Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers about the
\nconsequences of acquiring Peabody Coal and mining Black Mesa<\/p>\n
By Brenda Norrell<\/p>\n
NEW YORK — A delegation of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota warned Lehman
\nBrothers stockholders of the dire consequences of their actions in
\n2001. In a rare move, censored by most media, the Navajo, Hopi and
\nLakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers, after it acquired the
\nfinancial interests of Peabody Coal, of the spiritual consequences of
\nmining coal on sacred Black Mesa and the aftermath of Peabody Coal’s
\nmachinations that led to the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute.
\nLehman Brothers is now in the midst of financial collapse, with its
\nbankruptcy producing a rippling effect throughout the world’s economy.<\/p>\n
At the time of the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation’s address to
\nLehman Brothers stockholders in 2001, Arlene Hamilton bought two
\nshares of stocks in Lehman Brothers to pave the way for the address to
\nstockholders. When she did, Hamilton said her life was threatened
\nbecause of this action. Shortly afterwards, Hamilton was killed in a
\ncar crash. Longtime Navajo relocation resister Roberta Blackgoat died
\nin San Francisco at Hamilton’s memorial.
\nA Hopi elder was among those addressing the Lehman Brothers
\nstockholders. His admonitions followed those of the late Hopi Sinom
\nelders Thomas Banyacya and Dan Evehema, among the Hopi elders who
\nwarned of dire consequences, including natural disasters and worldwide
\nconsequences, if Peabody mined coal on Black Mesa and Navajos were
\nrelocated from this sacred region. The Hopi Sinom never authorized the
\nestablishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they refer to as a
\npuppet government of the United States.
\nThe Hopi elder in the delegation told stockholders, “Lehman Brothers,
\neven though we are just a few here, we speak for the Creator, who is
\nthe majority.
\n“Therefore we demand you stop the Peabody coal mining and the slurry.
\nWe demand again,” said the Hopi elder who asked that his name not be
\npublished in the media.
\n“Traditional and priesthood people don’t want this mining. The Hopi
\nprophecies say that we have to protect land and life. If we don’t
\nprotect our beautiful Earth –our Heaven, our Mother, we will suffer
\nwith her.”<\/p>\n
He told stockholders that Hopis never signed a treaty with the United
\nStates and the current Hopi Tribal Council is not legitimate since it
\nwas created by less than 30 percent of the people.
\nReferring to the beginning of the turmoil, he said, “John Boyden was a
\nlawyer who worked for Peabody Coal. He was instrumental to the
\ncreation of the Hopi Tribal Council.<\/p>\n
“Our ancestors warned that someday this would happen. White men will
\nsay that it is our own people that sold this land. I will not accept
\nthis.
\n“Our roots are rooted in our villages and it goes up to the whole
\nuniverse. If we break these roots the world will get out of balance.<\/p>\n
“I pray for you and hope that we open your eyes and you find the
\nmajority in your heart.”
\nRoberta Blackgoat, longtime resister and sheepherder from Cactus
\nValley, told stockholders the region of San Francisco Peaks is holy to
\nthe Navajo people. Mining in the area of this sacred mountain is the
\nsame as desecrating an altar and church. It is making the people sick.
\n“We can not go away to other places,” Blackgoat said, adding that
\nlivestock confiscation is “starving the people.”<\/p>\n
“When you have a pinprick on your finger, just take it off and the
\npain will go away. But there are too many pins on the Mother Earth.
\nBarbed wire is all over the country, dividing the people.”
\nBlackgoat was among the Navajo families resisting forced relocation.
\nAfter Peabody orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute,
\nmore than 12,000 Navajos were relocated to make way for Peabody’s coal
\nmining on Black Mesa.<\/p>\n
Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., now a US presidential candidate, was
\namong those responsible for pushing legislation to force Navajos to
\nrelocate.
\nLeonard Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain on Black Mesa in Arizona,
\nsaid the delegation told Lehman Brothers that it is time to transform
\noperations to renewable forms of energy, including solar and wind
\npower.<\/p>\n
“It was like opening this marble door to the Lehman Brothers. We got
\nour foot in there. They were willing to listen. By going there, the
\ndelegation touched their hearts.” Benally said the delegation also
\ndispelled myths.
\n“They say it’s a land dispute, but it is not. The traditional Hopi and
\nNavajo are standing together, they are the original inhabitants of
\nBlack Mesa. We are the caretakers.”
\nBenally said in 2001 that the people have been struggling for 32 years
\nbecause of the turmoil created by Hopi and Navajo tribal leaders
\nintent on making money from the 92 billion tons of coal beneath the
\nground at Black Mesa. But, he said, the resistance actually goes back
\n500 years to the Spanish invasion, followed by the European invasion.
\nFinally there was the Kit Carson invasion. “That’s when the people
\nwere put in the death camps.”
\nWhile Navajos were incarcerated at Fort Sumner, he said, “The military
\nmade promises, mountains of promises they never kept.”
\nWhile the Navajo Nation government in Window Rock celebrated
\nSovereignty Day in April of 2001, Benally said tribal leaders force
\ntheir own people to suffer respiratory disease and death from coal
\nmining, sacrificing them for mining royalties.<\/p>\n
“Sovereignty Day? That’s a joke. For us, we live it. They oppress
\ntheir own race. They make them bleed.”
\nIn the 1970s, the Four Corners region was considered a National
\nSacrifice area, but Benally said it is time to change that
\nclassification to a National Historic Site.<\/p>\n
“The sacredness is still here. Mother Earth is still here. She still
\nbreathes. As long as the air blows, the rivers run, Indigenous people
\nwill be out here.”
\nBenally said the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation moved in
\nsolidarity with the Zapatistas whose caravan through Mexico gave them
\nhope in 2001. “We felt the wind, it came from the South. It is telling
\nthe Indigenous people to rise up for their beliefs, their culture.
\nThese things are not being respected by anyone but the Indigenous
\npeople.”
\nIn New York, Joe Chasing Horse, Sundance Chief at Big Mountain,
\naddressed the protest rally outside and spoke to Lehman Brothers
\nMerchant Banking Fund stockholders.
\n“You have taken all of our land, now we have come to show you how to
\ntake care of it,” Chasing Horse said.
\n“The traditionalists have the wisdom, we are the wisdom keepers.”
\nGlenna Begay, Navajo protesting in New York, said, “I traveled
\n3,000miles to be here and to voice my concern about what’s happening
\nto us out there on the land. I want the mining to stop.”
\nLouise Benally of Big Mountain said, “We need to hold the owners
\naccountable by letting them know the hardship we live with every day.”<\/p>\n
Arlene Hamilton, coordinator of the Weaving for Freedom project and
\nwife of Leonard Benally, personally bought two shares in the
\ncorporation to ensure entrance into the stockholders meeting. She and
\nBenally negotiated with Lehman Brothers to allow the elders time to
\naddress stockholders.<\/p>\n
“These were some of the richest men and women in the world. The
\ndelegation was so beautiful, and so with the truth. Their presence was
\nholy.”
\nBack in Flagstaff in 2001, Hamilton said Lehman Brothers and Peabody
\nCoal now have the opportunity to make a difference in the future of
\nmankind. “We want the dehumanizing and militarizing to stop. There is
\na lot of suffering going on. We want to make sure the ceremonies are
\nnot surrounded by guns and the people have clean drinking water.
\n“There is no life without water.” Hamilton said Navajo elders
\nresisting relocation often become dehydrated during the hot summer
\nmonths because of the scarcity of clean water, while Peabody Coal
\npumps 10,000 gallons of water a minute to slurry coal.
\nShe carried the human rights concerns to Peabody management for years,
\nbut she said they have done little to improve the quality of living as
\npromised.<\/p>\n
“It’s really just diversion and distraction while the people are
\nsuffering out there. Everything is based on making way for mining.”
\nThe delegation presented a list of demands to Lehman Brothers,
\ndemanding that Peabody leave the water and coal alone because they are
\nthe lungs and liver of Mother Earth. They called for a halt to mining
\nand the initiation of a solar project, availability of clean drinking
\nwater, and a halt to military over flights and the intimidation of
\nelders and youths by armed rangers.
\nHamilton said the Weaving for Freedom project is a collective of Dine’
\nweavers in resistance struggling for religious freedom to practice
\ntheir ancient craft while protecting their sacred land.
\nHamilton said, “This work is very risky now. We protect each other by
\ntraveling in large groups.”<\/p>\n
Leonard Benally said, “The whole thing is about materialism, money. In
\nour culture, money doesn’t matter. It is about how you live in harmony
\nwith nature, in harmony with your prayers.
\n“That’s why we are fighting for our lands, even though the media and
\npoliticians are telling us we don’t have a right to exist.”
\nMeanwhile, Bill Ahearn, spokesman for Lehman Brothers, said in 2001
\nthat the protesters were welcome to speak at the meeting but said the
\nfirm would be unable to help them. He said the issues must be resolved
\nby the tribes and BIA.
\n“We’re very sympathetic and we feel badly for them, but there’s
\nnothing we can do for them because it’s not a problem with us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers about the consequences of acquiring Peabody Coal and mining Black Mesa By Brenda Norrell NEW YORK — A delegation of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota warned Lehman Brothers stockholders of the dire consequences of their actions in 2001. In a rare move, censored by most media, the Navajo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic","category-mundane-or-sublime","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muffinbottoms.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}