Guardians Of Water

Guardians of Water

December 31st marks many great events in history, from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, to the resignation of Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia in 1999, it therefore, comes as no surprise that yet another great event is to transpire on December 31 of 2005, not over seas, but in the heart of America's very own Hopi Reservation. For the 31st of December is to mark the closure of Peabody Coal Company's Mohave Generating Station, a station that has exploited, daily, over 3.3 million gallons of pure groundwater for the past 30 years from the Hopi and Navajo Aquifer, slurrying their coal harvest 273 miles north to Laughlin, Nevada. However, in those 30 years, Mohave Generating Station and Peabody Coal Company have provided more than 42 percent of the Hopi Tribal income, over 8 million dollars annually, enabling the Hopi tribe to establish educational scholarships for its youth, better healthcare for its elderly, and compensation for its war veterans. Yet with the approaching closure date of the Mohave Generating Station such programs funded by the mining royalties stand to be cut altogether. "Why [then,] cut the hand that feeds you?" a question asked by a concerned Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. in his October Tribal Press release. The answer is two-fold the first half, rests in a charge given to the Hopi since the beginning of time:

In their mythology the Hopi believe their people emerged from the third world into this world through a hole in the ground called the Sipapuni, believed to been located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The Hopi emerged fleeing from the destruction of the third world that was a result of human recklessness. Once here in the Fourth World, they encountered Maasaw, the Guardian of this land who granted them the use of Mother Earth as long as they promised lived humble, honest lives as he did, and swore to treat the earth and all that dwelled upon it with the utmost respect. With this lifestyle, like him, the Hopi would be the stewards of the land, and guardians of the water.

Thus, it is this scared charge and humble way of life that has remained and has undoubtedly been upheld in the wanted closure of the Mohave Generating Station in order to preserve their water. The Second reason for the mine's pressured closure was concern for the environment, for not only was the pumping of the aquifer water to slurry coal an affront to Hopi culture but and affront to mother earth as well. For 30 years Peabody was allowed to operate without any meaningful input from the people whose lives were so drastically altered, the Hopi and Dinй, by the company's activities. I was only until the wells, washes, and ancient springs began to run dry, cracks and fissures began to appear across reservation landscape and the centuries old cultures of the Hopi and Dinй that depended so heavily upon the pristine aquifer for religious, cultural and day-to-day uses, began to suffer greatly that action was finally taken. The Black Mesa Trust, a grassroots organization founded in 1999 by the Hopi people, initiated efforts to educate Black Mesa residents and the wider public about the impacts of Peabody's pumping and prompted tribal and public action to close the Black Mesa Mine.

Though many contemporary officials fear the effects the closure of the mine may have on the Hopi People and tribal programs, the Hopi Government has examined a wide array of solutions. Ergo, the Tribal Council, since notice of Mohave Generating Station's closure, has for a third time pursued the gaming referendums, believing that the profit to be made from gaming would more than replace the funding lost.

However, since the defeat of the 2004 gaming referendum in a 1,051 to 784 vote, consistent with the 1995 vote against gambling, the voice of the Hopi people has been ever constant in its opposition to gaming.

Still, the opening of casinos on Native American land is tempting, particularly since it brings jobs and money to impoverished native nations like Hopi, especially in lieu of the new revenue that is needed with Mohave's foreclosure. Of the more than 500 tribes in the United States, only 145 have gambling agreements with their respective states. Still, casinos on those reservations were a $17 billion industry in 2003, up $2 billion from 2002. "[As] gaming is making money off other people's bad habits, and because the Hopi way says we should not use other people's bad habits to benefit [we refuse to pursue gaming as a means of income]," said Former Tribal Vice Chairman Caleb Johnson. In this way the Hopis can serve as an example to other tribes and to states looking for easy revenue by resorting to gambling. With high rates of alcoholism and drug abuse among many Native Americans, the Hopis' choice to avoid another vice, in their eyes, is a virtue that cannot be ignored "in its caution Hopi culture, is arguably more deep-seated and religious than that of some other tribes," added Johnson, "but it is the right way of life, the life we promised to live."

Further solutions from Tribal Officials include the prospect of economic development. Although, as growth and development on the Hopi Reservation and other Hopi lands may have unintended impacts that when considered cumulatively, may adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare of the people, there is a great voice of opposition by traditionalist and grassroots organizations like the Black Mesa Trust.

Because impacts of development may include inadequate and overcrowded housing; incompatible adjacent land uses; excessive infrastructure development costs; air and water pollution; contamination of soil; accumulation of wastes and hazardous substances; excessive runoff, erosion, and sedimentation; congestion of public ways; flooding, fire, and other safety hazards; shortages of adequate water supplies, sanitary facilities; and the destruction of wildlife and their habitats, many Hopis dare not support any efforts of economic development.

What many traditionalists find to be the error of Tribal government is the seeming lack of cultural preservation. "Hopi should be a place where Hopi culture and religion are strong, where sacred sites are protected, where culturally and environmentally sensitive development occurs, and where the land is looked after," said Vernon Masayesva, Former Chairman of the Hopi Tribe and Executive Director of the Black Mesa Trust. "A healthy and peaceful Hopi Nation is my 'vision'. What the Black Mesa did by pushing for the closure of Mohave Generating Station was not an attempt to destroy Hopi's future, but to preserve our most precious resource, water--Kuyi"

As stated in the Preamble of the Hopi Constitution, the Tribal

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