mesa critical of the Peabody plan marched to the council chambers Monday morning. When residents protested a Peabody expansion in 1997, they were carted off to jail by Navajo Nation Police. This time they were given a police escort.

Speaking with protesters outside the chambers, Johnson said, "It's about time we take a position that we protect our water, we protect our coal, we protect our sovereignty and these minerals. We don't want to repeat history, and I'm not going to be one who is going to take that position to sell out."

Under current negotiations, he said, the Navajo Nation would receive $30 million a year from Peabody. That amount is 10 percent of the company's projected revenue of $300 million from mining Navajo coal. Peabody sweetened the pot by offering a bonus of 10 percent of the $30 million, he said. Johnson was unimpressed.

Norman Benally of Black Mesa, whose family members were arrested in front of their home in the '97 protest, said residents were there Monday not only because of Peabody's new permit application, but also because the tribal government is renegotiating a long-term lease agreement behind closed doors.

"We're here to request that the tribal council deny Peabody's request for additional coal on Black Mesa and additional water use on Black Mesa because Peabody never acquired a permit for its Black Mesa operations or its slurry line," he said.

"After more than 25 years, since the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was signed into law, Peabody is finally in the process of getting a permit. They had an interim permit in 1989, but they've stretched it over 15 years.

"Peabody enjoys a certain sovereign immunity on Black Mesa which no other company does," Benally said. If the renegotiated contract is approved, the Navajo and Hopi people would have to present the contract to Congress.

"If Congress approved it also, it would make it a federal law, which gives Peabody sovereign immunity over the Navajo and Hopi people for the next 50 years," Benally said.

The way it is
Before Marshall Johnson and his family of four from Black Mesa went to see the tribal council Monday morning, they took a bath a sponge bath.

"We don't have no running water up there. We took a bath with three gallons of water. We come here and we feel clean. The amount Peabody is using is 46 gallons per second. They want to raise that to 6,000 acre feet. That's going to be 60 gallons per second."

He voiced concerns that there possibly are plans to rescind the resolution passed by council to wean Peabody from the N-aquifer. "This needs to be upheld and not let any sort of leeway be given to corporations or to government. I have been hearing that there is a negotiating team negotiating our whole water," Johnson said.

"The people of Black Mesa and surrounding communities that rely on the N aquifer should be the ones at the table," he said. They have not been invited. "We would like to see that and them be the first to be notified, not the people here in Window Rock that are representing other chapters."

The people of Black Mesa should be the ones to speak for themselves, he said. "I think we are educated enough to understand what is happening there, environmentally and daily, because we live there. Our people need to realize what is really taking place.

"The amount of water that this corporation is using, they're paying us 1 cent for every four gallons. ... That is morally wrong. It may be right in the minds of U.S. government laws and state government laws and tribal government laws, but morally and universally, that is wrong," he said. "That is our birthright. We have a right to say something on it. We should be at the table."

Sustain this
Nicole Horseherder said protesters didn't come to the chambers throwing protest signs around and getting in the faces of council delegates. "We didn't come here angry," she said. Instead, they came prepared with studies and documentation to back their concerns, and they did it "in the traditional kinship way of our people."

"We sought the prayers and the guidance of medicine people all over," Horseherder said. "That's the way we approach this Navajo Nation Council: out of utmost respect, bringing the true concerns of the people who live on the land and still tend to the fireplace, the foundation. That's where we're coming from," she said.

They have been called traditionalists and activists, but Horseherder doesn't see them that way. "I just see myself as a person who wants to make a living on Black Mesa. I have three children. I speak to them in Navajo. We get our children in the morning and run," she said, raising them based on traditional methods and techniques.

"Yet people look at that and say, 'Oh, you're a traditionalist. You want to go back to the 1800s.' Well that's not the case. We're seriously talking about land restoration. We're talking about solar energy. We brought a solar proposal before the Navajo Nation Council" on a previous occasion, she said.

"Today we're researching sustainable, renewable energy. But those things mean nothing if you can't even see 20, 30, 50 years into your future. If the water's gone, no one's going to pipe it to us. No one's going to give it to us. We are here to be responsible for the elements of life that God gave us, that the Creator gave us."

Best for Navajo
The energy companies don't have what's best for Navajo in mind, Horseherder said. "The Navajo Nation Council needs to start speaking for the people and not for the energy companies and the corporations."

Lucy Benally said that she and her family have lived by the Black Mesa pipeline for over 30 years. All those years, she said, they have been asking for water but just got shuffled back and forth between Peabody and Indian Health Service.

In all the years they have asked Peabody for water, "we've never got it. If they've never given it to the people in the past 30 years, how can they do it in the future?" she asked.

Norman Benally said there needs to be leadership in Window Rock that's representing the people. "This building here," he said, pointing to the council chambers, "it only represents energy companies and labor unions, and that's like less than 1 percent of the people on the reservation.

"The people here want civil rights, property rights, individual rights, the right to free speech," he said. They want the American dream.

"We ought to bring that here and not just let the energy companies run our government. It's got to come to an end. The people have to get control of their government. If they really think that the government belongs to the people, then it should be restored to the people," he said.

John Benally of Black Mesa said earth changes, brought on by pollution from fossil-fueled plants, are now occurring. "Global warming, it's for real. When you talk to corporate people, they don't really understand it. They only think one way. They don't have heart. You plead with them, you cry, you ask for mercy nothing. People sacrifice every day," he said.