SENAA International was founded on 12 September 1995 as a local, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting burial and sacred sites outside tribal lands from destruction by developers. Another goal was to raise awareness among and educate non-Indigenous people about the various cultures among the First Nations indigenous to North America and emphasize that there is no such thing as a generic "Indian," that the term "Indian" is a misnomer, and that each First Nation is a sovereign entity.
One of our first victories was the preservation of an ancient walled village site covering approximately 12 acres at the crest of a hill on the outskirts of Cleveland, Tennessee, in the Hopewell community. The site was slated for a housing development by local developer Jim Sharp. Through negotiations and reasoning, we persuaded Mr. Sharp to preserve the entire site and set it aside as green space. Streets slated to cross the site were rerouted to encircle the site, leaving the entire site intact. Grass was planted on the site, which contains more than 200 burials. At our request, no marker or plaque was placed on the site in order to keep looters (artifact hunters) from desecrating the graves of those buried there.
When the U.S. government's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) imposed a 01 February 2000 deadline for eviction of a certain group of Dine'h (dee-NEH) (Navajo) from their ancestral homes at Black Mesa to allow Peabody Coal to expand its mining endeavors and issued the statement that the resisters would be forcibly relocated "by any means necessary," SENAA got involved and raised a loud protest against the government's actions. As our involvement in the Dine'h Relocation Resistance became more pronounced and more aggressive, Indigenous American supporters from around the world joined SENAA in the protest against the BIA and Peabody's eviction attempts. Many were existing organizations, and many were individuals who became SENAA members. When many Europeans became involved in the protests and joined SENAA, we changed our name from SENAA to SENAA International and formed the SENAA Europe division, headed by Fred Buma in Amsterdam; and the SENAA Sweden chapter SENAA Europe, headed by Carina Gustafsson of Tidaholm. Others joined our organization and efforts from Austria, Greece, Germany, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Japan, England, Wales, and other locations around the world.
It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire. At the time when the Dine'h relocation deadline loomed, the sun never set on SENAA International--and consequently on the Dine'h Relocation Resistance. SENAA International was certainly not the first organization to become involved in the Dine'h Relocation Resistance; but we were perhaps the loudest. SENAA members are firm believers that, indeed, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." With that in mind, we wasted no time trying to raise public awareness of the U.S. government's actions and rallying support for the cause and the Dine'h, who were the victims of the human rights violations.
Part of the BIA and U.S. government's efforts to evict the Black Mesa area Dine'h was the "Bennett Freeze," a section of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act, which stripped the affected Dine'h of all civil, constitutional, and human rights. It forbade them to make any improvements or repairs to their homes, to gather firewood for heat or cooking, to have electricity or running water, and even capped their wells to cut off their water supply. BIA agents raided Dine'h homesteads on a regular basis, impounding livestock and destroying vegetable gardens, then imposed ridiculously high ransoms on the impounded livestock. At times, Dine'h individuals would no more than get the ransomed livestock home before the BIA would again raid the homestead and impound the animals again.
As supporters of the Dine'h resistance began going to Black Mesa to help the resisters and bring food, supplies, and support to the affected Dine'h families, the BIA owned and operated Hopi Tribal Council (HTC) began issuing "Exclusion Orders," forbidding Dine'h from having visitors and attempting to evict supporters already on the land. The resisters refused to recognize the BIA run puppet government as legitimate (as did many of the Hopi people), and ignored the Exclusion Orders.
As the deadline drew near, SENAA stepped up its efforts and organized protest demonstrations in the capital cities of the countries mentioned earlier. In Japan, a Black Mesa Dine'h support group marched in Tokyo, delivering a letter of protest to the U.S. embassy. At every protest in every participating country, each protest group delivered letters to their respective U.S. embassy; all saying essentially the same thing (paraphrasing):
"We know what you are doing to the Dine'h at Black Mesa, Arizona. We know about the human, civil, and constitutional rights violations you are committing against them. The eyes of the world are watching the United States and what it does to the Dine'h. If any harm comes to anyone as a result of the BIA's relocation efforts, the U.S. government will be held accountable for its human rights violations as well as its violation of its own civil rights and constitutional rights laws. The world will not tolerate such injustices!"
The 01 February 2000 deadline came and went without incident. On 04 February 2000, the BIA issued a statement that it never had any intention of forcibly removing Dine'h from their land, that it had all been a misunderstanding.
On the heels of that statement, its puppet government, the HTC, now calling itself "The Hopi Tribe," stepped up its efforts to evict Dine'h from their land through litigation. Meanwhile the Bennett Freeze remained in effect.
Most legal efforts had no effect, and Dine'h resisters remained on their land. They all had the same attitude as Roberta Blackgoat, a resister and Grandmother (Elder) who became their spiritual and political leader. Roberta made two notable protest signs during her participation in the resistance.
One read, "The Creator is the Only One Who's Going to Relocate Me."
The other sign she placed in front of her house, on the ground so the BIA surveillance helicopters could see it. It read, "If You Want Me to Move, First You Must SUE THE CREATOR."
On 17 February 2000, the European Parliament issued an Urgency Resolution that condemned the forced relocation, and the ongoing violations of human, religious and land rights of the Dine'h at Big Mountain.
Gathering at Black Mesa on the deadline date, with other supporters from around the world, prepared to stand as human shields between federal marshals and BIA thugs, was a group of young Japanese men and women who supported the Dine'h Relocation Resistance.
The group had joined Europe and the U.S. during the demonstrations by doing a protest demonstration that marched through Tokyo to the U.S. embassy, where the embassy officials were handed a letter of protest virtually identical to those received in the European nations.
To get to the Dine'h resisters' homes, the Japanese group marched overland several miles to emphasize their commitment to helping protect the Dine'h from harm.
After the forced relocation efforts were thwarted by worldwide public outcry, the HTC subsequently demolished Camp Anna Mae, a sundance arbor, and therefore a holy place; and arrested a teenage Dine'h boy at the door of his family's Hogan for taking photos of the BIA desecrating the holy place and destroying holy shrines and artifacts connected with the sacred ceremony.
SENAA International, and the Weavers for Life and Land's founder, Carol Halberstadt, raised the funds to pay the young man's legal and attorney fees.
Immediately after the arbor was destroyed, SENAA International and Roberta Blackgoat organized and held a Worldwide Prayer Gathering (WPG), where people around the world began praying simultaneously for a resolution to the problems faced by the Dine'h resisters. A month later, we held a second WPG.
Roberta Blackgoat passed away in California from heart failure while attending the funeral of a dear friend, fellow weaver, Dine'h supporter, and warrior, Arlene Hamilton.
Since Roberta Blackgoat's passing, the Mohave Generating Station, the only customer for Peabody's Black Mesa and Kayenta coal mines, was shut down. There are proposals by various business interests for the construction of other power plants; but so far, nothing is definite. Meanwile, electricity and running water are slowly making their way toward the resisters' homes--or so says the Navajo Tribal Council, another BIA creation.
Though the dreaded deadline is long past, Dine'h are a long way from victory. The BIA continues to harass the resisters in various petty but cruel ways; and the BIA and U.S. government still want to relocate them to lands contaminated by uranium tailings measuring more than 50 times the government's established "safe" limit for radiation.
SENAA remains committed to doing its part in helping to put an end to government mistreatment of our peoples and the violation of our human rights, sovereignty, and religious freedom.
Enough for now.
