Navajo and Hopi families residing on Big Mountain and the surrounding area of the Black Mesa in northern Arizona may be forced to relocate as a new senate bill, S1003 "The Navajo Hopi Land Settlement Act Amendments of 2005," goes before Congress. If passed, the bill will permanently displace the Navajo and Hopi, and, according to a press release by the Black Mesa Indigenous Support organization, "relieve the federal government of any further responsibility for the relocated people." Sponsored by Senator John McCain, S1003 was initiated at nearly the same time as Peabody Coal, the world’s largest coal company, expressed an interest in the Navajo land. Peabody Coal plans to expand its strip mining into this area, where billions of tons of low-sulfur coal are located. The last major relocation bill, Public Law 93-531, passed in 1974, enacted the forced relocation of approximately 10,000 Navajo and 100 Hopi peoples onto a new reservation. The legislation also mandated that the land be partitioned into exclusive Hopi and Navajo sides, fueling tensions between the tribes.
Black Mesa Indigenous Support urges the public to stop the relocation bill by contacting the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. For more information or to send a letter to Congress, visit http://www.blackmesais.org/2006/10/relocation-legislation-senate-bill-1003-the-navajo-hopi-land-settlement-act-of-1974-amendments-2005/.
