SUPPORTING THE DINEH (NAVAJO)
AMERICAN INDIANS
THE HUMANIST MOVEMENT RESOLUTION
SUPPORTING THE DINEH (NAVAJO)
AMERICAN INDIANS
The Humanist Movement places the human being as the highest value
and is committed to preserve and protect all people, their families
and descendants, their traditional cultures and systems of belief as a right.
Therefore, we:
SUPPORT the protection and preservation of the human rights of the Dineh
People, including their civil and political rights, their health, safety,
welfare, livelihood and preservation of their cultural values, traditional
forms of self-government, and their natural resources;
CALL FOR the enforcement of all rights embodied in Indian treaties and
agreements with the United States, and all other rights to which they are
entitled under the Constitution of the United States;
CONDEMN the forced eviction of the Dineh (Navajo) people living in 45
resisting communities in the Black Mesa region of northeastern Arizona
commenced by the US government to clear the region for expansion of the
worldís largest coal mine, which has resulted in the displacement of over
12,000 Dineh with thousands dead and thousands more homeless;
DENOUNCE the violations of the religious rights of the Dineh People. The
Dineh matriarchs and People have submitted testimonies to the United
Nations detailing desecration and destruction of sacred sites, shrines and
ceremonial hogans - homes that have been bulldozed - and religious
ceremonies violated. They are required to obtain highly restrictive
permits to conduct religious ceremonies done on a daily basis and to
dismantle ceremonial arbors needed to return to the earth. They are denied
the right to bury their dead;
DEPLORE the denial of all services including access to water. Their water
wells have been fenced off, capped off and dismantled while Peabody Coal
Company pumps 1.4 billion gallons of pristine water, from a sole source
aquifer each year, and surface springs and washes run dry;
DEPLORE the denial of the right to housing and to repair their homes which
has been denied for 31 years, and the maintenance of dirt roads that school
buses travel on.
THE HUMANIST MOVEMENT RESOLUTION
SUPPORTING THE DINEH (NAVAJO) AMERICAN INDIANS
Because the Dineh people have exhausted all remedies available in the US
legal system; the prime site for relocation, the "New Lands", is
contaminated from the Rio Puerco uranium spill in 1979 - the largest
radioactive spill in US history - and is not fit for people and future
generations to live there; we:
DEMAND the establishment of a committee to investigate gross and systematic
violations of the Dineh peoples' human, civil, constitutional and religious
rights, and the suffering they have endured to protect and remain on their
ancestral lands. We demand enforcement of all international laws
protecting Indigenous people and their rights to their land and that this
matter receive the urgent attention of the United Nations, specifically the
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities, the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of
Women, the Commission on Sustainable Development and all international forums;
DEMAND a moratorium on evictions, threats of eviction and the bulldozing of
homes, ceremonial hogans, sacred sites and shrines. The moratorium must
include bans on livestock confiscation and other methods used by local
administrations to harass and intimidate the Dineh;
DEMAND the return of all those displaced both internally and externally
living in the New Lands, border towns and homeless.
The Dineh people should be honored and respected. Their teachings about
living as caretakers of the Earth provides a unique insight and should be
an inspiration to all as we strive to protect our global ecosystem. By
sanctioning the destruction of these Indigenous communities, the government
impoverishes itself and compromises the civil rights of all its citizens.
The Dineh People should be protected as living treasures and their land
designated a national heritage site.
Resolved by the Membership of the Humanist Movement
January 1998
E. Anthony Marquez
The Humanist Movement, Council K, New York City
Humanist Neighborhood Center, 210 West 83rd Street, Lower Level, NYC, NY 10024
The Humanist Movement is an international, all volunteer, multi-cultural
network of organizations that develops grass-roots activities in over 300
cities in 76 countires around the world. The aim of the Humanist Movment
is to apply in practice, at the neighborhood and city levels, the ideas and
propositions of Universal Humanism, promoting active non-violence and
non-discrimination in front of fanatacism and violence.