Tribe, environmentalists fear opening of uranium mine near Grand Canyon

(08-01) FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- The Sierra Club claims land near the Grand Canyon that's sacred to the Havasupai Tribe is a target of the Bush administration's plan to expand energy production.

The tribe itself is at least equally upset about the possibility, though the company owning the uranium site in question says it has no plan to open the mine. "That's our aboriginal homeland," said Matthew Putesoy, the tribe's vice chairman. "We claim that as our origination, where the very first Havasupai people were born ... from one of our great-great grandmothers. Grandmother Canyon, we call her. "We say were tied to the universe from that area," said Putesoy, whose tribe's lands border the sprawling Grand Canyon on the south. "They're drilling right in the abdomen of our Mother Earth."

The Bush energy plan calls for 1,300 new power plants across the country by 2020 and for an expansion of nuclear power. In a statement dated Monday, the Sierra Club said part of that plan includes operating the Canyon Mine 15 miles from the Grand Canyon in the headwater drainage of Havasu Creek. The site is within the Kaibab National Forest. The mine was been built a few years ago but hasn't been operated. The Forest Service approved its construction after looking into its environmental impact, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected tribal opposition in upholding the permit.

Cathy Schmidlin, a public affairs officer for the Kaibab forest, said the company that built the mine is defunct and that Vancouver, B.C.-based International Uranium Corp., which operates three mines in Arizona, is the current owner. Its U.S. headquarters is Denver, and Ron Hochstein, president and CEO of International Uranium, said there's no immediate cause for alarm.

"There is no plan to restart the Canyon Mine at this time," he said. "Uranium prices have to improve significantly before we could consider restarting that operation." Hochstein declined to comment on the tribe's cultural concerns.

Nonetheless, Rob Smith of the Sierra Club said mine illustrates the potential for problems for Arizona under the Bush energy plan. "The emphasis on building lots of new power plants means Arizona will stand to be a big loser," Smith said. "Arizona could become an energy sacrifice zone if big power plants are the main thrust of a national energy policy. This means loss of natural and cultural areas, using up our water, polluting our air."

Smith, the club's southwestern representative in Phoenix, said Arizona has another of the 21 natural areas nationwide about which the club has great concern. That other one is the recently designated Ironwood Forest National Monument near Tucson in southern Arizona. Asarco Inc., a giant producer of copper and other metals, wants to trade land in order to expand a mine into the monument. Environmentalists contend doing so would harm the habitat of an endangered species, the desert pronghorn antelope.

Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity claims the land that Asarco wants is critical to reproduction and survival of the last population of desert bighorn sheep. Additionally, there are plans for a power plant nearby and to run a transmission line through the monument, the Sierra Club pointed out. Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico acquired New York-based Asarco in 1999. The company's mining includes operations in Montana and Arizona. On the Net: International Uranium: http://www.intluranium.com/

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List info at: http://nativenewsonline.org/natnews.htm

Environment News Service
http://ens.lycos.com/aboutens.html
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L03-30g.html

Healing Our World:
Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Killing Tomorrow for a Few Megawatts Today

We have a beautiful mother Her green lap immense Her brown embrace eternal Her blue body everything we now. -- Alice Walker

The modern day American system of governance has an attribute that the founding fathers of our country may not have anticipated. Today, the primary qualifications for assuming public office seem to be personal wealth and a vested interest in major industries. So, the people making life or death decisions for the American people, their children, and the children of tomorrow, are increasingly becoming the least qualified to be making those judgments. The last few weeks have seen members of the new presidential administration deciding that levels of arsenic pollution that have been endorsed by the World Health Organization are too low for Americans. People whose last science class was years ago in college are telling the world's health professionals that since such controls would be a burden to polluting industries, they will not be implemented.

President George W. Bush, who believes global warming is a fad, has gone against the scientists and leaders of the world by directing the United States to leave the negotiating table for the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas limitation agreement. He has told the world that the U.S., the largest producer of the planet's greenhouse gases, refuses to be part of the solution because it would hurt our economy.

The U.S. has less than five percent of the world's population, yet we produce nearly 25 percent of the world's waste, hazardous substances, and greenhouse gases.

The president also closed the White House special offices on AIDS policy and race relations and, in a move that has stunned women's groups, announced he will not reopen a special White House office on women's issues.

In the wake of President Bush's decision to renege on his campaign promise to require coal burning power plants to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, he has imperiled our health and compromised the future of people all over the world.

The door has now been flung wide open for energy companies to increase investments in a form of fuel that most of us had hoped was on the way out. The U.S. government is embracing coal, the dirtiest form of fuel, and energy producers around the country have begun expanding this archaic, filthy form of power generation.

Over 55 percent of the nation's electricity is generated by the burning of coal. Yet more than 600 coal fired power plants around the country don't meet the air quality standards mandated by the Clean Air Act. In fact, they are specifically exempted from the mandates of the 1990 law, passed during the administration of President George Bush, the present President's father.

A large percentage of the coal used in these plants comes from strip mines on Indian Reservations that are so huge, they can be seen from Earth orbit. Since 1974, the Mojave Generating Station and the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona have been polluting the world's air. The Mojave Generating Station alone uses 18,240 tons of coal per day at full load. Combined, the two plants require 12 million tons of coal a year and are the largest polluters in the country. Astronauts saw the pollution cloud from these coal fired plants from the Moon!

Black Mesa, Arizona, home of the Hopi Indian Reservation and several thousand Navajo is a classic example of the abusive ethic that is destroying our world. Because the Peabody Group wants to expand its coal strip mine, the U.S. government has been leading the forced relocation of the native people who remain at the site, a place they have inhabited since the U.S. Army tried to wipe them all out in 1863.

Nearly 12,000 native people have been forcibly moved from their tribal lands to a contaminated site in New Mexico, home of the largest radioactive waste spill in U.S. history. Efforts continue to remove the remaining 3,000 people, mostly elders, from Black Mesa. This is but one rarely mentioned legacy of coal.

Coal fired power plants emit more toxic pollution than any other form of energy production. For every megawatt hour of electricity produced, coal generates 2,071 pounds of carbon dioxide, 13.8 pounds of sulfur oxides, 4.8 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and 3.2 pounds of particulate matter.

By comparison, natural gas emits 1,205 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour, 0.008 pounds of sulfur oxides, 4.3 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and negligible particulate matter.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is contributing to global warming, trapping in heat from the Sun and raising global temperature.

Some scientists say that within 50 years, all the world's glaciers may melt. This, combined with a predicted 10.5 degree increase in global temperature over the next century, could raise sea level around the world as much as 10 feet over the next 1,000 years. This process has begun in our lifetimes, and certainly in our children's lifetimes, and we may see many coastal cities around the world obliterated.

Volcanoes, sea spray, rotting vegetation and plankton emit sulfur dioxide (SO2). But the largest amounts of it come from the burning of coal and oil. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that high concentrations of SO2 can result in breathing impairment for asthmatic children and adults who are active outdoors. Short term exposures of asthmatic individuals to elevated SO2 levels can result in reduced lung function.

Effects associated with longer term exposures include respiratory illness, alterations in the lungs' defenses, and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease. Individuals with cardiovascular disease or chronic lung disease, as well as children and the elderly, are particularly at risk.

SO2 is also a primary component of acid rain. The pollutant travels hundreds or thousands of miles from where it is emitted and falls with rain, forming sulphuric acid that kills life in lakes and streams, kills forests, eats through paint on cars, and destroys buildings. Outdoor sculptures all over the world are being eaten away by acid rain exposure.

In 2000, the Environment News Service reported that coal and oil fired power plants released almost nine million pounds of toxic metals and metal compounds into the air in 1998, many of which are known or suspected carcinogens and are neurotoxic, affecting the nervous system.

A report released by the Harvard School of Public Health in May 2000 said that two coal fired plants in Massachusetts were responsible for affecting 32 million people in New England, New York, and New Jersey. The report said that the two plants were responsible for an estimated 43,000 asthma attacks and 159 premature deaths per year.

Between 1988 and 1997, SO2 was decreasing in the U.S. thanks largely to the Clear Air Act and the fact that no new coal fired plants were being built. That situation is surely to change with the new Bush administration's rollbacks of pollution controls.

Many analysts are seeing these environmentally destructive policies as payback for the huge contributions made to the Republican campaigns by industry. For example, electric utility companies gave a record $16.4 million to Republicans, says the Center for Responsive Politics. They gave $6 million to Democrats.

The chairman of the Peabody Coal Group, one of the nation's largest coal companies, contributed $250,000 to the Republican National Committee.

Don't be fooled by rhetoric from our greedy industrialist leaders that coal is cheap and that it can be made "green." The faulty arithmetic used by politicians conveniently omits the costs of increased health care and environmental destruction from the equation. If the true costs of coal were figured in, it would rival nuclear power as the most expensive form of power plant fuel. And coal can't be made very green with today's technology.

Many environmental analysts continue to insist that serious energy conservation efforts in the U.S. could eliminate any energy crisis and the need for new power plants. Sadly, serious conservation efforts are not encouraged in a land where the country's health is measured by the rate of industry expansion and the consumption of goods, most of which require electricity.

Now more than ever before, it is important for your voice to be heard. Write President Bush and your local legislators and put them on notice that you will not tolerate creating a healthy, favorable climate for business and industry while the climate of our planet and the health of our children is trashed.

Tell your elected representatives that you personally are working to change our nation's priorities and that you no longer put the acquisition of goods and the consumption of resources as your reason for living.

Tell them that you have no use for a system that creates a robust economy by polluting the earth, the air, the water, and our bodies. Tell them that you are, as of this very minute, no longer working for the greedy three percent of the population that gets rich because we demand cheap goods and services and work hard to buy them.

Tell them that your top priority is now the health and happiness of your family and the restoration of your connection to the natural world. If we told all these things to our elected leaders, it would scare them to death - and hopefully into action.

RESOURCES

1. Read about the details of the toxic coal industry in an Environment News Service article at: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-15-06.html
2. Read about the plight of the Hopi and Navajo people as they fight for their survival against the Peabody Coal Company in Healing Our World articles at: http://www.jps.net/jackieg/articles/may03-1999g.html. For the current status of this crisis, visit the Action Resource Center at: http://www.arcweb.org/campaigns/big_mountain/
3. For a thorough, and chilling, summary of the Bush administration's recent assault on the environment, see the "Seattle Times" special report
4. Read about the dangers of sulfur dioxide at: http://www.epa.gov/oar/aqtrnd97/brochure/so2.htm
5. See the Harvard study at:
   http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press050420 00.html
6. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at:
   http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
7. Contact President Bush at: president@whitehouse.gov. Tell him that this assault on the environment and on our health must stop.
8. Use your voice at the Act For Change websitejackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at: http://www.healingourworld.com

Contacts: Dave Blouin, 608-233-8455, burroak15@aol.com
Zoltán Grossman, 608-246-2256, mtn@igc.org

Madison, WI -- Senate Bill 160, legislation to ban the use of cyanide in Wisconsin mines, was passed by the Wisconsin Senate Environmental Resources Committee today on a bipartisan 4-to-1 vote. Senators Jim Baumgart (D), Robert Cowles (R), Dave Hanson (D), and Bob Wirch (D) voted today to recommend the bill for passage by the full Senate. SB 160 (the companion to Assembly Bill 95) was a subject of the Senate committee's hearing on May 17.

"The Committee did not accept the misleading statements and half-truths used by Nicolet Minerals Company to fight SB 160," said Dave Blouin, Mining Chair for the Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter, "We are convinced that SB 160 is sound public policy that will help safeguard our environment from unsafe mining practices designed to maximize profits for foreign mining companies. Senators Baumgart, Cowles, Hanson and Wirch deserve the sincere gratitude of Wisconsin residents for putting our local tourism economy and environment before mining company profits."

The Wisconsin Campaign to Ban Cyanide in Mining is stressing the risks of cyanide before, during and after ore processing at mining operations. It says that the transportation of cyanide, before its use in ore processing, carries enormous risks. BHP Billiton's Nicolet Minerals Co. (NMC) would ship between 84 and 240 tons of cyanide to the Crandon proposal each year on state highways, endangering state residents, and fish and other wildlife should a spill occur. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has acknowledged that NMC is not responsible for accidents while extremely hazardous cyanide is transported to the proposed mine.

Research has found that there are no industrial users of cyanide in northern Wisconsin. "Just as people around the country are trying to keep arsenic out of drinking water, people in northern Wisconsin are trying to keep cyanide out of northern watersheds, where this toxic chemical is not yet used in industry." said Zoltan Grossman, co-founder of the Midwest Treaty Network's Wolf Watershed Educational Project.

Wisconsin DNR has identified 111 sites contaminated with cyanide from old coal gassification plants, including the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee. "Citizens are now dealing with 111 sites with cyanide contamination from decades ago." said Linda Sturnot, Franklin resident and Vice Chair of the Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin, "We do not need to add new industrial users of cyanide."

The Campaign has countered company claims that cyanide would be safe during ore processing, and portrayed as fase NMC's claim that cyanide use in the froth flotation process (to be used at the Crandon site) has never caused environmental degradation. The EPA reported in 1994 that while using the froth flotation process, Asarco's Black Cloud Mine in Colorado consistently exceeded discharge limits for cyanide that was shown to be toxic to aquatic wildlife.

"The Senate Environmental Resources Committee thoughtfully rejected NMC's attempt to run away from modern mining's bad track record." said Blouin, "Does anyone really believe that NMC is somehow immune from the industry's track record of toxic spills, failed waste dumps, human error, and accidents leading to pollution of our air and water?" Research shows that mining causes environmental damage regardless of the ore process used. More than half of the toxic releases involving cyanide at gold mines in Montana between 1982 and 1998 involved the same technologies and methods proposed for the Crandon mine.

The Campaign has placed special emphasis on the fact that mining in Wisconsin is given special treatment by state and federal laws that all other state industry must comply with. Mining here is not subject to federal hazardous waste laws, allowing mining to simply landfill wastes even if cyanide is present. Mining in Wisconsin is also subject to less restrictive groundwater and wetlands standards. Nicolet Minerals' Crandon proposal would use 10 times the amount of cyanide as used by any other state company. "This is a recipe for disaster," said Grossman, "We need SB 160 to ban cyanide use by an industry that would produce far more toxic wastes than any other in the state and incredibly, is subject to fewer environmental restrictions."

The Campaign countered absurd comparisons of small amounts of cyanide in coffee to that of cyanide in mine wastes. Humans can metabolize low levels of cyanide found in some foods. However, fish and other wildlife cannot. The tiniest amount of cyanide is toxic to fish and aquatic life. Cyanide in mining waste ponds has poisoned thousands of bird around the U.S.

The Campaign also opposed the company's categorical dismissal as "irrelevant" recent overseas mining waste spills (such as last year’s cyanide waste spill in Romania). It said that the devastating environmental damages caused by cyanide accidents worldwide illustrate the extreme toxicity of cyanide. NMC's new owners, Billiton and BHP (now merged to form BHP Billiton) have suffered various spills at mining operations in recent years, including more than 14,000 pounds of sulfuric acid spilled at an Arizona mine in 1998. On May 18, Australian protesters carried signs opposing the Crandon proposal outside a BHP shareholder's meeting in Melbourne.

"NMC has claimed that the bill to ban cyanide in mining amounts to 'legislative harassment'," Blouin replied, "It is legislation crafted to protect the lakes, streams and rivers of Wisconsin from the serious risk of cyanide contamination. The people of Wisconsin know that there is no safe level of cyanide and have a right to see that it never be used northern Wisconsin."

More than 20 local governments and 12,000 Wisconsin citizens have signed on to effort to ban cyanide in mining. For more information, call the Wisconsin Campaign to Ban Cyanide in Mining toll-free at 800-445-8615 or log on to http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide.html

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact your State Senator (if you don't know who s/he is) toll-free at (800) 362-9472, or call or e-mail your Senator (for SB 160) and Assembly Representative (for AB 95), using the toll-free phone and e-mail list at http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/wileg.html

NEW PRINTABLE DOCUMENTS:

Talking Points on Cyanide in Mining (answering company claims that cyanide use at the Crandon mine would be safe) http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/points.html

Print out the leaflet on cyanide in mining http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide_leaflet.html

Print out the petition to ban cyanide at WI mines http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/petition.html

Coming soon: A Map of Possible Cyanide Routes to Wisconsin Mines http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanidemap.html

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:

These are the other pages on the Wisconsin cyanide ban bill (SB160/AB95). Printing them all out (at 90%) produces a ~50-page guide on cyanide in mining:

Wisconsin Campaign to Ban Cyanide in Mining (main page of legislation, articles, resolutions, etc.) http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide.html

Background on cyanide at the Crandon mine, WI (technical documents, DNR assessments, etc.) http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide2.html

Background on cyanide in other U.S. mines (accidents, referenda, etc.) http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide-usa.html

Background on cyanide in foreign mines (accidents, movements, etc.) http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide3.html

From: Zoltán Grossman mtn@igc.org
April 30, 2001
New Senate Bill 160 to ban cyanide in Wisconsin mines

Contacts:
Dave Blouin, Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter 608/233-8455 burroak15@aol.com
Zoltán Grossman, Midwest Treaty Network/ Wolf Watershed Education Project, 608/246-2256 mtn@igc.org
Bill McClenahan, Martin Schreiber & Associates, 608/259-1212 ext. 4 Tom Wilson, Wisconsin Stewardship Network, 608/637-3356

Wisconsin environmental and conservation groups today applauded the introduction of a bill banning the use of cyanide in mining. Senate Bill 160, was introduced in the state Senate by Sen. Russ Decker (D-Schofield).

"Cyanide is an incredibly toxic chemical, especially for fish," said Tom Wilson from the Wisconsin Stewardship Network. "Many rivers in the U.S. and around the world have been poisoned by cyanide from mine sites and transportation of cyanide to mines. Wisconsin cannot take that chance, especially when the Crandon mine is proposed near the headwaters of the Wolf River."

"We appreciate Sen. Decker's work on behalf of SB 160 and his continued efforts to safeguard Wisconsin's environment from unsafe mining practices," said Dave Blouin, vice chairman of the state Sierra Club. "SB 160 clearly has strong statewide support; the conservation congress voted more than 10 to 1 in favor of the cyanide ban for mining at its April hearings. The Rusk and Langlade County boards and a number towns and cities have already voted to support the ban. More than 11,000 residents have signed petitions supporting the cyanide ban."

SB 160 will be the subject of a public hearing by the Senate Committee on Environmental Resources, chaired by state Sen. Jim Baumgart (D-Sheboygan), a cosponsor of the bill. SB 160 and its Assembly companion bill, AB 95, would prohibit the use of cyanide and cyanide compounds in mining for metallic minerals and in processing metallic ore.

Among those supporting the bill is the Forest County Potawatomi Community. The tribe's reservation is just east of the proposed Crandon mine. Tribal Chairman Harold "Gus" Frank said, "For generations, our people have depended on the waters and fish of Wisconsin. Mining waste or cyanide spills will poison those waters. Water is precious - more precious than copper or gold or mining company profits."

The Wisconsin Campaign to Ban Cyanide in Mining is urging its supporters to contact their legislators to support both AB 95 and SB 160 and to request public hearings and votes on both bills.

"Cyanide in mining has become to environmental politics in Wisconsin what arsenic in drinking water has become to the country as a whole," said Zoltán Grossman of the Midwest Treaty Network's Wolf Watershed Education Project. "State residents recognize the threat to our drinking water and our fisheries from the use of cyanide in mining. This is a unique opportunity for legislators of both parties to prove their commitment to the environment, which has become a major issue for the next election."

SB 160/AB 95 would ban cyanide use in all Wisconsin mining, including the proposed Crandon mine and possible future gold mines. Cyanide is used to extract gold and other metals from ore.

The Crandon mine, if permitted, would use 200 tons or more of cyanide per year. The mine site is in a wetlands area surrounded by lakes and streams that feed into the pristine wolf river. According to Blouin, as little as a teaspoon of 2% cyanide can kill a human, and much smaller amounts are toxic to fish. The Nicolet Minerals Company claims that the vat flotation process it plans at the Crandon mine is safer than the heap leach process associated with many cyanide disasters. Blouin responded that whatever process the company uses on site, many tons of cyanide will be trucked to the mine, and need to be disposed on the site after use. He added that the company currently has no proposal to deal with the leftover cyanide

In 1999, voters in the state of Montana passed a law restricting the use of cyanide in mining. Voters acted after the state suffered scores of accidents, unauthorized discharges, and leaks and spills of mine wastes that involved millions of gallons of cyanide contaminated wastes. In recent years, the mining industry has been associated with many more cyanide disasters than any other industry, including many significant cyanide spills due to transportation and shipping accidents, waste dump spills and leaks, and pipeline and other mechanical failures.

On January 30, 2000, Australian mining company Esmeralda spilled 3.5 million cubic feet of cyanide contaminated and heavy metal-laden wastewater into Romanian rivers. The pollution flowed through Hungary to Yugoslavia and on into the Danube, killing all aquatic life in a 250-mile stretch of the river system. Four weeks after the spill, the cyanide plume was measurable in the Danube delta of the Black Sea, more than 2,500 miles downstream from the spill. More than 1,200 tons of fish were estimated to have perished. In July last year, the Hungarian government sued Esmeralda for damages of $107 million. In response to the spill, the Czech Republic passed legislation banning the use of cyanide for mining.

Additional background information on the Wisconsin Campaign to Ban Cyanide in Mining can be found at: http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/cyanide Other governments and organizations who support the Campaign include:

Menominee Indian Tribe, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Rusk County, Langlade County, City of Appleton, City of New London, City of Milwaukee, City of Franklin, Village of Fremont (Waupaca Co.), Village of Combined Locks (Outagamie Co.), Town of Ellington (Outagamie Co.), Town of Wolf River (Langlade Co.), Town of Nashville (Forest Co.), Town of Ainsworth (Langlade Co.), Town of Mukwa (Waupaca Co.), Town of Poygan,(Winnebago Co.), Town of Winneconne (Winnebago Co.), Town of Liberty (Outagamie Co.), Town of Waukechon (Shawano Co.), Town of Deer Creek (Outagamie Co.), Town of Westcott (Shawano Co.), Town of Oshkosh (Winnebago Co.), United Steelworkers Local 1527, Wisconsin Conservation Congress, Wisconsin Trout Unlimited.

BIGMTLIST newswire update about Big Mountain resisters
Coal mining: Big Mountain. Black Mesa.

Religious Freedom Violated!
Land Stolen Through Unfair Trade Agreements!
Is This Not An Example Of Globalization?

BIG MOUNTAIN, Ariz. - Navajos facing forced eviction appealed to the United Nations in Geneva in April, as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal that relocation violates the religious rights of Navajo, in the case of Jenny Manybeads vs. United States.

U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll in Arizona also lifted a 1977 injunction, which now authorizes the Hopi Tribe to enforce its grazing laws -livestock permits and impoundments - on Navajos living on Hopi Partitioned Lands (HPL).

Cedric Kuwaninvaya, chairman of the Hopi Land Team, said the U.S. Supreme Court decision means time has run out for Navajos who refused to sign 75-year lease accommodation agreements with the tribe.

"Denial of the Manybeads appeal makes imminent the eviction of Navajo individuals on the HPL without a lease agreement with the Hopi Tribe," Kuwaninvaya said in a written statement.

Carrying their fight for human rights to Geneva, Kee Watchman of Cactus Valley community, told the United Nations Human Rights Commission in its 57th session in April, that Navajos have suffered for 30 years, enduring constant harassment and threats because the energy industry seeks Navajo coal.

"The United States government, for reasons of its own policy, is actively and knowingly destroying our families, our livelihood, our sacred places and our way of life."

Watchman told the United Nations that Peabody Coal Co. seeks the "rich and low sulfur coal that lays beneath our feet."

In his address on religious intolerance, Watchman said deep injury will result if the Hopi proceed with a plan to construct a cellular tower on a peak over "the shrine called 'Dzil'na Sa i' or Big Mountain," without consultation with Navajos living there.

Representing the Indian Treaty Council, Watchman asked for an avenue of appeal to an international tribunal where the United States and its officials would be held accountable for their actions.

Meanwhile, at Big Mountain, Bahe Katenay said, "The people's way of life is constantly under attack." He said the people are disappointed with the court decisions, but they will not give up the struggle to remain.

"The feeling is that the American government doesn't want to hear about our culture and history and why we want to stay on the land to protect it."

Katenay said Diné at Big Mountain believe both court decisions are a direct reaction to success in creating international awareness about the coal industry's intent to remove Navajos to permit mining of the Black Mesa coal beds.

"The people are going to be living with more fear that evictions will take place, but they will try and stop the eviction in any way that they can."

In nearby Kykotsmovi, the Hopi celebrated both court decisions as victories. After more than two decades, the Hopi regained full control and jurisdiction over grazing on Hopi Partitioned Lands when Judge Carroll lifted the 1977 injunction.

"It is an indisputable fact that we have been second-class citizens on our own lands for too long," Chairman Wayne Taylor said.

Taylor congratulated the U.S. Supreme Court for refusing to overturn the 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruling in Jenny Manybeads vs. United States. Navajos filed the suit in 1988, based on their right to practice traditional religion on sacred land, challenging the 1974 Navajo Hopi Settlement Act that resulted in Navajo and Hopi partitioned lands.

"Their action threatened to undermine Hopi sovereign authority to use and control its own lands and threatened the implementation of a settlement that took years of compromise between the Hopi and Navajo," Taylor said.

"We want our children to put the Navajo-Hopi land dispute behind them and chart a different history of peace between both tribes."

Hopi elders Dan Evehema and Thomas Banyacya, however, stood with Navajos for decades and supported their struggle to remain on the land.

Before their deaths two years ago, Evehema and Banyacya said the order of the world will be upset and mankind would suffer great calamities if Navajos are forced to relocate.

On Black Mesa, Glenna C. Begay, Navajo, who lives less than two miles from Peabody Coal mine, said the dust in the air, water, soil and plants has made the people sick with respiratory diseases. Ancestral burial sites have been destroyed and precious water is used to "flush coal to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada" by way of coal slurry.

Saying the people have suffered long enough from chemical spills and hazardous waste spills, she said it is time to close Peabody's two coal mines on Black Mesa.

"The beautiful landscape is gone forever."

The Navajo Nation defended mining leases as a means of employment and revenues, with the majority of the tribe's $100 million annual income derived from coal, oil and gas royalties and taxes.

It has filed suit against Peabody, claiming Peabody and two energy providers conspired with a former BIA official to deny the tribe a fair 20 percent royalty rate for coal.

After the Navajo Nation filed the $1.8 billion lawsuit, it was joined by the Hopi Tribe.

Peabody denies the conspiracy, pointing to its charitable contributions and royalty payments, as California's demands for Arizona water and coal-powered electricity increased in 2001.

After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, Navajo President Kelsey Begaye extended his sympathy to Navajo families living on Hopi Partitioned Land. Begaye said the decision was hard to accept, but families have fought valiantly to preserve Diné sacred ways.

"I want to extend my appreciation to the families who were involved in this case and their attorneys for setting forth a great effort to protect our way of life."

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona and Hopi Tribe said eviction of Navajo families who refused to sign 75-year-leases by Feb. 1, 2000, will proceed by court action.

On Black Mesa, Norman Benally appealed for international support in the three-decade long battle. "We have exhausted our strengths to protect our homelands."

Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS) is a group of individuals acting to support the sovereignty of the indigenous people affected by mining activities on Black Mesa, who face forced relocation, environmental devastation, and cultural extinction at the hands of multi-national corporations, and United States and tribal governments. http://www.blackmesais.org