Diné struggles | Aftermath of EPA Colorado mine waste spill leads to youth crowdsourcing project

















Tsé Bitʼaʼí  (Shiprock). Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 






Moderator’s Note: On August 5, 2015, the EPA reported
that crews at a defunct gold mine in southern Colorado—the Gold King Mine near
Silverton—accidently released more than three million gallons of highly
contaminated water into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River. The
‘River of Souls’ is a critical source of agricultural water rights for Native
farmers from the Ute
and Navajo
(Diné) nations.





It has been
widely reported that the EPA has tried to get Native farmers from the Navajo
Nation to sign official forms that are ‘waivers’ releasing the agency from
direct lawsuits for damages, in what can only be considered a brazen display of
environmental racism in a clear example of a violation of the Obama
Administration’s own commitment to Executive Order 12898 (see, for e.g., the
August 12 report in Aljazeera-America).





Despite
this ecological catastrophe, one of the most serious and damaging mined waste
‘accidents’ in recent Colorado history, the Diné people are demonstrating, yet
again, their resilience and creativity under the difficult political, legal,
and economic conditions associated with white settler colonial regimes.





One of the
most inspiring examples of this resilience and creativity is the recent
launching of a very important ‘crowdsourcing’ project led by Northern Diné
Youth Committee, a grassroots group that sustains a 7-acre organic and native
crops farm near Shiprock (Tsé Bitʼaʼí).





I am
posting the call for emergency rescue help that was prepared and is being
circulated by Northern
Diné Youth Committee.





Here is the
link to the crowdsourcing site. I invite all my readers and followers to make a
donation, no matter how small, it will help!





Go to:  http://www.gofundme.com/ShiprockYouthFarm















All photos courtesy of Northern
Diné Youth Committee    


Navajo Youth Farm Emergency Rescue

CALL FOR RESPONSE TO
FARMING IMPACTS OF COLORADO MINED WASTE SPILL





We are a
Diné (Navajo) youth group looking to transition to drip-irrigation after the
Animas-San Juan River mine spill contaminated our farm's water supply. Our farm
is situated on about 7 acres in the Shiprock community on the Navajo
Reservation.





The
plants need:





- drip
irrigation tubing


- drip
nozzles and attachments


- large
water tanks


- tools,
equipment, and water





As the
Northern Diné Youth Committee, we volunteer in various community projects, as
well as plan events and trips of our own. Our farm is one way that we chose to
immerse ourselves in planting, which is a fundamental part of our Navajo way of
life.





We hope
you will support us as we work to save our corn, squash, beans, and more.





Ahéhee'!





More
information:





Resolution
of the Northern Diné Youth Committee





https://www.dropbox.com/s/s8pkfn91cedunu2/farm%20resolution%281%29.pdf?dl=0





Gold King
Mine Incident





http://www2.epa.gov/region8/gold-king-mine-release-emergency-response





Navajo
Nation Declaration of State of Emergency





http://www.navajo-nsn.gov/News%20Releases/OPVP/2015/aug/President%20Begaye%20Announces%20U.S.%20EPA%20Will%20Be%20Responsible%20for%20Toxic%20Spill.pdf





New
Mexico Declaration of State of Emergency





http://www.nmdhsem.org/uploads/PressRelease/e79116c4a639442ab9d1aea05ac23120/Governor_Susana_Martinez_Declares_State_of_Emergency_1.pdf





Notice to
Affected Residents





























































































































http://www.nnemaildist.navajo-nsn.gov/Portals/35/Announcements/2015/aug/FINAL%20precautionary%20notice.pdf?ver=2015-08-07-163416-000






















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AgriCulture | Autonomía Zapatista and Agroecology

Image
Maíz resistente. School for Chiapas . Moderator’s Note: As part of a series on the 20 th anniversary of the Zapatista movement for Indigenous autonomy, we offer this first and original unauthorized translation of a report by Gallo Téenek. The report originally appeared in Spanish on Regeneración Radio in October 2013 and offers a “social perspective” on the meaning of direct democracy as constituted by Zapatista communities in the form of caracoles – which literally translates as “Snails” and figuratively alludes to the spiral shape of the snail shell. Don Durito and other Others might explain this as a symbol for the organizational form of Indigenous nurturing of deep place-based knowledge and also a nest or nido offering protective harbor for the social, biological, and cultural life of the organism and community.   Téenek desribes Zapatista grassroots institutions of collective action through a lengthy depiction of the Oventic Junta de Buen Gobierno or Good Government Coun...
Read more

GEO Watch | Consumer Education Monsanto-Style

Image
Internet troll. Credit: Splitreason . World Food Prize winner outlines shift in strategy FOCUS ON CONSUMERS NOT JUST GROWERS Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | May 2, 2014 Robert Fraley, Monsanto’s Chief Technology Officer and this year’s winner of the dubious World Food Prize, recently admitted that Monsanto made a huge strategic error by focusing educational outreach on growers and ignoring consumers. An interesting analysis of this admission is presented in an overlooked report by Joan Faus published in the April 12, 2014 edition of El País   ( Spain).  Faus quotes Fraley admitting the error: “In the last twenty years almost all of our communication activities and education have been focused on farmers and it went very well. But the mistake we made is that we did not put enough effort toward consumer education.” Faus attended a press conference hosted last month by Fraley in St. Louis with invited members of the European press corps. The extended session revealed much about th...
Read more

Maize Culture | Costa Rican Government Decrees Corn as Cultural Heritage

Image
Leyenda de origen.  Source: Radio Luzmar Declaration includes traditions, agriculture, customs, ideas, flavors and colors TRANSGENIC PLANTINGS ARE UNRESOLVED THREAT Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | July 28, 2014 We are all familiar with the idea that many ethnic and indigenous communities self-identify as “corn cultures” in the Americas. The most familiar case is that of Mexico since ancient civilizations proclaimed themselves to have arisen from maize. Indeed, the Mayan creation stories include the poetic account of how first woman and man are molded from white and yellow corn plants. One eloquent proponent of the concept of Mexico as a corn culture is Roberto Rodriguez whose doctoral studies focused on Centeotzintli, the traditional environmental knowledge and ritual practices associated with maize as a sacred plant. Lauren Baker – in a fabulous new book, Corn Meets Maize – is another scholar who observes that in indigenous communities, the cultivated fields of maize constitute a ...
Read more