U.S.: Indigenous Representatives Protest Plans for Coal-Fired Power Plant on Navajo Lands

The Indigenous Environmental Network and members of its Native grassroots
delegation attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York
City held a protest/rally on the morning of Friday, April 25th, in front of the
offices of Sithe Global Power, LLC to protest the company's plans to build a
coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation.
article and photo: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

United Nations, New York City--A
delegation of indigenous peoples from around the United States and
Canada are demanding immediate action to address climate chaos and
crisis. Twenty-two youth, women, elders and tribal chiefs have
traveled to New York City to participate in the United Nations 7th
Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. One of the main
issues the UN forum is addressing is climate issues. This delegation
is profiling the disproportionate impacts their communities face as a
result of the expansion of fossil fuel development in their homelands
resulting in increased greenhouse gases, contamination and depletion of
water and compounding climate change.
In solidarity with
delegation member Elouise Brown, President of DDR Committee, the
delegation and supporters staged a protest/rally at Sithe Global Power,
LLC at 245 Park Avenue on the morning of Friday April 25th at 9:30am.
Sithe Global Power formed and partnered with Desert Rock Energy Company
to build a destructive mine-mouth coal-fired power plant ini the Four
Corners Area of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. It would be the third
coal-fired plant in an area where the community is already suffering
from respiratory and skin ailments and other health problems associated
with the existing coal-burning power plants. Although their is an
Environmental Impact Statement pending, it did not incorporate or
address what the cumulative impacts of all three power plants and the
existing uranium contamination would be.
A press conference took
place immediately after the protest/rally and featured frontline Native
community members impacted by fossil fuel expansion. These speakers
included:
• Elouise Brown (Dine/Navajo)--
As a President of Dooda Desert Rock, Elouise has been on the front line
fighting a proposed coal-fired power plant in her front yard near Chaco
Rio, New Mexico.
• Faith Gemmil (Pit River, Wintu, and Neets'aii Gwich'in Athabascan)--
As the REDOIL campaigner, runs an Alaskan Native network opposing
efforts of the U.S. Congress and the State of Alaska in their attempts
to open the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to offshore oil and gas
development.
• Clayton Thomas-Muller (Cree)--
With the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, working with Cree dine
and Metis First Nations from northern Alberta Canada speaking out on
health, ecological and environmental damage to their Aboriginal lands
from tar sands development.
• Loren White, Jr. (Hidatsa/Arikara/Mandan)--
As a member of the Environmental Awareness Committee from Fort
Berthold, North Dakota, is fighting a proposed oil refinery that is set
to produce crude oil from the tar sands in Canada.
• David Moses Bridges (Passomaquaddy First Nation)--
As a member of the local "We take care of the land" coalition in Maine,
fighting the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in their
attempts to site a massive liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in
their pristine Atlantic homeland.
• Enei Begaye (Dine and Tohono O'odham)--
As Executive Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition, they are battling
coal and water mining and are leading a Native movement for a Just
Transition and Green Economy/Green Job Transition.