BMIS Spring/Summer 2012 Newsletter

[dirty...@riseup.net]

Is this email not displaying correctly?
[1]View it in your browser.
Links:
1.
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bb9ecfdb5d711f67f04ee3551&id=66c5e36eba&e=50dca366f9

Black Mesa Indigenous Support

PO Box 93501 Flagstaff, AZ 86002
black...@gmail.com

Spring/Summer 2012 Newsletter



Thank you for Donations for Impoundments
We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who donated, called
to express concern to the responsible parties, and stayed on the land
for long-term sheep-herding this winter in response to livestock
impoundments on the Hopi Partitioned Lands.

We are strategizing multiple ways to take preventative measures to
avoid emergency impoundments. Please contact us with any ideas you may
have specifically related to impoundment prevention.

UN Testimonies
In late April 2012, BMIS helped raise funds for three elders, two
second-generation resisters, and their family members from the HPL to
travel to Tucson testify in front of the United Nations Rapporteur on
Indigenous Issues, James Ayana. Their testimonies included statements
about the violence of the relocation law (PL 93-531), the horrors of
harassment and livestock impoundment, the effects of Peabody’s dirty
coal mines on their ancestral homelands, and the devastating potential
of the Water Resettlement (S2109), as well as the importance of
livestock, sacred sites on Black Mesa, and traditional weaving. Many
thanks to those of you who donated to the travel expenses, attended the
testimony, or offered up housing for those travelling. We will have
recordings of the testimonies on our Website soon.

Youth Gathering on Black Mesa
This year, BMIS is working to bring more visibility and support to the
amazing efforts led by community members to involve Dineh youth in a
projects which connect them to elders, to their language, culture,
lifeways, spiritual practices and legacies of resistance. We’re working
to expand our network and come up with more creative ways to support
these efforts and welcome ideas, new contacts, and stories and models
from gatherings such as the survival camps. Thanks to everyone who has
supported and will continue to do so.
On memorial day weekend, BMIS helped fundraise to support six Dineh
youth to come out to Black Mesa/Big Mountain and spend time with
elders, herd sheep, shear sheep, and chop wood, among other projects.

Human Rights March
On April 29th, almost 200 people marched in the streets of Flagstaff to
demand justice and demonstrate the unity that exists amongst the people
of Dinetah/Arizona. Local organizers from Táala Hooghan Infoshop and
all over Arizona came to stand up for human rights in this unifying
rally. Many issues were showcased: the continued repression of the Big
Mountain/Black Mesa resisters, the degradation of the San Francisco
Peaks and the continued movement to stop the desecration, SB1070 and
unjust immigration laws, Transgendered and Two Spirit rights, the
militarization of the AZ borders, and racist public school policies.


Initial Victory Against S2109
Dine Water Care, a coalition of Indigenous organizations, organized
meetings, attended hearings, generated and passed around petitions,
held protests, raised awareness and generated enough outcry to prevent
Kyl and McCain from forcing through a settlement that would have meant
signing away water rights and guarenteeing NGS access to water to
continue its operations. The Navajo Tribal Council voted the bill
overwhelmingly on July 5 to reject the settlement agreement and Senate
Bill 2109, introduced by U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, and its companion bill,
H.R. 4067.

Big Mountain community members did outreach to their communities to
seek their guidance on these issues. BMIS helped fund a van to get
community members from Big Mountain and Black Mesa to the council
meeting. Along with community members from the rest of the Navajo
Nation and Hopi Tribe, Black Mesa residents echoed the call, “Water is
sacred. Water is life.”

Currently, organizers have made gains getting activists, academics,
tradtional elders and other experts elected to a newly created water
task force. Dine’ Water Rights along with affiliated organizations
Dine’ Care, To’ Nizhoni Ani’, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Council
Advocating an Indigenous Manifesto, ECHOES, and other community members
responsible for defeating the bill, call for continued work to uphold
aboriginal water rights.Visit www.dinewaterrights.org for further
details.

Protect the Peaks Teach In

A teach-in to address protection of the San Francisco Peaks will be
held on Saturday, August 18, 2012 at the Native American Cultural
Center on Flagstaf's Northern Arizona University's campus.The teach-in
will feature panel discussions, workshops, and small group sessions
addressing topics such as: Sacred Sites, Environmental Justice, Legal
Cases, Water Issues, Legislative Action, Civil Disobedience, & more.
"This event is an important opportunity for community members,
students, & activists to learn and share information about the ongoing
environmental & social justice struggles to protect the sacred San
Francisco Peaks and how to get more involved." said Daryl Marks
(Dine'), an organizer of the teach-in and volunteer with
Protectthepeaks.org.

BMIS Collective Updates

Of the BMIS collective, Derek, Berkley, and Liza recently moved to
Flagstaff to be closer to Black Mesa and to build closer relationships
with the supporter community and HPL residents.

BMIS is working with other networks of climate and environmental
justice and anti-racist allies to incorporate issues of decolonization
into conversations about sustaining movements for justice for the long
haul. In that vein, members of BMIS attended a training hosted by the
San Francisco-based Catalyst Project, a center for political education
and movement building in Phoenix and will attend an anti-racist
organizing training hosted by Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) in
Baltimore in November.

Updates Continued

We’d like to welcome our newest member, Hallie Boas to the BMIS
collective. Hallie is of eastern European and Spanish/Portuguese Jewish
descent from the New York City area and is moving to Austin, Texas in
the fall for graduate school. For the past five years, she coordinated
Global Justice Ecology Project’s (GJEP) New Voices on Climate Change
initiative, which underscored and amplified the voices of the
Indigenous Peoples’ social movements, policy experts and other
participants in international economic summits and climate
negotiations. She brings this wide breadth of experience to the BMIS
collective and wants to continue this work to amplify the crucial
voices of the HPL resister community.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dixie Pauline for more
than a decade of work with BMIS and her continued support and
dedication to the Black Mesa struggle. We wish Dixie the best in all of
her endeavours.

[2]follow on Twitter | [3]friend on Facebook | [4]forward to a friend
Copyright © 2012 Black Mesa Indigenous Support, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or have
previously expressed interest in our organization.
Our mailing address is:
Black Mesa Indigenous Support
P.O. Box 23501
Flagstaff, AZ 86002

Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp
http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=bb9ecfdb5d711f67f04ee3551&afl=1
[5]unsubscribe from this list | [6]update subscription preferences
Links:
2. http://www.twitter.com/BMISAZ/


3. #


4.
http://us4.forward-to-friend1.com/forward?u=bb9ecfdb5d711f67f04ee3551&id=66c5e36eba&e=50dca366f9
5.
http://blackmesais.us4.list-manage2.com/unsubscribe?u=bb9ecfdb5d711f67f04ee3551&id=f670fc18d4&e=50dca366f9&c=66c5e36eba
6.
http://blackmesais.us4.list-manage1.com/profile?u=bb9ecfdb5d711f67f04ee3551&id=f670fc18d4&e=50dca366f9