In the high-elevation desert of the Four Corners region, the traditional Dineh live their humble lives. The sheep graze the rolling red hills, the wool is sheared and spun, and the corn grows out of the baked Earth. In the mud-caked, pinion pine hogans and throughout the sagebrush canyons, the elders pass down the knowledge to the next generations, keeping their wisdom alive. But for centuries, this simple and peaceful band of traditionals has been struggling. Most recently, since the 1970s, they have been fighting to retain their identity while being subjected to a federal relocation program to facilitate the mining operations of the world's largest coal producer, Peabody Coal Company.
As the largest coal stripmine in the world, the Kayenta mine, located on Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona, has forced the relocation of more than 10,000 traditional Dineh and 100 Hopi from their homes. Many have died at the relocation area - the site of the largest radioactive waste spill in US history. The UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples classifies the situation on Black Mesa as the third worst case of institutionalized cultural genocide in the Western hemisphere. Nonetheless, Peabody continues to produce more than 12 million tons of coal each year from the Black Mesa/Kayenta mining site. Last year the company produced 165 million tons of coal worldwide and fueled more than nine percent of all electricity in the United States.
Since the mine's opening in the early 1970s, Peabody Western Coal Company, headquartered in Flagstaff, Arizona, has stripmined more than 100 gravesites, nearly emptied the Navajo aquifer, poisoned and killed hundreds of head of livestock. Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix continue to gobble up the cheap energy coming from Peabody.
In the spring of 1997, as the families of Black Mesa were struggling with relocation, harassment and the new, highly restrictive Accommodations Agreement (a 75-year non-renewable lease), TEG went on the open-market. For the past two years, Fred Buckman, CEO and board chair for Pacificorps, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, has been in England working on plans with the heads of TEG to have Pacificorps inherit the massive conglomerate.
All spring Pacificorps has been in a multi-billion dollar bidding war with Texas Utilities for control of TEG. Texas Utilities won in early May, with a bid of more than $12 billion. Pacificorps had put hundreds of workers into early retirement, closed a major mining operation in Wyoming and stretched its assets to the limit to come up with the liquid cash to buy TEG; Texas Utilities had more. The week Pacificorps lost the bid, its stocks dropped $20 million. For the time being, Pacificorps' consumers have been spared a direct connection to the human rights violations on Black Mesa.
Later, Texas Utilities sold the Peabody portion of TEG to Lehman Merchant Banking, an overseas partner of Pacificorps, for $2.3 billion. The coal from Black Mesa may soon spin the Northwest's voltage meters.
A coalition of groups had bought single shares in the company in order to speak against Pacficorps' investments in TEG and call for no further attempts to purchase Peabody Coal. Upon hearing what their company had been investing in, some shareholders sighed, others sneered. Overall there was shocked silence. Outside, citizens rallied to protest Pacficorps' investments in massive coal plants like the one in Centralia, Washington, the emissions of which cause a documented 110 deaths a year. Members of Amnesty International spoke against Pacificorps' energy investments in Turkey, a country guilty of ethnic cleansing of Kurdish separatists. The transnational has also been a huge player in the financing of the monstrous Maheshwar dam project in India (see article on page 4). Pacificorps officials refused to answer questions about future investments in Peabody, citing Security and Exchange Commission rules.
If Pacificorps continues its stockholder revenue-boosting strategies through the merger with Peabody Coal, energy users in the Pacific Northwest may soon be accomplices to the genocide of the people of Black Mesa with each utility payment. And as energy deregulation continues to hum in the media, Pacificorps has vowed to offer the cheapest possible energy to its consumers. This dirty energy strategy places the burden of conscience on its consumers. Soon, people in the Pacific Northwest may have a turn fighting the power coming to their mailboxes.
For more information contact the NoEndRun Committee, a TEG watchdog group at ogec@imagina.com or the Indigenous Support Coalition of Oregon at POB 11715, Eugene, Oregon, 97440; isco@efn.org.