Here is the latest on the situation in Black Mesa/ Big Mountain. To read more about it read my article My Time With The Navajo Elders here.

Greetings supporters, friends, & relatives of Big Mountain, Black Mesa, AZ.
Here are our fall updates. Details are below.

* ANNUAL BLACK MESA FALL FOOD & SUPPLY RUN BY CLANDYKEN IS STILL MOVING FORWARD DESPITE ONE
OF THE MAIN ORGANIZERS HAVING HAD A MAJOR HEAD-ON CAR COLLISION. YOUR SUPPORT IS ESPECIALLY
NEEDED THIS YEAR!
* 30th ANNIVERSARY OF BIG MOUNTAIN RESISTANCE: A SUCCESS!
* A CALL-OUT FOR SHEEPHERDERS & SUPPORTERS FROM BLACK MESA FAMILIES TO COME & STAY AS THEIR
GUESTS.
* BLACK MESA MINE UPDATE:
* DOODA DESERT ROCK- FOUR DAYS OF SPIRITUAL GATHERING NOVEMBER 8 – 11, 2007:
* RISING TIDE NORTH AMERICA (RTNA) ANNOUNCES FOUR NEW CAMPAIGNS. (Including so called ‘Clean
Coal’)

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* ANNUAL CLANDYKEN FALL FOOD & SUPPLY RUN TO BLACK MESA IS STILL MOVING FORWARD EVEN AFTER
ONE OF THE ORGANIZERS HAD A MAJOR HEAD-ON CAR COLLISION. YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED –ESPECIALLY
THIS YEAR!

Time once again has come around to the Annual Clandyken Fall Food & Supply Run
to the Big Mountain area of Black Mesa. Mark Dyken recently sent out a call for support
telling he survived a head on car crash on September 19. He is asking for some extra help in
moving the Beauty Way Tour and the Food and Supply Run foward. “If you have ever
considered getting involved in helping produce a show or being part of the trip to the
reservation this is the year for you to step up. We have several shows already booked,
but we will need a few more to raise our target goal of $12,000. Maybe you are a
musician who’d like to play some of the shows, maybe you can help with publicity,
perhaps you can take on a silent auction or other form of fund raising. Perhaps you are
a talented mechanic who can help get the bus back on the road or an organizer who can
mobilize your area or you are someone who can take tickets at the door in your town.
Maybe you have a vehicle that can make deliveries on the reservation. We’ve been
making this run for 16 years and I hope it takes more than one random car crash to shut us
down.” – Mark Dyken

All are welcome to join the Annual Black Mesa Food & Supply Run. Each year supporters from
the four directions visit and stay with families living on Black Mesa. A tremendous amount of
energy is needed for the fall supply run. Please help procure food, gather supplies, raise
funds, distribute goods on the land & chop wood. There is a need for at least some
of the folks who come out to help to show up with a truck or other vehicle capable of
traversing the sometimes very rough reservation back roads. See Clan Dyken, The Beauty Way
Page for more info: http://www.clandyken.com

UPCOMING SHOWS:
- November 2 – Sonora, CA Sonora Opera Hall 7:30 pm with The 2J’s Jazz Band. Food &
refreshments by Amy’s Mountain Ranch Kitchen. 209-736-6736
- November 3 – West Point, CA Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth 7:00 PM Experience the
Chocolate Fountain. 209-736-6736
- November 9 – Junction City Grange, Near Weaverville, CA. 530-623-2656
- November 10 – Bayside Grange, Arcata, CA w/ Joanne Rand & the Rhythm of the Open Hearts.
Fry bread, tacos, pies & other great eats Doors open at 5pm. 707-499-8769
- November 17 – Seaman’s Lodge, Nevada City, CA w/ Feather River Singers, Kimberly
Bass Band, Wicker Men, Earth Rythm Dancers and Drummers – April & Zuma with George Scroeder 5pm
- November 18 – On the road to the Big Mountain region of the Dineh Nation.
- November 19 – Flagstaff
- November 19 – 23 – Food and supply distribution
- November 23-25 – The long road home

If these dates do not work for you or you would like to extend your time on Black Mesa,
families have requested outside support to herd sheep, chop wood, and live with
them. The food run is great opportunity to come to the land and establish a relationship with
Black Mesa. Families really appreciate returning supporters, you know who you are.

* 30th ANNIVERSARY OF BIG MOUNTAIN RESISTANCE: A SUCCESS!
On October 6, 2007, the Dineh community of Sweet Water at Big Mountain hosted its 30th
Anniversary celebration for their resistance to forced relocation and to the
encroachment of Peabody Coal Company. The celebration was a success. This one day
event began on a cold and cloudy Saturday morning with a sunrise ceremony inside the old
remains of the council lodge that was built for the 10th Anniversary in 1987. And here are
just a few sample of the highlights… For more info go to

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

* A CALL-OUT FOR SHEEPHERDERS & SUPPORTERS FROM BLACK MESA FAMILIES TO COME & STAY AS THEIR
GUESTS.
Come herd sheep and stay with a family living on Black Mesa. “We welcome people to come out
and support our resistance in this way.”-A resister grandmother. Guests of the families are
encouraged to stay for a month, as it can require a lot of work for both the family
and the guest to establish a routine. It is important to have good help out there, and not
create more work for the families. Guests are expected to be adequately prepared prior to
staying with families on Black Mesa, which is high desert and very remote. Read the Cultural
Sensitivity & Preparedness Booklet and fill out the supporter application form prior to
making arrangements for your stay. http://www.blackmesais.org/cultural_sen.html.
Supporters are expected to pay for gas and expenses when families provide their ride
out to the land.

* BLACK MESA MINE UPDATE:
Peabody Energy recently stated that they are working with both the Navajo and Hopi
to pursue coal-related development operations and expansion. On the matter of the operating
and proposed expansion of the Black Mesa Mine, BethSutton, a Peabody Energy spokesperson,
stated, “Black Mesa mining activities remain idled
following the suspension of Mohave generating activities. We continue discussions with the
tribes on
projects that would allow the mine to resume operations. The Kayenta Mine is
unaffected and continues operating.”

* DOODA DESERT ROCK- FOUR DAYS OF SPIRITUAL GATHERING NOVEMBER 8 – 11, 2007:
Dooda Desert Rock (DDR) has invited people all over the world to join them in
support of their encampment by participating in Shundiin’s Mission 2007, a spiritual gathering
of all faiths and tribes at the Dooda Desert Rock camp in Deenasts’aa’ Bito, New Mexico.
“All are welcome in this spiritual gathering to Bless Mother Earth and lift the
Spirits of the DDR organization to strengthen our mission to prevent the construction of the
Desert Rock Energy Project (another coal-fired plant to be built on the Navajo reservation).

http://www.dooda-desert-rock.net/node/23

All tribes and faiths are encouraged to come together to pray in an honest spirit of
unity with the DDR’s determined effort to resist further attacks on our lands and peoples.
Bring your teepee or whatever else you may have to share in our high desert camp life, and
act to shield our people from the increased deadly health impacts that would be unleashed
by poisons from a third massive coal-fired power plant within a 15-mile radius.

Transnational corporations serviced by government officials are denying environmental
justice, and the health of our children and heart of our homeland are at stake. Our
Navajo leaders are forsaking Traditional Ways to take corporate money to poison our land,
foul our air, and steal our waters. This abuse must STOP! We vow Dooda’ (NO) Desert Rock,
and we look forward to welcoming friends and fellow travelers to our Camp in a celebration of
renewal and a spirit of steadfast resistance to the global energy industry’s soulless culture
of death.”

The Dooda Desert Rock Committee is a group of Indigenous residents of the Navajo
Nation whom are in opposition to the environmental, social and economic injustice of the
proposed desert rock power plant. The Dooda Desert Rock Resistance finds the proposed desert
rock power plant to be in violation of the dine fundamental law.

http://www.dooda-desert-rock.net

* RISING TIDE NORTH AMERICA (RTNA) ANNOUNCES FOUR NEW CAMPAIGNS. (Including so called ‘Clean
Coal’)
False Solutions campaign seeks to expose greenwashing like clean coal technology, carbon
trading, and nuclear power. For more info go to:
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/category/false-solutions-campaign
Convergences for Climate Action 2008 – A plan for follow up climate action camps to the
successes of 2007 convergences in south east, north west, and UK. For more info go to
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/category/2007-convergence/

Fossil Fools Day of Action April 1, 2008 to stop the burning of all fossil fuels.
Educational Undertakings is creating a “menu” of workshops offered as a collective.
For more info go to: www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/category/educational-undertakings

RTNA is a grassroots network of individuals and groups confronting the root causes of climate
change through direct action and promoting local, community based solutions to climate
crisis.

Thank you to everybody for your show of support,
Black Mesa Indigenous Support