Help Dineh Elders Survive Winter in Black Mesa

Firewood and Water Resilience Camp

Summary: An annual fall wood hauling camp is around the corner and we are preparing! The camp is a week or 2 weeks long push to distribute firewood, food, and supplies to resisting families of Black Mesa, Dinetah.

Let me tell you why this matters so much. The Firewood and Water Resilience Camp isn’t just a gathering—it’s a lifeline for Dineh families in Black Mesa who’ve been resisting forced relocation and colonial violence for over 40 years. These elders depend on us to bring them firewood, food, and supplies to survive the bitter desert winters. When you join this effort, you’re standing in solidarity with people who have fought for their sovereignty for decades. This year, we’re working to bring even more volunteers from the Bay Area to make sure these families can stay warm and continue their resistance. Your support, no matter how small, makes a real difference. Will you join us?

Brief Background: The Black Mesa Solidarity Network (BMSN) is a decentralized volunteer network from around Turtle Island. They work directly with Dineh living in the territories resisting relocation. They do this by fundraising, hosting sheep herders, and organizing spring sheep shearing camp and winter wood hauling. This work supports these elders in continuing to live in their traditional ways since the government has abandoned them. Dineh families of Big Mountain and surrounding communities are in their 4th decade of defending Dineh sovereignty and resisting forced relocation.

It is wintertime in the high desert region known as Dził Yijiin, which means the people struggle to gather firewood, haul water, tend to their animals, stave off hunger, and carry out many other vital land-based activities. All of these lifeways are a means of direct resistance to enforced relocation. In November, during the week of ThanksTaking, we'll be supporting the elders resisting forced relocation in Black Mesa, a territory embroiled in a land dispute between Navajo and Hopi caused by colonial forces like Peabody Coal and the United States. The land is Hopi Partitioned Land in the middle of the Navajo Nation reservation. The elders we support are by and large Navajo or Dineh. BMSN has a camp that is primarily focused on cutting and collecting wood to prepare for winter among other tasks, and every year volunteers come out to the reservation (5-6 hours north of Phoenix, Arizona) to help. This solidarity work has been going on since the 80s by groups like Earth First and AIM. It is not advertised; people come up through relation. Over 100 people come up from across Turtle Island (aka the states) every year, and many have been coming up for years and years. We like to think of it as summer camp for revolutionaries in the winter. There are 40 families that are directly supported by this camp. This means that 40 families will be able to heat their homes throughout the cold desert temps that tend to get down into the teens from December - February.

Guided by the hearts and prayers of the people, they extend an invitation to the international solidarity community to consider traveling to their remote homelands in so-called Northern Arizona to directly support the resistance.

My name is Glo and I am an organizer with Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro (BLMPM) where I have been working on this project for the past 4 years. I recently relocated from Phoenix, Az to Oakland, Ca while still working remotely for BLMPM. As one of the main organizers for this project over the years it is very important to me to maintain my connection to this work as it is a fundamental part of my personal connection to decolonization. This year, BLMPM in collaboration with BMSN is working to bring people up from the Bay Area in an effort to increase the amount of wood production possible this winter. We are raising funds to support the travel expenses and needs of the individuals going to provide support. The money will go directly to travel expenses and equipment needed to make this winter preparation for the Dineh elders possible.

This work is out of solidarity, to boost families living in daily resistance to colonial violences, as they prepare for the cold winter ahead. Please share and support how you can. No amount is too small.