Big Mountain Update: Land, Resistance
& Native-Hate Unfolding
September
2019
By
NaBahe Y. Katenay K44d7niihii
The lands are wilder than ever since pre-European
invasion. However, the severe to mild impacts from the periodic droughts throughout
the last 25 years is very evident. Many natural springs have disappeared.
Certain native scrubs and grasses are now thinly dispersed like the great Cliff
Rose that barely cling to life. The juniper forest and grasslands show colors
of dark gray and orange because the sage meadows’ near die out and the second
phase of pinon pine die out. Wolves, elk, deer, bobcats, and foxes are more
numerous. Invasive plants like the cheat grass (bromus tectorum), russian thistle,
tamarisk shrubs soak up the little moisture in the ground. Invasive animal, the
cattle or the beef resources continue to have all legal rights to exist. Grass
lands are however bountiful from a wet winter, but its previous grazers the
sheep and goats herds from a vanished pastoral culture are all but gone.
The previous human dwellers, D7neh (The Peoples) are few
with their, illegal or strict but legal, residencies are spread apart by miles
of emptiness left by former neighbors who were forcibly relocated. This current
human trauma does not involve a population of millions nor living with
bombings, but it still involve horrific suffering caused by well-designed and
subtle psychological aggression. The children of those traditional elders that
once initiated a cultural land-based resistance to federal policing are now in
their late elder ages. Like the vegetation or the dying natural springs around
them, they too cling to a life style that is becoming only a memory and a
dream. They can only herd their sheep and goats day to day, month to month
despite the many health issues that they face. Ancient healing practices fragmented
during the upheaval of removal policies, and modern health care are only available
hours beyond the long jeep trails that lead to these D7neh resisters.
D7neh
42 year fight to defy the harsh apartheid law is not over. Resisters and their
extended families still call for support. What may seem to be a handful of
outside collectives, a mixture of whites and non-whites, still devote their
holiday get-a-ways to come out and stand with the resisters. It is a resistance
which has been presented in several ways from “the core sovereign native
movement” to a politicalized “genocide in the name of fossil extraction.” To
many on the lands and for those that bring support, they correlate this D7neh experience on Big
Mountain with universal cultural and social struggles for liberation and the
protection of natural environments. It is still a resistance or fight that is
on-going where D7neh
get volunteer, home-stay supporters that herd sheep, provide mental therapy in
a forgotten, empty and remote place. Organized support caravans bring seasonal work
crews for firewood gathering, shelter and road repair, and food / supply
deliveries. It is not, in any way, a form of protest where there is picketing
on city or corporate property. It is true solidarity of productive labor work
of achievements guided by natives, D7neh, from that particular ancestral
homelands.
--> The original cover or label for the origins of the relocation and land partitioning law does return often like a giant bill board or mass media headlines, “D7neh-Hopi land dispute.” Note that according to historical information, there were never any D7neh invasion on Black Mesa which may have caused pillaging of Hopi existence. How this labeling about an intertribal squabble is revived is when the modernized and restructured Hopi Law Enforcement Services, a sub-division of the Hopi Resource Enforcement Services, make their presence at D7neh resister’s homestead or grazing pastures. Certainly all these lands of Big Mountain and Black Mesa were lands co-shared by the ancestors of D7neh and Hopis, and which was an indigenous coexistence by both a village and regional-specific ranging group societies. American policy and federal-deputized tribal law personnel are all the same. Their sudden and displeasing arrival with that racist mentality and “hate” for D7neh resisters. There are usually no questioning because as far as this U.S. law is concern, these traditional people and their extended families are trespassing and violators of an old eviction order. Resisters are told: stop immediately any repair work, get rid of new lumber or roofing material, that the herd is over the limit, they need a valid permit to cut and haul firewood, any water-harvesting structure built will be dismantle.
Today, this U.S. anti-human and anti-nature policy in
this part of Indian country is going beyond normal human rights violations.
Perhaps like a requirement to follow the norm of the world where simple-natured
cultural peoples are being displaced, depopulated and tortured into extinction.
Big Mountain elder resisters, most still traditional with limited English,
cannot get to their doctor’s appointment or get prescription filled because
their Non-Emergency Medical Transport
(NEMT) are threatened by Hopi law enforcement patrols. Transport
personnel who are licensed and authorized under the Navajo Department of Health
have been threatened by Hopi that, their vehicle will be impounded. By whatever
means the jurisdictional or tribal governmental regulations play out, the
elders inside the apartheid territories have very serious medical issues. Some
could be life threatening or other posing greater health concerns. This is
happening as of this writing. An elder lady needing her routine checkup and eye
exam was not sure if the NEMT driver will make it to her home. NEMT and Field
Nurses are already risking a lot by taking the long jeep trails, plus two hours
on maintained and paved roads, and two round-trips in a day.
Elder resister, “If Hopi wish to impose their over-all
authority, even on the Navajo Nation, they need to start permitting their
tribal medical center to take over the nurse visits and the NEMTs. I and my
elder brother seem to be taking turns getting sick or needing medical
attention. It’s hard enough for the NEMTs and the Field Nurses because we live
remotely and far from the hospital.”
The coal of Black Mesa
Yes, if we call it Mother Earth, we are in her image.
The Big Mountain elders’ resistance movement brought back many teachings for
humanity, and one of them was, “Coal is the liver of the Female Mountain. And
if fossil fuel extraction continue, the Female Mountain will be drained of all
Her fluids, the waters, the oil and her blood.”
There is some strange and wicked kind of relief that
come with the closure of the Peabody coal mining. The coal-fired power plant
that burnt Black Mesa coal will soon follow. All this is wicked because no one
is talking about the relocation law of 1974, a mandate to depopulate Big
Mountain in order to industrialize other coal fields. Wicked and strange
because the laws of apartheid will remain but for which kind of fossil fuel
extraction?
About these closures, Big Mountain elders’ statements:
“Now the cell
phone receptions are either out or come back for a brief period. Peabody coal
company are saying they are dismantling all the cell phone towers which
belonged to them.”
“D7neh
or Navajo residents around and near the mines were given first priority to take
most of the scrap metal and steel. They were offered a cheap price and many
local folks hauled tons of steel away.”
I:
“What will people do with tons of metal and steel?
Weld barbeque grills, livestock fence panels, and wood stoves to sell? Why can’t
people think anymore?! Where is the consciousness?! Our Rezs need small bridges
over the dangerous washes!”
Coal miners, mine laborers, and power plant employees
will only be narrowed minded. Last thing their company bosses will do is point
the finger away from Wall Street. Instead point the finger at the so-called,
“earth lovers and environmentalists,” those who caused their loss of jobs. More
hatred like there’s not enough.
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