callofthewild
01-01-2007, 06:53 PM
THE RIGHT THING
Resistance leads to human blockade for relatives of Taos poets
By Virginia L. Clark
Diné grandmother, Alice Gilm-ore, has had it. This elder matriarch in her 80s hun-kered down day and night with a handful of friends, mostly women and teen-agers, in the cold, blocking her land’s access to test well-drillers who are proceeding with building the Desert Rock Power Plant before it’s even been approved.
* Desert Rock is still in the environmental review process and has not yet been permit-ted, but Diné Tribal Police reportedly relocated the Gilmore encampment of supporters Friday (Dec. 22). According to Lieutenant Dempsey Harvey of the Shiprock, Ariz., Tribal Police Department, four safety officers carried out a Navajo Nation court order to move Gilmore’s group out of the way of Sithe Global Power LLC representatives.
* According to reports from Gilmore’s relatives in Taos, since the second week of December, Sithe workers reportedly have threatened the resisters with near-miss collisions and other serious harassment.
* “ There’s a few grandmas out there with nothing but a fire, their sheep dogs and their grandchildren. It’s get-ting pretty dire,” said Lyla Johnston in an e-mail Dec.
* 18, describing the human blockade her Diné relatives are creating to keep the developers out. Johnston is a poet and high school student of Taos.
* “ They’re adding insult to injury planning to build a third power plant out on her already decimated land,” Johnston said of the approximately 800-foot-wide, 100-foot-deep and mile-long strip coal mine on Gilmore’s land.
* It may soon be impossible to be green in New Mexico, Taos is already downwind from two coal-fired power plants in the Four Cor-ners area. Desert Rock would add another 13.7 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, 220 pounds per year of mercury and uncounted tons of coal ash to the air — this adding to the millions of tons of pollution already produced by the San Juan and Four Corners power plants. Johnston’s father, Tom, drove back to the blockade Thursday (Dec. 21), taking wood and supplies to the resisters. Tom is raising Gilm-ore’s two grandsons here in Taos and is fighting to keep the elders and other resisters healthy.
* Lyla’s mother, Pat McCabe, sent out an e-mail blitz to environmental and social activists in New Mexico Dec. 20, describing the plight of the Diné elders and youth.
* “Lyla’s father ( Tom) went out to the Desert Rock site last week and said that they are in a pitiful way trying to make their stand,” McCabe wrote. “ They had a small, white tent that the grandmas were trying to stay in, but the wind blew through it; and they made a wood stove out of a 55-gallon drum, but the wind was blowing the smoke back into their tent; and the grandmas were having a hard time. ( Tom) brought wood and a dozen donuts which were used instantly. They need wood and shelter — do you have a yurt? An RV? — they need cash and food, warm camping equipment, tire chains. ( Tom) is taking his truck and a U-Haul to them on Thursday, Dec. 21. Probably in a week or so one of us will be going again.”
* The situation has changed dramatically since Dec. 21, when the resisters’ camp was reportedly relocated peaceably, with the Tribal Police helping move firewood donated by the Navajo Nation to the encampment.
* From the office of the president and vice president of the Navajo Nation, Communi-cations Director George Hardeen, in a press release dated Dec. 21, said no arrests have been made of Navajo grandmothers at the Desert Rock project site.
* “Nobody’s being arrested at the site and no arrests have occurred at all,” Hardeen quoted Samson Cowboy, executive director of the Navajo Division of Public Safety. “ The officers there are doing a good job and are providing the direct service that the elderly need out there. They’ve been helping with moving fire-wood provided by the Navajo Nation, and are employing 120 percent diplomacy in dealing with the situation.” Cowboy said online reports stating that there are 21 officers on the site are inaccurate, that in fact there are two Navajo Nation officers, one lieutenant and two Navajo rangers assisting the people.
* “ The Diné are a matrilineal people,” McCabe said Dec. 21. “So all the property is passed down through the women. If Alice is the one
* DINÉ saying no, from a traditional stand-point, hers is the last word.” McCabe is suspicious of the Diné’s contem-porary tribal government who seem to be ignoring tradition by allow-ing the developers to literally ride roughshod over Gilmore’s land and traditional authority.
* Hardeen said Dec. 22 by phone, that officials of the Diné Power Authority met with resisters last week and produced documents pur-porting Gilmore’s property line is 10 miles further from the Desert Rock site than she believed. Supporters claim the documents have been doc-tored to accommodate the project’s legal location. Hardeen said he can’t believe the Navajo Nation would risk a multimillion-dollar investment on forged data. At press time there had been no further resolution about Gilmore’s boundary claims.
* To help Gilmore, forward checks made out to Pat McCabe to P.O. Box 2451, Taos, N.M. 87571. McCabe said any amount is welcome. For pick up or to help in other ways, call McCabe at (505) 758-1215. Visit www.desert-rock blog.com for more informa-tion.
Resistance leads to human blockade for relatives of Taos poets
By Virginia L. Clark
Diné grandmother, Alice Gilm-ore, has had it. This elder matriarch in her 80s hun-kered down day and night with a handful of friends, mostly women and teen-agers, in the cold, blocking her land’s access to test well-drillers who are proceeding with building the Desert Rock Power Plant before it’s even been approved.
* Desert Rock is still in the environmental review process and has not yet been permit-ted, but Diné Tribal Police reportedly relocated the Gilmore encampment of supporters Friday (Dec. 22). According to Lieutenant Dempsey Harvey of the Shiprock, Ariz., Tribal Police Department, four safety officers carried out a Navajo Nation court order to move Gilmore’s group out of the way of Sithe Global Power LLC representatives.
* According to reports from Gilmore’s relatives in Taos, since the second week of December, Sithe workers reportedly have threatened the resisters with near-miss collisions and other serious harassment.
* “ There’s a few grandmas out there with nothing but a fire, their sheep dogs and their grandchildren. It’s get-ting pretty dire,” said Lyla Johnston in an e-mail Dec.
* 18, describing the human blockade her Diné relatives are creating to keep the developers out. Johnston is a poet and high school student of Taos.
* “ They’re adding insult to injury planning to build a third power plant out on her already decimated land,” Johnston said of the approximately 800-foot-wide, 100-foot-deep and mile-long strip coal mine on Gilmore’s land.
* It may soon be impossible to be green in New Mexico, Taos is already downwind from two coal-fired power plants in the Four Cor-ners area. Desert Rock would add another 13.7 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, 220 pounds per year of mercury and uncounted tons of coal ash to the air — this adding to the millions of tons of pollution already produced by the San Juan and Four Corners power plants. Johnston’s father, Tom, drove back to the blockade Thursday (Dec. 21), taking wood and supplies to the resisters. Tom is raising Gilm-ore’s two grandsons here in Taos and is fighting to keep the elders and other resisters healthy.
* Lyla’s mother, Pat McCabe, sent out an e-mail blitz to environmental and social activists in New Mexico Dec. 20, describing the plight of the Diné elders and youth.
* “Lyla’s father ( Tom) went out to the Desert Rock site last week and said that they are in a pitiful way trying to make their stand,” McCabe wrote. “ They had a small, white tent that the grandmas were trying to stay in, but the wind blew through it; and they made a wood stove out of a 55-gallon drum, but the wind was blowing the smoke back into their tent; and the grandmas were having a hard time. ( Tom) brought wood and a dozen donuts which were used instantly. They need wood and shelter — do you have a yurt? An RV? — they need cash and food, warm camping equipment, tire chains. ( Tom) is taking his truck and a U-Haul to them on Thursday, Dec. 21. Probably in a week or so one of us will be going again.”
* The situation has changed dramatically since Dec. 21, when the resisters’ camp was reportedly relocated peaceably, with the Tribal Police helping move firewood donated by the Navajo Nation to the encampment.
* From the office of the president and vice president of the Navajo Nation, Communi-cations Director George Hardeen, in a press release dated Dec. 21, said no arrests have been made of Navajo grandmothers at the Desert Rock project site.
* “Nobody’s being arrested at the site and no arrests have occurred at all,” Hardeen quoted Samson Cowboy, executive director of the Navajo Division of Public Safety. “ The officers there are doing a good job and are providing the direct service that the elderly need out there. They’ve been helping with moving fire-wood provided by the Navajo Nation, and are employing 120 percent diplomacy in dealing with the situation.” Cowboy said online reports stating that there are 21 officers on the site are inaccurate, that in fact there are two Navajo Nation officers, one lieutenant and two Navajo rangers assisting the people.
* “ The Diné are a matrilineal people,” McCabe said Dec. 21. “So all the property is passed down through the women. If Alice is the one
* DINÉ saying no, from a traditional stand-point, hers is the last word.” McCabe is suspicious of the Diné’s contem-porary tribal government who seem to be ignoring tradition by allow-ing the developers to literally ride roughshod over Gilmore’s land and traditional authority.
* Hardeen said Dec. 22 by phone, that officials of the Diné Power Authority met with resisters last week and produced documents pur-porting Gilmore’s property line is 10 miles further from the Desert Rock site than she believed. Supporters claim the documents have been doc-tored to accommodate the project’s legal location. Hardeen said he can’t believe the Navajo Nation would risk a multimillion-dollar investment on forged data. At press time there had been no further resolution about Gilmore’s boundary claims.
* To help Gilmore, forward checks made out to Pat McCabe to P.O. Box 2451, Taos, N.M. 87571. McCabe said any amount is welcome. For pick up or to help in other ways, call McCabe at (505) 758-1215. Visit www.desert-rock blog.com for more informa-tion.