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News :: Miscellaneous |
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DINE' ELDERS ARRESTED AT BIG MOUNTAIN SUNDANCE! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Black Mesa Indigenous Support
Email: blackmesais (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
12 Jul 2001
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Big things happening at Big Mountain. Lots of interesting background at the link to the mainpage of the Black Mesa Indigenous Support group at the end of the article..
For a message from Leonard Peltier in support of the Dine of Big Mountain go to:
http://www.blackmesais.org/peltier.html |
BMIS received this message Thursday morning, July 12th
Dear Supporters of the Dine at Big Mountain,
My name is Eve Schaeffer. I am writing to let you know about an emergency
situation going on right now (7/12) at Anna Mae Camp at Big Mountain.
Yesterday the Hopi Tribal Police confronted several hundred unarmed men,
women and children who are taking part in an intertribal Sundance hosted
by Dine elder Ruth Benaly and led by Joe Chasing Horse. Five grandmothers
were arrested and the Hopi police threatened to arrest everyone else if
the Sundance were to proceed. Two hours before dawn this morning, the tree
was raised to start the Sundance (in violation of the police directive). My
father was at the Sundance and just left this morning to help spread the
word from Flagstaff.
In order to help prevent violence, please call the Hopi Tribal Government
Office as soon as possible: 520-734-3000.
Express your concern for the welfare of the people at Big Mountain, be
polite, and tell them which state you're calling from.
Thank you for your help,
Eve Schaeffer
Thursday AM
Robert Dorman received a phone call from Grace Smith. Five Dineh elders have been
arrested at the sundance.
I have five of their names
Ruth Benally (85 yrs. old) and a medicine woman
Pauline Whitesinger (in her 8o's)
Elvira Horsehearder (62)
Louise Benally
Jan Askie
This info came to Grace from Louise Benally's sister, Sally Tsosie
Grace Smith is very upset that elders sent to jail.
This won't solve the problem, she says. These people must be released.
Thursday 11:15 AM
The Five Elders arrested at the Anna Mae Sundance have been released on there Own Recognizance.
Ruth Benally (85 yrs. old) and a medicine woman
Pauline Whitesinger (in her 8o's)
Elvira Horsehearder (62)
Louise Benally
Jan Askie
They were charged with Trespassing and No Permit. Louis Benally will issue a statement Tomorrow |
See also:
http://www.blackmesais.org/index2.html
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Listen to Coverage of this on Democracy Now |
by Paul
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
16 Jul 2001
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Amy Goodman conducted several interviews on this event on the July 13 edition of Democracy Now. Click the link or use this address (http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow.html)
On Wednesday, Hopi Tribal Police arrested five elders at an intertribal religious ceremony on Hopi Tribal land near Big Mountain, Arizona. They were charged with trespassing and holding a ceremony without a permit.
The arrests are the latest in a conflict over one of the largest coal deposits in North America. On one side are the U.S. government and mining companies, who say neither the coal nor the land belongs to the traditional people, and it should be mined; on the other are the traditional Hopi and Dineh people, who say the coal is located under their ancestral lands, belongs in the earth, and that mining it would destroy both the environment and their way of life.
The Hopi and Dineh people have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Peabody Coal Co. engaged in a conspiracy with the Department of Interior to defraud the tribes and prevent the fair payment of coal royalties to the tribes.
Guests:
Sharon Lungo, supporter of the traditional Dineh and Hopi People.
Robert Meyers, officer of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
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See also:
http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow.html
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