Black Mesa Spring Caravan Dinner-Movie Fundraiser! March 8th – 7pm

Please come through for good food, good people, and a good informative documentary to support! Be sure to check the Wish List to bring any of the items listed to the fundraiser.  http://blackmesacoloradocaravan.wordpress.com/materials-wish-list/

Fall Caravan 2011 Call for Support

Join the Caravan in Support of Indigenous Communities Who Are in Their Fourth Decade of Resisting Massive Coal Mining Operations on Their Ancestral Homelands of Big Mountain & Black Mesa, AZ. November 19th – 26th, 2011

Communities of Black Mesa Have Always Maintained That Their Struggle for Life, Land, & Future Generations Is For Our Collective Survival.

Greetings from Black Mesa Indigenous Support,

We are excited to once again extend the invitation from Dineh resisters of the Big Mountain regions of Black Mesa in joining a caravan of work crews in support of the on-going struggle to protect their communities, ancestral homelands, future generations and planet that we all share. These communities are in their fourth decade year of resistance against the US Government’s forced relocation policies, Peabody Coal’s financial interests, and an unsustainable fossil fuel based economy.

Participating in this caravan is one small way in supporting these courageous communities who are serving as the very blockade to massive coal mining on Black Mesa. The aim of this caravan is to honor the requests and words of the elders and their families. With their guidance we will carry their wishes & demands far beyond just the annual caravans and link this struggle with social, environmental, and climate justice movements that participants may be a part of.

By assisting with direct on-land projects you are supporting families on their ancestral homelands in resistance to an illegal occupation and destruction of sacred sites by Peabody Energy. We will be chopping and hauling firewood, doing minor repair work, hauling water, road maintence, offering holistic health care, and sheep-herding before the approaching freezing winter months.

Indigenous nations are disproportionately targeted by fossil fuel extraction & environmental devastation;Black Mesa is no exception. Peabody Energy, previously Peabody Coal Company (the world’s largest private-sector coal company) is continuing to scheme for ways to continue their occupation of tribal lands under the guise of extracting “clean coal”.

Peabody’s Black Mesa mine has been the source of an estimated 325 million tons of greenhouse gasesthat have been discharged into the atmosphere.* In the 30+ years of disastrous operations, Dineh and Hopi communities in Arizona have been ravaged by Peabody’s coal mining. As a result of the massive mining operation, thousands of families have had their land taken away and been forcibly relocated. Peabody has drained 2.5 million gallons of water daily from the only community water supply and has left a monstrous toxic legacy along an abandoned 273-mile coal slurry pipeline. Furthermore, Peabody has desecrated & completely dug up burials, sacred areas, and shrines designated specifically for offerings, preventing religious practices. The continued mining by Peabody has devastating environmental and cultural impacts on local communities and significantly exacerbates global climate chaos.

Relocation laws have made it nearly impossible for younger generations to continue living on their homelands. Institutional racism has fueled neglect and abandonment of public services such as water, maintenance of roads, health care, and schools. Many of the residents in the regions of Black Mesa that we’ll be visiting are elderly and winters can be extremely rough on them in this remote high desert terrain. Due to lack of local job opportunities and federal strangulation on Indian self-sufficiency, extended families are forced to live many miles away to earn incomes and have all the social amenities (which include choices in mandatory American education).

It is increasingly difficult for families to come back to visit their relatives in these remote areas due to the unmaintained roads and the rising cost of transportation. As one of their resistance strategies they call upon outside support as they maintain their traditional way of life in the face of the largest relocation of indigenous people in the US since the Trail of Tears.

Drawing on the inspiration of the elders & families of Black Mesa, they offer us a transformative model for the strategic, visionary change that is needed to re-harmonize our relationships with one another and with the planet. But too often Black Mesa becomes invisibilized as other human rights, environmental justice and climate justice struggles are showcased and highlighted in both the mainstream & progressive media.The truth is that all of these struggles are interconnected and central to our collective survival is the need to increase the visibility of struggles such as Black Mesa, a decades-long indigenous-led resistance to the fossil fuel industry, in related movements for human rights, environmental, climate & social justice.

May we stand strong with the elders & families of Black Mesa in their declaration that “Coal is the Mother Earth’s liver” and join them in action to ensure that coal remains in the ground! Families of Black Mesa are determined to repair and end the devastating impacts of colonialism, coal mining, and forced relocation of their communities, sacred lands, and our planet. False solutions to climate change and large scale coal extraction must be stopped!

Forging links between people grounded in movements based on social and ecological justice and the Black Mesa resisters (who are also grounded in these movements) is essential to address the disproportionate problems of poverty and disenfranchisement to achieve social, environmental, & climate justice.

On-Going Resistance To The Continued Desecration Of The Sacred San Francisco Peaks:

The struggle to protect the San Francisco Peaks is part of an international movement to protect sacred sites and is intricately connected with the struggle to protect the sacred places of Big Mountain & Black Mesa, AZ. The San Francisco Peaks has considerable religious significance to thirteen local Indigenous nations (including the Havasupai, Dine’ {Navajo}, Hopi, and Zuni.) In particular, it forms the Dine’ sacred mountain of the west, called the Dook’o’oosłííd.

In recent months the San Francisco Peaks has been desecrated by Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort with permission from the US Forest Service by cutting 40 acres of pristine forest and laying miles of pipeline to spray artificial snow made of sewage water that would be bought from the City of Flagstaff. In response, there has been a convergence on the peaks to protect what has yet to be desecrated and create a long term form of protection for the Mountain including demonstrations, encampments, multiple lockdowns, further litigation, and tribes filing a human rights complaint with the United Nations.

If you’re visiting Black Mesa, then you will be likely be traveling through the vicinity of the holy San Francisco Peaks which is located just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. Stay posted for updates & how you can support the protection of the Peaks at http://www.truesnow.org and http://www.indigenousaction.org

Support the Action in Stopping the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) “States & Nation Policy Summit” in Scottsdale, AZ; Nov 30 – Dec 2, 2011:

ALEC- a conglomerate of legislators and corporate sponsors is planning to meet for their “States and Nation Policy Summit” just outside of Phoenix, AZ (Scottsdale) from November 30-December 2, 2011 . “The group’s membership includes both state lawmakers and corporate executives who gather behind closed doors to discuss and vote on draft legislation. ALEC has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months for its role in crafting bills to attack worker rights, to roll back environmental regulations, privatize education, deregulate major industries, and pass voter ID laws”.** Arizona politicians and the private prison industry, under ALEC, finalized the model legislation which became SB 1070, the harshest anti- immigrant measure in the country and a license for racial profiling.

Thanks to ALEC, at least a dozen states have recently adopted a nearly identical resolution asking Congress to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to stop regulating carbon emissions (which they recently did): http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/7/smog_v_jobs_is_obama_admin”.

A Peabody Energy representative is on the Corporate Board of ALEC. Kelly Mader, the Vice President of State Government Affairs at Peabody was given ALEC’s 2011 Private Sector Member of the Year Award. In these closed door ALEC meetings, it is no wonder that corporations such as Peabody serve state legislators their agendas on legislation which directly benefit their bottom line. Mader is due to attend the ALEC meeting in Phoenix.

Families of Black Mesa may need supporters to watch over their home and animals so that they can attend the ALEC demonstrations. Please contact BMIS if you can help with this as well as additional logistics such as funds, transportation, and lodging. Thank you!

The struggles on Big Mountain are directly connected to the struggles on the San Francisco Peaks and the movement to stop ALEC. Stay tuned for possible actions and protests in support of struggles to protect ancestral homelands & sacred sites, to stop corporate profiteering off the exploitation, suffering and degradation of us all -particularly indigenous peoples, migrants, the working class, prisoners, and essentially all of Mother Earth.

“Arizona Says NO to Criminalization, Incarceration, & Corporate Profiteering at the Expense of Our Communities” http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com/ *
For additional info on ALEC: http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

Ways you can support:

• Join the Caravan: Connect with a coordinator or create a work crew in your region. Contact BMIS so that we can connect you with others who may be in your region. So far caravan coordinators are located in Prescott, Phoenix and Flagstaff, AZ; Denver, CO; Santa Cruz, CA; Eugene and Portland, OR; and the San Francisco’s Bay Area. Meeting locations and dates will be posted on the BMIS website & our facebook page as coordinators set them up. This caravan will be in collaboration with the annual Clan Dyken Fall Food and Supply Run on Black Mesa. It is of the utmost importance that each guest understands and respects the ways of the communities that we will be visiting. Prior to visiting Black Mesa, all guests must read and sign the Cultural Sensitivity & Preparedness Guide: http://blackmesais.org/tag/cultural-sensitivity/

•  BMIS LIST OF REGIONAL COORDINATORS FOR THE FALL 2011 CARAVAN

  • Flagstaff, AZ: Beth elavely@gmail.com
  • Albuquerque, NM: Derek  blackmesais@gmail.com
  • Prescott, AZ: Ian Christopher grey.sky.magpie@gmail.com 
  • Santa Cruz, CA: sheepandsagebrush@gmail.com
  • Bay Area, Ca: bayareacaravan@gmail.com
  • Denver, CO: Shannon rezchix@gmail.com & Leah  misskittiedee@hotmail.com
  • Maine: Emma emma@beehivecollective.org
  • Minneapolis, MN: Kelly nancydrew@riseup.net
  • Eugene, OR: OR4BlackMesa@gmail.com

• Host or attend regional organizational meetings in your area: We strongly urge participants to attend or organize regional meetings. Due to the large number of caravan participants in past years, we are limiting the number to just under 100 this fall. Please register early and plan on attending meetings held in your region. There you’ll engage in political education work and help regional coordinators plan logistics, fundraisers, and collect donated food and supplies ahead of time.
• Trucks, chainsaws, & supplies are integral to the success of the caravan. The more trucks we have, the more wood, water and other heavy loads we can transport. Axes, mauls, axe handles, shovels, tools of all kinds, organic food, warm blankets, and did we mention trucks? — either to donate to families or to use for the week of the caravan–are greatly needed on the land to make this caravan work! We’ve got a 501-C3 tax-deductible number, so if you need that contact us. Please keep checking the BMIS website for an ongoing list of specific requestsby Black Mesa residents.
• 

• Challenge Colonialism! One of our main organizing goal’s is to highlight anti-colonial education within all the regional meetings leading up to the caravan. In addition to the Cultural Sensitivity Guide, we encourage you to bring articles, films, and other resources to your regional meetings & host discussions that further our collective understanding for transforming colonialism, white supremacy, genocide, & all intersections of oppression.We have started a resources list, which is now on the website.  Feel free to share with us any resources that you like so that we can build upon this list & strengthen our growing support network! In addition please check out our Points Of Unity.
• Fundraise! Fundraise! Fundraise! As a grassroots, all-volunteer network, we do not receive nor rely on any institutional funding for these support efforts, but instead count on each person’s ingenuity, creativity, and hard work to make it all come together. We are hoping to raise enough money through our community connections for gas, specifically for collecting wood and food for host families, and for work projects.   Host events, hit up non-profits, generous food vendors, and folks in your own networks. An article that we want to highlight is ‘8 Ways to Raise $2,500 in 10 Days’. Check our website soon for our this document, fundraising guidelines, a donation solicitation template letter, and more. You can Donate here: http://blackmesais.org/donate/

• Stay with a family any time of the year: Families living in resistance to coal mining and relocation laws are requesting self-sufficient guests who are willing to give three or more weeks of their time, especially in the winter. Contact BMIS in advance so that we can make arrangements prior to your stay, to answer any questions that you may have, and so we can help put you in touch with a family. It is of the utmost importance that each guest understands and respects the ways of the communities that we will be visiting. Prior to visiting Black Mesa, all guests must read and sign the Cultural Sensitivity & Preparedness Guide: http://blackmesais.org/tag/cultural-sensitivity/

Give back to the Earth! Give to future generations!

May the resistance of Big Mountain and surrounding communities on Black Mesa always be remembered, and supported!

With love,
Black Mesa Indigenous Support

Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS) is a grassroots, all-volunteer collective committed to supporting the indigenous peoples of Black Mesa in their resistance to massive coal mining operations and to the forced relocation policies of the US government. We see ourselves as a part of a people powered uprising for a healthy planet liberated from fossil fuel extraction, exploitative economies, racism, and oppression for our generation and generations to come. BMIS stands with the elders of Black Mesa in their declaration that “Coal is the Mother Earth’s liver” and joins them in action to ensure that coal remains in the ground.

Water and Power: a variety show belefit for Black Mesa

Milch de la Maquina, the Horse Latitudes, Contortion, Music, Super Dance Troop, Story reading, Juggling and more…

Navajo Tacos available

Support the indigenous communities of Black Mesa in their struggle for life, land, and future generations on their ancestral homelands of Black Mesa, Arizona from massive coal mining operations.

In collaboration with Colorado Permaculture Convergence (www.growhaus.com)

Held at the Growhaus – 4751 York (parking at 49th and York)
Sunday Sept 25th 5:30pm
$5-10 sliding scale

Spring Equinox Black Mesa Benefit!!

Sat March 19th, 7-11pm

Held at “Color” – 1029 Santa Fe

Navajo Tacos! Silent Auction of Art, Jewelry, and more!

Music: Paul Cisneros
More Than This
All Liver No Onions

Come eat and be merry on the last day of winter!

5-10$ at the door (no one turned away)

Benefit will support the Colorado Caravan to Black Mesa, Ariz., and assist the Native American delegation to the UN permanent forum on Indigenous issues.

Black Mesa Colorado Caravan Spring Work Party, April 8th-16th 2011

The dates for the 2011 BMCC Spring Caravan are here! We will be leaving on Saturday, April 8th and returning the following Saturday, the 16th. This group will be smaller than our fall caravan, which consisted of more than twenty people from Denver and around the state. Currently, BMCC is looking for more supporters to make our spring caravan strong. Specifically, would like to reach out to self organized individuals with skills in areas of carpentry, building, gardening, permaculture and farming or who are engaged in other or similar struggles for social justice. Interested supporters should be motivated to go to bi-monthly meetings (which will likely become weekly as we approach leaving time), fundraise, outreach, educate themselves about the history of resistance and repression at Big Mountain and organize supplies.

The snow will be melting away when May rolls around and it will be time to start planting corn and other vegetables for the growing season. Other likely work projects include wood chopping, sheepherding and working on sustainable building projects that residents have requested. More projects are likely to emerge as we get closer to the date. Please email blackmesacoloradocaravan@gmail.com if you are interested!

Call to Support from BMIS

Join The Caravan in Support of Indigenous Communities Resisting Massive Coal Mining Operations on Their Ancestral Homelands of Big Mountain & Black Mesa, AZ

These Front-Line Resistance Communities, in their Struggle for Life, Land, & Future Generations, Have Always Maintained That Their Struggle Is For Our Collective Survival.  May They Be Supported Now and Always!

November 20-27, 2010

Greetings from Black Mesa Indigenous Support!

We are excited to extend the invitation from Dineh resisters of the Black Mesa region to join BMIS’s caravan to support their ongoing struggle. On behalf of their peoples, their sacred ancestral lands and future generations, these communities continue a 36 year long struggle against the US Governments forced relocation efforts, Peabody Coal’s financial interests, and an unsustainable fossil fuel based economy. They continue trying to halt and repair the devastating impacts of colonialism, coal mining, and forced relocation of their communities, sacred lands, and our planet. As one of their resistance strategies they call upon outside support as they maintain their traditional way of life in the face of the largest relocation of indigenous people in the US since the Trail of Tears.

By assisting with direct, on-land projects you are supporting a broad movement for climate justice and families right to stay on their ancestral homelands in resistance to an illegal occupation.  The oil spill in the Gulf highlighted the dangerous and unsustainable reality of our fossil fuels based economy. Another example of this dangerous reality comes from Black Mesa. The recently approved carbon capture storage project will capture the coal firing plant emissions and use clean water to pump the carbon an estimated 9,000 feet into the ground to be stored near their major aquifer. False solutions to climate change and large scale coal extraction must be stopped! We propose participating in this caravan as one small way in supporting these courageous communities who are serving as the very blockade to coal mining on Black Mesa!

Supporting Indigenous leadership and creating models for support that are based on the priorities and visions of their communities is a major goal of BMIS. This year we used funds to bring organizers from Black Mesa to the U.S. Social Forum, to San Luis Valley as well as Farmington, NM for anti-coal organizing, and to Portland for an anarchist Christian gathering.

This years caravan will be held at some amazing organizers’ homes so we are excited to focus on movement building, strengthening resistance movements and support networks that will make victories possible not only on Black Mesa, but in communities all across the world.  We are creating a space for sharing updates from ‘The Land’ and for dialogue about the connections between Black Mesa and various struggles in which they are interconnected. We encourage regional organizing and fundraising to support the participation and leadership of people most impacted by interlocking systems of oppression. We are prioritizing the participation from people who are deeply invested in and on the front-lines of movements for social, economic, environmental justice in their communities, as they will have the most to offer and gain from gathering, talking with, and working with each other and the elders. We are also encouraging the participation of returning supporters or those who plan to come before or stay after the caravan, as well as anyone who’s planning to be involved long term. We look forward to seeing how caravan participants can integrate their work, their lessons, and of course the communities’ stories  and visions into their work and life!

The U.S. Government began relocating Black Mesa residents from their ancestral homelands in 1974 to pave the way for Peabody’s mining. Families are in their FOURTH DECADE resisting this travesty. And, since relocation laws have made it nearly impossible for younger generations to continue living on their homelands, many of the residents are elderly and winters can be extremely rough in this remote high desert terrain. The aim of this caravan is to honor the elders’ requests and, under their guidance, carry out direct, on-land support: chopping and hauling firewood, doing minor repair work, offering holistic health care and sheep-herding before the approaching cold winter months arrive.

“The Big Mountain matriarchal leaders always believed that resisting forced relocation will eventually benefit all ecological systems, including the human race,” says Bahe Keediniihii, Dineh organizer and translator. “Continued residency by families throughout the Big Mountain region has a significant role in the intervention of Peabody’s future plan for Black Mesa coal to be the major source of unsustainable energy, the growing dependency on fossil fuel, and escalating green house gas emissions. We will continue to fight to defend our homelands.”

Peabody Energy’s Disastrous Coal Mining Operations on Black Mesa:
At this moment, decision makers in Washington D.C. are planning ways to continue their occupation of tribal lands under the guise of extracting “clean coal,” with false solutions to climate change such as carbon storage and cap and trade carbon offsets.  In 30 years of disastrous operation, Peabody’s coal mining has ravaged Dineh and Hopi communities by forcibly relocated thousands of families, draining 2.5 million gallons of water daily from the only community water supply, and has left a toxic legacy along an abandoned 273-mile coal slurry pipeline. Peabody’s Black Mesa mine has been the source of an estimated 325 million tons of CO2 that have been discharged into the atmosphere. Coal from the Black Mesa Mine could contribute an additional 290 million tons of CO2 to the global warming crisis!*

As a result of hard and strategic work from the Black Mesa resistance community, Black Mesa Water Coalition,  To Nizhoni, The Forgotten People, the Sierra Club and others, Peabody’s mine expansion project is temporarily slowed.  As a way to honor and continue that work, now is the time to strengthen networks of direct support to the resisters, to ensure that when they try again for the expansion, resistance communities are prepared and resilient.

Peabody Coal Co. plans to seize another 19,000 acres of sacred land beyond the 67,000 acres already in Peabody’s grasp at Black Mesa.  Peabody Energy, previously Peabody Coal Company, is the world’s largest private-sector coal company, supplying 10% of U.S power and 2% of worldwide electricity.  Peabody’s coal mining will exacerbate already devastating environmental and cultural impacts on local communities and significantly add fuel to the fire of global climate chaos!

We are at a critical juncture and must take a stand in support of communities on the front lines of resistance now! Indigenous and land-based peoples have maintained the understanding that our collective survival is deeply dependent on our relationship to Mother Earth. Victory in protecting and reclaiming the Earth will require a broad and multi-pronged movement.

BMIS wishes for this caravan to be an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to listen and work with the families of Black Mesa to generate more awareness that relocation laws and coal mining need to be stopped, that these communities deserve to be free on their ancestral homelands.  We hope to come together to strengthen our solidarity and find ways to work together to protect Black Mesa and our Mother Earth for all life.

Ways you can support:
Join the Caravan and Be Self-Sufficient!  By connecting with a regional coordinator and joining one of the volunteer work crews from your region, you are expected to be adequately prepared and self-sufficient prior to your visit on Black Mesa, which is a very remote area in a high desert terrain. There is no electricity, no central heating, and no running water. You must come prepared, and bring everything you will need.  There could be extreme weather, and it will be cold especially at night. Each participant will need to bring food, water, outdoor camping gear (although we will likely be staying inside with families), very warm clothing, and appropriate attire for hands-on manual work.    Coming equipped with chainsaws, trucks, shovels, axes and mauls dramatically increases your effectiveness as a work crew!

Read and sign the Cultural Sensitivity and Preparedness Guide: All direct, on-land supporters of Black Mesa are required to thoroughly read over and sign the Cultural Sensitivity and Preparedness Guide. This document is an in-depth guide that contains important information that you will need prior to and during your visit with a host family on Black Mesa. This guide gives you crucial information about how to be adequately prepared, background of the struggle and current his/herstory, safety and legal issues, cultural sensitivity, code of conduct, and a suggested list of what to bring with you. We want to ensure that each person is informed about the agreements and basic requests from these communities, that each person is safe and accounted for, and that we have your emergency contact info should an emergency arise. It is of the utmost importance that each caravan participant understands and respects the ways of the communities that we will be visiting. Please print out and bring this guidebook with you during your visit to Black Mesa http://blackmesais.org/tag/cultural-sensitivity/

Pre-register: To help us estimate how many people to expect as well as to help us make necessary accommodations for all. For participants coming from areas with BMIS designated regional coordinators, please register with them – see our website.

Host or attend regional organizational meetings in your area: We strongly urge participants to attend or organize regional meetings. Caravan coordinators are located in Prescott, Phoenix and Flagstaff, AZ; Denver, CO; Santa Cruz, CA; Eugene and Portland, OR; and the San Francisco’s Bay Area. The meeting locations and dates will be posted at the BMIS website and Face Book as coordinators set them u p.  This caravan will be collaborating with the annual Clan Dyken Fall Food and Supply Run on Black Mesa.

Raise Awareness: about Black Mesa and the caravan. You can obtain literature from BMIS.

Organize fundraisers: At the weeks prior to every caravan, grassroots supporters from all over throw benefits to raise the much-needed funds, for such things as supplies, wood, and direct, on-land people-support. Please contact BMIS for guidelines prior to any fund-raising in the name of Big Mountain and Black Mesa.

Collect supplies: Chainsaws, axes, mauls, axe handles,  shovels, tools of all kinds, organic food, warm blankets, and especially trucks –either to donate to families or to use for the week of the caravan–are greatly needed on the land to make this caravan work! Check back on the BMIS website for an ongoing list of specific requests from the land.

Donate: We are not receiving nor relying on any institutional funding for these support efforts, but are instead counting on each person’s ingenuity, creativity, and hard work to make it all come together. We are hoping to raise enough money through our community connections for gas, specifically for collecting wood and food for host families, and for work projects.

Stay longer than the caravan with a family on Black Mesa: Families living in resistance to coal mining and relocation laws are requesting self-sufficient guests who are willing to give three or more weeks of their time, especially in the winter.  By coming prepared to stay longer, you can conserve resources by making 2 trips out of one. If you are returning for your second caravan, please consider this, as one of our goal is to create connections between families and support.   Since it is crucial to have good help out there and not create more work for the families, all supporters are required to read and sign the Cultural Sensitivity Preparedness Guide. Contact BMIS in advance so that we can make arrangements prior to your stay, to answer any questions that you may have, and so we can help put you in touch with a family.

The communities request support throughout the year: If you cannot attend the caravan and still want to support the resistance, please contact BMIS! We will provide support options or help facilitate your stay with a resisting family any time through the year!

We can’t wait to see you in November! Give back to the Earth! Give to future generations!
Black Mesa Indigenous Support

Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS) is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization dedicated to working with and supporting the indigenous peoples of Black Mesa who are targeted by and resisting unjust large-scale coal mining operations and forced relocation policies of the US government in their struggle for Life and Land.

Address: P.O. Box 23501, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
Voice Mail: 928.773.8086
Email: blackmesais@gmail.com
Web: www.blackmesais.org
Facebook: Black Mesa Indigenous Support