BIG MOUNTAIN, NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA -- On Febuary 2nd and 3rd, at the home of Glenna Begay, a tradtional Dineh elder, hearings were held by Mr. Abdelfattah Amor of the UN Commission on Human Rights, and several UN affiliated NGO's, investigating charges of the forced relocation of traditional Dineh people from their homes, religious persecution against those who practice traditional Dineh beliefs, and environmental degradation of traditional Dineh lands by Peabody Coal Company.
The hearings were the result of a complaint filed by the Dineh in 1997 charging the US Federal Government with human rights violations. The hearings are an attempt to pressure the US Federal Government to repeal Public Laws 93-531 and 104-301 which have legalized the denial of access to water, livestock confiscation, the denial of the right to gather firewood for the Dineh to heat their homes in winter -- even in cases of life threatening illness, and the denial of the right of the Dineh to make improvements in their housing. The Dineh filed the complaint because the US Federal Government has consistently blocked any attempt by the Dineh to address their grievances in a US court.
The Dineh also hope that the United Nations will formally charge the United States with human rights violations.
British-owned Peabody Coal Company (henceforth, PCC), the world's largest privately-held coal company, operates the Black Mesa/Kayenta strip mine in the heart of the Black Mesa region of the Dineh reservation. Over 4,000 burial and sacred sites have been destroyed as a result of strip mining. There is no protection given to Dineh burial grounds? and sacred sites. Their religion, which is land based and site specific, is the foundation of their way of life. The Dineh state that Public Laws 93-531 and 104-301 were written specifically to promote PCC's interests in the region.
Mr. Amor and the visiting NGO's heard the testimony of Dineh elders from all over the Black Mesa region of the Dineh reservation. They gave their accounts of their forced eviction or the eviction of their neighbors from their land, the demolition of theirs and their neighbors homes, as well as accounts of harassment by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. The hearings for both days lasted well into the night.
Elders from the neighboring Hopi reservation also gave their testimony. They verified many of the statements of the Dineh elders, especially the accounts of the increasing scarcity of water in the region.
The Dineh and Hopi reservations sit on top of one of the largest aquifers in the South West. PCC has been using massive amounts of water from the aquifer to operate coal slurry pipelines that transport coal to Las Vegas and Southern California without replacing the water they use, which is a requirement of US mining regulation. The result of these mining violations has meant that well's are rapidly running dry all across the Dineh and Hopi reservations.
The Hopi elders also came to publicly dispel the myth of a Dineh/Hopi land dispute, which the traditional Dineh and Hopi say has been manufactured by the Hopi and Dineh tribal councils in an effort to prevent solidarity among the Hopi and Dineh in this struggle. The traditional Dineh and Hopi regard their tribal councils as nothing more than puppets of the US Federal Government who merely rubber-stamp any proposal made by the Federal Government and its corporate backers.
Well over one hundred Dineh supporters from all over the United States also came to attend the event, and donate food, clothing and their labor. Members of Free Radio Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) and Radio Clandestina (Los Angeles, CA) set up a temporary micropower radio station, Free Radio Dineh, for the UN visit. For three days, interviews and commentary from Dineh resistors as well as testimony from the hearings were broadcast to residents of the Black Mesa/Big Mountain region. The members of FRB and RC hope to set up a permanent micropower station for the traditional Dineh in the near future.
The event was universally considered to be a success, and the Dineh are hopeful that they will see a positive result from the hearings. In his opening remarks, Mr. Amor told those in attendance at the hearings, "I will listen with an open mind and an open heart". Whether the UN General Assembly will listen with open minds and hearts and have the strength to charge the United States with human rights violations remains to be seen.