KEE WATCHMAN'S STATEMENT

 

Working Group on Indigenous Populations 19th Session, 23 to 27 July 2001

Statement by Kee Watchman, Cactus Valley/Red Willow Springs Sovereign Community, Big Mountain, Arizona

Item 5 : Review of recent developments: General Statements, including on land issues, education, health

Thank you Madam Chair, all distinguished leaders and all my relations.

I am a representative of the very last traditional Dineh (Navajo) whom are being forced to remove from their very own ancestral homelands under the US law, such as the 1974 Relocation Act PL 93-531 and the 1996 Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act S1973.

Madam Chair, the indigenous Dineh ancestral land rights and our religious rights, human rights and fundamental freedoms are not being respected under the US law. Today at Big Mountain Arizona some of our Grandmothers and their grandchildren are facing forced removal in the near future because they refused to accept and sign the Hopi Tribal Government's and the US Government's law.

Since 1 February 2000 we are living under the jurisdiction of the Hopi Tribal Council and violations of our human rights have increased since then. We are being denied to practice our religion. Just recently at the beginning of a Sundance ceremony, five of our people have been arrested and fined on the charge of not having a permit to hold this ceremony, for trespassing and for disobeying Hopi order. Among these five people were elderly women who were being physically brutalized by Hopi Police Forces. 300 to 500 citations were given to participants and observers of 500USD.

The Hopi Tribal Government has also intensified livestock impoundments thereby reducing our subsistence base and threatening the survival of our people and culture. All this happened on ancestral Dineh homelands now under jurisdiction of the Hopi Tribal Government. The UN General Assembly just passed its first resolution protecting religious sites such as these past may. The physical removal of the Dineh, land-based peoples, is a form of genocide under the 2nd article of the UN 1948 Geneva Convention on Genocide.

I would like to inform this body that we are in the process of mapping our ancestral land including sacred sites with the help of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission in order to have our ancestral lands and sites legally recognized and protected under UN General Assembly resolution for the protection of religious sites.

Therefore, Madam Chair, the indigenous Dineh People respectfully ask for a visit and investigation of the ongoing problems by the Special Réparateur on the violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous Peoples.

In conclusion, Madam Chair, I would like to thank you on behalf of the Dineh people for all the work you have done to promote the rights of indigenous peoples. And especially for your visit to our lands 1988.

Thank you Madam Chair.

Working Group on Indigenous Populations 19th Session, 23 to 27 July 2001

Statement by Kee Watchman, Cactus Valley/Red Willow Springs Sovereign Community, Big Mountain, Arizona

Item 6: Standard-setting activities, including a review of indigenous peoples' relationship with natural resource, energy and mining companies

Madam Chair, I would like to state my deepest concerns regarding the devastation of both the environment and life and culture of the indigenous peoples, Dineh and Hopi, of Black Mesa, Arizona, as a result of irresponsible energy practices. The energy plan proposed by the US administration contributes to the ecological and cultural destruction of this region.

Numerous sources of documentation have shown that Peabody Western Coal Company's operations on Black Mesa, which holds the largest coal deposit in the US is a main driving force behind the relocation of the Dineh people. Peabody's operations result in the damage of our peoples' health, the destruction of irreplaceable religious shrines, ancestral graves/burial sites, and other sacred areas, the decline of the aquifers, the contamination of natural springs and of the vegetation that our animals use for food and the herbs for our medicine.

Scientific data compiled by the US Department of Interior shows that Peabody's operations appear to be causing or contributing to a range of groundwater-related problems with profound environmental, cultural and religious implications for the region's indigenous communities. The Dineh and Hopi people of Black Mesa are both threatened by Peabody's removal of over 1 billion of their sole source of pristine, potable groundwater per year to slurry coal 287 miles to southern Nevada.

When coal mining by Peabody Western Coal Company started in 1963, our people at BM were never consulted. We only became to know of it when they started installing their equipment and when the deal between the Tribal Governments and the Company was done. There has not been an evaluation of the environmental, social and cultural impacts prior to the start of the coal mining activities. Of the Royalties our Tribal Governments receive from these operations, the people living in the affected areas never see anything. We, who are living in direct vicinity to the coal mine live without electricity and have to travel more than 40 miles a week to get water. We are the ones affected most by the pollution caused by mining activities.

After more than 25 years of struggle against Peabody's operations which caused forced relocation of our people there has not been an adequate recognition of our human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In conclusion, Madam Chair, we respectfully request this international body and the US and Hopi Tribal Governments as well as Peabody Western Coal Company to recognize the UN General Assembly resolution on the protection of religious sites.

And once again, thank you Madam Chair and all my relations.