Durango Caravan to Black Mesa

The indigenous peoples of Black Mesa, AZ are in their fourth decade of protecting their communities, ancestral homelands, and future generations from massive coal mining operations & forced relocation policies initiated by the U.S. Federal Goverrnment. For more than 30 years of disastrous operations, Peabody Energy’s coal mines have ravaged Dineh (Navajo) and Hopi communities in Arizona, and The Federal Government has forcibly relocated 14,000 people from their ancestral homelands. This constitutes the largest relocation of Indigenous people in this country since the Trail of Tears in 1883, and it continues to this day.  Additionally, during the operation of the recklessly exploitive coal slurry (1968-2005), Peabody pumped more than one billion gallons of water per year from the Navajo Aquifer ( the only water source for the Hopi and Western Navajo), substantially reducing the availability and accessibility of drinking water for Black Mesa families.   Peabody makes billions of dollars annually from the mine, while the traditional peoples living on the land being mined or relocated because of the mine never see a cent of the profits made.  In the late 1980’s the United Nations described the case of the forced relocation as one of the most flagrant violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights in this hemisphere.


We are requesting donations to help fund direct, on-land support for indigenous elders on Black Mesa.  A work party from Durango, Colorado will be hauling out food, supplies, and people (including 2000 lbs. of beans donated by Adobe Milling!) for the week of November 22nd to the 29th and engaging in work projects for several families: hauling water, cutting and chopping wood for the coming cold of the remote high-desert terrain, cleaning and  repairing sheep corals, and herding sheep.  Funds not used to acquire and transport food and supplies will be contributed directly to the families.

Raising funds has become even more urgent in the recent weeks.  Hopi Rangers have impounded sheep herds from Black Mesa families and arrested several individuals.  Costs to release livestock from impoundment can be up to one thousand dollars, an inaccessible sum for indigenous elders living traditional lifestyles as sheepherders, weavers, silversmiths and farmers.  The elders of Black mesa rely on their livestock for their subsistence and well-being; Clarence and Mary Lou Blackrock report sitting up all night, unable to sleep for fear of their sheep being taken. 

To support our caravan please donate on this page.

To donate to efforts to retrieve livestock from impoundment please follow this link:  https://www.everribbon.com/sheep-emergency-fund

To get involved with our caravan, or if you'd like to donate food/tools/supplies please contact us at : [email redacted] or [email redacted]

For more info on background of forced relocation please visit:

 http://supportblackmesa.org/2000/10/a-brief-history-of-relocation-on-black-mesa    and

http://supportblackmesa.org/1998/06/the-black-mesa-syndrome-indian-lands-black-gold/

The video is from: http://www.blackmesafilm.com/ Directed by Camille Summers-Valli