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Fire UP!
A group of nine activists calling themselves, "Fire UP", are working throughout the month of November to
support the ongoing efforts at Black Mesa, Arizona to "stop Peabody Coal Company from destroying peoples homes and ancient sacred sights, " says Fire UP member, Charles Williams. Fire UP is focused on helping local Navajos continue to live on the land. The group's work will be a mix of repairing hogans, planting seeds and herding goats, as well as interviewing folks and making a short documentary. Prior to and at the end of their time on the reservation they will be doing outreach and education in major cities around the US. Fire UP! goals are: Education - To share information about indigenous struggles in the Black Mesa region. Action - Through physical labor, support Navajo elders and families as they resist being driven from their ancestral homes. Media - Document efforts and create a short documentary summarizing the current situation on Black Mesa. Community Building - Both on Black Mesa and in route, build alliances between individuals and organizations.
To do all of this will cost around $3000 and Fire UP aims to raise an additional $6000 for local Navajo groups to keep organizing for their religious freedom.
Fire Up is comprised of long time activists with a deep dedication to active engagement that creates social and environmental change. Though we have worked individual on many diverse projects we understand that all of our issues are rooted in the same system of oppression.
FIRE UP CALENDAR
November 1-8: Fire Up! Will traveling on a veggie oil powered Bus to Black Mesa, AZ
Fire Up! Will stop in Ithaca, Chicago, Madison, Iowa City, St. Louis, and Santa Fe
Each stop will include: News about indigenous and related issues, raising funds, gathering of tools, and collecting veggie oil to power the bus.
November 9: - Flagstaff, AZ: orientation and supply stop
November 10-24: WORK with local Dineh (Navajo) out on Black Mesa, AZ
November 25-29: Travel south for more outreach! Fire Up! Will Tour Flagstaff, Prescott, Tempe, and Tucson, Education all along the way
November 30: - Closing Circle
For a Tax deductible donation makes checks to:
Alliance for Community Trainers
1405 Hillmont St.
Austin, TX 78704
With Fire Up! in the item line
or
Brief History of Black Mesa according to Charles Williams, Fire UP organizer:
In the mid 70's Congress passed Public Law 93-531, which allowed Peabody Coal Company to gain access to Black Mesa. As a result well over 14,000 Dineh (Navajo) and a hundred-plus Hopi were forced from their ancestral homelands. Along with stealing this sacred land from the indigenous who have lived there for thousands of years, Peabody also stole their water. The mine uses over three million gallons a day, and 1.4 billion gallons a year of pristine, potable groundwater, to slurry coal. This gluttonous over-consumption of water has depleted the groundwater to such an extent that many local community wells have dried up. In an already dry region the loss of a well is a devastating and life-threatening event.
Beyond the present threat to life of the native peoples, many of their cemeteries, their burial & sacred sites, religious structures and Anasazi ruins have been destroyed at Black Mesa to make way for coal mining. People are not only restricted from access to sacred sites, but many religious sites, burial grounds and homes stand threatened with destruction.
The United Nations described this case of forced relocation as one of the most flagrant violations of indigenous peoples' human rights in this hemisphere. More importantly, this is the first time the United Nations ever formally investigated the United States for the violation of religious freedom.