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Navajo speaker brings Black Mesa controversy to UC-Davis

By Adam Bessie

The California Aggie U. California-Davis

A king's fortune of coal sleeps just beneath the surface of activist Leonard Benally's Black Mesa, Ariz. homeland. He, along with fellow members of the Navajo tribe do not live like kings today, and in fact, many of them have been displaced from their homes amid claims of government bullying and ecological destruction.

A nearly 4,000-square-mile area in northern Arizona has become the epicenter of a controversial battle between tradition and expansion, one that has drawn the attention of the United Nations.

Benally said the federal government is forcing out his tribe from his home -- one that is being ruined by the local coal company, Peabody Western Coal Mining Company.

"We are outcasts from our own history, our land," Benally said at an Environmental Justice Day program Tuesday at the University of California-Davis.

The Black Mesa area has the largest coal deposit in the United States, Assistant Secretary of Environmental Affairs for Massachusetts Judith Niles stated in a paper entitled "The Black Mesa Syndrome: Indian Lands, Black Gold."

However, this land has also been the home of Navajo -- also known as Dine'h -- and Hopi for what Benally claims is more than a thousand years. Furthermore, he believes that the coal mining is destroying a sacred way of life.

Strip-mining leases for the Black Mesa region were signed by the Navajo and Hopi tribal councils in 1966.

"Things are not better," Benally said. "We are still suffering."

Moreover, a land battle between the Navajo and Hopi has forced some area residents to relocate. The relocation is harmful to a people who are tied to rhythm of their land, he said. Benally added that some Navajos have been relocated to areas contaminated by hazardous waste.

According to a release from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, land disputes between the two groups "spans over 100 years and involves numerous pieces of congressional legislation and court cases."

The Hopi Indians were given 2.4 million acres to settle in the 1880s by federal government, according to the BIA release. At that time, the Navajo reservation "was located many miles to the east of the Hopi reservation," the release stated.

"Over the years, the Navajo Reservation was enlarged several times until it surrounded the Hopi Reservation and encompassed over 15 million acres," the release states. "The Navajos began to live on large proportions of land set aside in the 1880s, almost to the total exclusion of the Hopi Tribe."

In order to reclaim the land given to them by the government, the Hopi sued the Navajo in 1958, according to the release. The courts eventually partitioned the land between the tribes and divided the lands in Hopi Partitioned Land and Navajo Partitioned Land.

"The few Hopis that lived on the NPL relocated, and the remaining dispute concerns the few Navajos who continue to live on the HPL but have refused to relocate or sign and Accommodation Agreement," the release sates. The AA is a 75-year-lease that allows the Navajo to legally remain on the HPL, according to the release.

Benally said many of the Navajos, especially the elders, only speak their native language and are confused by the laws and agreements.

Peabody has publicly denied any connection to the relocation of the Navajo.

"The tragedy of forced relocation is a direct result of the United States government's failure to deal in good faith with either the Navajo or Hopi people and has nothing whatever to do with Peabody," former Navajo President Albert Hale stated.

Two of the company's mines are located 20 miles north of the HPL, also known as Big Mountain.

"Peabody has no operations at Big Mountain, no legal right to mine there and no plan to mine there," the release states.

Despite the distance from Big Mountain, Benally claims that the coal mining operations have disrupted the environment.

During the presentation, Benally played a video that claims that most of the local wells have been dried or polluted from the coal work and reduced the livestock.

"They are taking away our food -- we depend on the animal," he said. Peabody has won a number of environmental reclamation acknowledgments from the government. Last year, the company won eight reclamation awards around the country.

"Peabody's operations have a long and successful record of environmental compliance that has stood the test of time amid a microscope of anti-mining scrutiny," the release stated. "Peabody takes seriously its commitment to operate the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines responsibly and in compliance with federal and tribal laws governing our facilities."

"The mine has also brought many benefits to the local residents such as jobs, paved roads, electricity, and community water sources," according to the BIA release.

Benally does not agree that mines have increased the quality of life to his people. "Today, there's a lot of destruction and devastation -- the trademarks of capitalism," he said.