[SustainableTompkins] Fire Up: Black Mesa and Peabody Coal Activism: Coming to your town!!

[Daniel Roth]

Please spread the word...

Dan

------ Forwarded Message
From: charles <charles at dianasgrove.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 01:15:41 -0500
To: charles <charles at dianasgrove.com>
Subject: Back on the road

Good evening Friends and Family
 
 I will be supporting the ongoing efforts at Black Mesa to stop Peabody Coal
Company from destroying peoples homes and ancient sacred sights.

I will be traveling with a group 9 activists who have dubbed ourselves FIRE
UP! 
 
For the month of November we will be helping locals Navajos continue to live
on the land. Our work will likely be a mix of repairing hogans, planting
seeds and herding goats along interviewing folks and making a short
documentary. Prior to and at the end of our time on the reservation we will
be doing outreach and education in major cities around the US.
 
To do all of this we are seeking donations. We estimate our costs will be
around $3000 and would like to raise an additional $6000 to be given to
local Navajo groups to continue resisting the destruction of Peabody Coal
Company.

A more comprehensive explanation of what we will be doing and how you can
make a tax deductible donation to this important work is below.
 
Thank you for your support!
 
wild and free
Charles williams
 

----

Fire UP! Work Crew 
Support indigenous communities on Black Mesa, AZ.
Fire Up! means to "Look Alive Out there", "show some spirit", git ta work,
git goin', give it yer best effort, git on up and out there.
Fire Up! Work Crew to Black Mesa is a team of 8-10 seasoned activists who
have agreed to come together for the month of November to pool knowledge,
experiences, stories, and effort toward supporting the resisters on Black
Mesa.
Fire Up! Goals:
Education: To share information about indigenous struggles in the Black Mesa
region. Including connecting the dots between Black Mesa and other dynamic
struggles around the world.
Action: Through physical labor we will support Navajo elders and families as
they resist being driven from their ancestral homes.
Media: We will document our efforts and create a short documentary
summarizing the current situation on Black Mesa, to be used for outreach.
Community Building: Both on Black Mesa and in route we will build
understanding and alliances between individuals and organizations, in an
attempt to strengthen the network of progressive thinkers and link related
issues.
Fundrasing: We will collect money to cover our expenses and donate to Black
Mesa Indigenous Support (B.M.I.S.) to support those involved in the ongoing
resistance to relocation.

Who is ³THE FIRE UP! WORK CREW²
We are all 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. Members of FIRE UP! have worked
with groups such as: Common Ground Hurricane relief center in New Orleans,
Reclaiming Pagan Cluster, PMS Media, Social Detox, Sri Lanka Tsunami
support, Mountain Justice Summer mountaintop removal, Rising Tide, NYC Indy
Media, Books through Bars, Guerilla Griots, Save the Peaks, Root Activist
Network of Trainers, International Solidarity  Movement Israel/Palestine and
many more.

CALANDAR
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

We estimate this month of service to cost about $3000 and would like to
raise an additional $6000 to support the continued resistance to Peabody
Coal Company and unjust policies that force relocation of native people from
ancestral homelands.
If you are able and would like to support us financially you can
Make checks to: Charles Williams
HC 2 Box 109 
Bunker, MO 63629
 
Or

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 
 
Paypal (also Tax deductible) at http://rantcollective.com/article.php?id=29
If you would like to donate tools there is a wish list attached at the
bottom of this page.
Thank you for your support.
Fire up! out there,
Wild and Free
Charles and all the members of Fire Up!
Brief History of Black Masa
In the mid 70¹s Congress passed Public Law 93-531, which allowed Peabody
Coal Company to gain access to Black Masa. 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.
Wish List 
shovels, axes, hatchets, work gloves, warm socks made with wool or cotton,
blankets in good condition made with natural fibers. nails, crow bar
Black Mesa Indigenous Support www.blackmesais.org
<http://www.blackmesais.org/>
PMS Media  www.pmsmedia.org <http://www.pmsmedia.org/>
Social detox http://socialdetox.blogspot.com
<http://socialdetox.blogspot.com/>
Save The Peaks www.savethepeaks.org <http://www.savethepeaks.org/>
Rising Tide http://risingtide.org.uk <http://risingtide.org.uk/>
Mountain Justice Summer www.mountainjusticesummer.org
<http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/>
Guerrilla Griots www.guerrilla-griots.org <http://www.guerrilla-griots.org/>
Books Through Bars www.booksthroughbars.org
<http://www.booksthroughbars.org/>
NYC Independent Media www.nyc.indymedia.org <http://www.nyc.indymedia.org/>
Common Ground Katrina Relief www.commongroundrelief.org
<http://www.commongroundrelief.org/>
Alliance of Community Trainers  http://rantcollective.com/
<http://www.rantcollective.org/>