Solidarity in Australia with the Indigenous peoples of the Black Mesa : Melbourne Indymedia

Solidarity in Australia with the Indigenous peoples of the Black Mesa

Monday, October 16 2006

Solidarity in Australia with the Indigenous peoples of the Black Mesa
End the Genocide!

9/10/06

Around 30 people descended upon Peabody’s office in Newcastle today in protest against Peabody’s practices of Cultural and Eco Genocide on the homelands of the Navajo and Hopi peoples in America and their interest in doing the same on Australian Lands.

Members of the United Nations of South-Pacific and people from over 5 different countries including the Hunter Valley occupied the office to demand that the continued disregard of cultural and environmental heritage end and companies such as Peabody Coal cease practices which jeopardize the future of the planet.

“Climate change now is a global issue and the global community must now act to protect what is left of our precious environment. These coal companies have no place in our future the way they desecrate the earth and our sacred homelands” said Arthur Ridgeway who is a traditional owner of the Pambalong area that now makes up Newcastle.

The group presented Peabody with a signed petition which demanded an end to the continual displacement of the Traditional owners of Dinetah, where the current Peabody operated coal mine in South West America has so far forcefully evicted over 15000 people from there land. The group also demanded an end to the desecration of buriel grounds, sacred sites, precious flora and fauna which make up the Bio-region, and an end to the expansion of Coal Mining in America, Australia and all over the world due to its climate change impacts.
The group also demanded Peabody cancel there bid on Excel Coal which is an Australian Coal company they are trying to merge with. “Peabody’s practices in America have shown that they have no regard for the earth their and they will do the same here. We will not let the desecration of indigenous cultures continue, here in Australia or overseas.” Arthur said.

The action was very peaceful and the group of protesters left once the letter was promised to be sent to Peabody Head office in America and to be replied to the group demands. The action received newspaper, radio and television media.

Office occupation movie clip & photos at: http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/51018.php

Peabody is part of Mormon Inc:

Mormon settlers & conflict with the Ute Indians
http://www.blackhawkwarutah.com/mission_statement.htm
In the 1950's, the Mormon church implemented the Indian Placement Program (IPP) in which Indian children would live with Mormon families during the school year and then go back to the reservations during the summer. A Navajo girl named Joanne lived with my mother's family for
two years while she was in junior high. "I think part of it [the IPP] was to teach them American Culture," my mother says. "And the schools were really bad on the reservations back then. I think they're trying to improve things on the reservations themselves nowadays. I just
don't think people really realized back then what they were doing."
The IPP was abandoned some time in the 70's.

http://www.wordsasweapons.com/shoshonemkh.html

Peabody Coal Company

" the 1950s, lawyers seeking self-enrichment at the expense of the tribes, insinuated themselves, with BIA approval, as counsel for tribal governments formed through their efforts. John Boyden, a Salt Lake City lawyer, was retained as Hopi counsel. Boyden, a Mormon
Deacon, also represented the Peabody Coal Company and was counsel for the Mormon Church, which owned a controlling interest in Peabody Coal.
(Thus, Peabody eventually gained subsurface rights on exclusive Hopi territory for a fraction of fees paid elsewhere, and continues to lease mineral rights in Navajo/Hopi territory to this day.) Attorney
Norman Littell was hired by the Navajo Tribal Council. His contract provided him with 10 percent of coal revenues. Both lawyers were also motivated by statutory fees of 10 percent in Indian Claims Commission
(I.C.C.) cases, seeking damages for wrongful taking of native lands.
Only after accepting settlements were the tribes informed of the real purpose of the I.C.C.: to settle land claims by paying a pittance and thereby foreclose actions to recover lands wrongfully taken."

http://www.blackmesais.org/overview.htm

http://www.manataka.org/page649.html

"A People Betrayed
Recently discovered documents indicate that the lawyer who represented
the Hopi Tribe in crucial negotiations with Peabody Western Coal
Company was working for the mining company at the same time"

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/1997-05-01/feature_full.html

"The Mormon Church is by far the most numerically successful creed
born on American soil and one of the fastest growing anywhere. Its
U.S. membership of 4.8 million is the seventh largest in the country,
while its hefty 4.7% annual American growth rate is nearly doubled
abroad, where there are already 4.9 million adherents. Gordon B.
Hinckley, the church's President--and its current Prophet--is engaged
in massive foreign construction, spending billions to erect 350
church-size meetinghouses a year and adding 15 cathedral-size temples
to the existing 50. University of Washington sociologist Rodney Stark
projects that in about 83 years, worldwide Mormon membership should
reach 260 million."

"The church's material triumphs rival even its evangelical advances.
With unusual cooperation from the Latter-day Saints hierarchy (which
provided some financial figures and a rare look at church businesses),
TIME has been able to quantify the church's extraordinary financial
vibrancy. Its current assets total a minimum of $30 billion. If it
were a corporation, its estimated $5.9 billion in annual gross income
would place it midway through the FORTUNE 500, a little below Union
Carbide and the Paine Webber Group but bigger than Nike and the Gap."

http://lds-mormon.com/time.shtml

http://www.mormonstockindex.com/msi/index.shtml

http://www.rickross.com/reference/mormon/mormon56.html

http://www.morgannews.us/bus02.html

http://noni.worldwidewarning.net/UtahMLM.aspx