Dear Big Mountain Supporters,
This article appeared on the front page of the Navajo-Hopi
Observer on May 5,
1999. The Navajo-Hopi Observer is a weekly paper.
Posted by,
Marsha Monestersky
Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation
Navajo -Hopi Observer
Wednesday, May 5, 1999
Religious Intolerance in the U.S.
NEW YORK, (New York)-Peggy Francis Scott, Leonard Bennally
and Kee Watchman
were among those who presented oral statements on indigenous people
and
religious intolerance in the United States before delegates of
the 55th
Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva,
Switzerland last month.
Abdelfattah Amor, a UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance
who
visited Black Mesa in February of 1998, presented the commission
with a
report linking human rights violations and religious intolerance
in the
United States, China, Pakistan, Iran, Greece, Sudan, Australia
and Germany.
During this visit to Arizona, Amor investigated charges of
religious and
human rights violations by the United States government against
the Dine
people in Black Mesa, located in northeastern Arizona. The special
rapporteur is an independent expert who reports only to the Commission
and
the UN General Assembly.
The complaint, filed by several traditional Dine people
to the UN Human
Rights Commission, accused the United States of destroying 4,000
ancient
Anasazi ruins and sacred burial sites. Additionally, the complaint
charged
that U.S. federal laws have denied the people access to water,
legalized the
confiscation of their livestock, prevented the gathering of firewood
to heat
their homes, and prohibited any housing improvements.
During his visit to Black Mesa, Amor took testimony from residents.
Several
NGO (non-governmental organization) representatives were invited
by the
traditional Dine to witness Amors visit. In his report,
Amor observed that
the U.S. Supreme Courts jurisprudence points to no
enforceable safeguards
for worship at sacred sites.
Peggy Francis Scott gave oral testimony before the commission on April 13:
Dine sacred sites intermingle with our homes, livestock,
and farms. Today,
more than 12,000 Dine have been relocated from their homes,
plucked away
from their livelihood and their sacred ritual and burial sites.
Our religion
binds us inseparably to our land, which we believe is saved.
Coal mining
violates the integrity of our land and therefore tears apart every
fabric of
our religious identity.
The Navajo relocation program instituted by the U.S.
government deprives our
people of ancestral lands and their inherent property rights.
It also severs
our sacred tie to our land and denies us the venue to practice
our religious
ceremonies.
The unsustainable environmental practices of runaway
mutli-national mining
corporations inflict environmental racism upon us. Current U.S.
governmental
laws such as the Native American Grave Protect and Repatriation
Act and the
Antiquities Act remain to be enforced.
The U.S. government must recognize that no territorial
settlement should
ever deprive Indigenous Peoples of their right to remain on their
traditional
land or to practice their religion thereupon. Our land is sacred
and we do
not believe it should be expropriated form us. The U.S. government
cannot
and must not subordinate our survival as a people to economic
interests whose
dividends we do not partake from. The tribal councils operate
on behalf of
these economic interests more than in support of Indigenous Peoples
interests.
Leonard Bennally gave oral testimony on April 19. In
1996, he said, the
U.S. Congress passed a law requiring our final eviction (from
the Hopi
Partition Land) by February 1, 2000. Some of our people were
offered leases
that allowed us to remain as tenants upon our own ancestral land
with no
civil rights and without a means of survival. those who refused
to sign, and
the thousands of us that the government does not count, face forced
eviction
in the next 10 months.
...Resistance to impoundments is met severely. The current
campaign is for
the permanent elimination of our herds and the ultimate removal
of our
people....
It is time the United States focused attention on its
own marginalized
peoples living in conditions not unlike many Third World countries.
For over
three decades, the U.S. has forbidden us to make any repairs on
our homes,
even to repair broken windows. Water sources are fenced, capped
off and
dismantled. Firewood is confiscated in winter and law enforcement
officials
harass and threaten us with eviction and jail sentences. there
are many of
us who are targeted for attacks who are over the age of 65, some
are even 90.
We live in terror, not knowing our fate the next morning.
Over the past 25 years, some 14,000 Dine were forcibly
relocated in what
the former director of the Navajo Hopi Indian Relocation Commission,
Leon
Berger called a tragedy of genocide and injustice that will
be a blot on the
conscience of this country for many generations. The current
and sole site
identified for our relocation is the New Lands, an area near Chambers.
This
land is contaminated by radioactive waste, the largest spill in
U.S. history.
The thousands moved into cities, for which Dine lack survival
skills, are
thrust into a circle of homelessness, illegal drug use, alcoholism
and
suicide.
In his written report, Amor concluded that legal protections
for the practice
of religion by Native Americans in this country were insufficient.
As far as legislation is concerned, while noting advances
in recent years in
the instruments emerging from the legislature and the executive
which are
designed to protect Native Americans religion...the special
rapporteur
identified weaknesses and gaps which diminish the effectiveness
and hinder
the application of these legal standards.
Because of economic and religious conflicts affecting
in particular sacred
sites, the special rapporteur wishes to point out that the freedom
of belief,
in this case that of the Native Americans, is a fundamental matter
and
requires still greater protection.
He further recommended Native Americans cultural values
be taken into
account when laws were written. In the legal sphere Native
Americans
system of values and traditions should be fully recognized, particularly
as
regards the concept of collective property rights, inalienability
of sacred
sites and secrecy with regard to their location.
And about Black Mesa in particular, the special rapporteur
calls for the
observance of international law on freedom of religion and its
manifestations.
Kee Watchman gave this statement before the Commission on Human Rights:
I am the spokesperson for the traditional Dine
(Navajo) of Cactus
Valley/Red Willow Springs Sovereign communities at Big Mountain,
Arizona.
I am also a plaintiff in the case of Jenny Manybeads
v. The United States of
American, et al., pending in the U.S. court since 1988, which
concerns our
forced relocation under a law the U.S. Congress passed without
our consent,
resulting in violations of our traditional Dine Indigenous
religion. We
presented testimony about these violations to Mr. Amor when he
visited our
community. The special rapporteur verified in his report that
United States
law and its court system including the Supreme Court remains blind
to our
international human right to practice our religion. It gives
more importance
to the economic interests of big business than to the religious
freedom of
Indigenous Peoples.
Today, the coal mining at Black Mesa continues to desecrate
our sacred
places, including burial sites. We are experiencing impoundments
of our
livestock animals, which are sacred to us and the basis for our
survival and
subsistence. People are being arrested for trying to prevent
the harassment
of our elders who only want to continue their sacred way of life.
The dine demand our right to practice our traditional
religion as we have
since time immemorial, as we were instructed by the Creator, and
to protect
our sacred places from desecration.
Amors report on religious intolerance in the United States
can be found on
the United Nations website at www.un.org. The document number
is
E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.1.