Guardians of Water

Guardians of Water

December 31st marks many great events in history, from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, to the resignation of Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia in 1999, it therefore, comes as no surprise that yet another great event is to transpire on December 31 of 2005, not over seas, but in the heart of America’s very own Hopi Reservation. For the 31st of December is to mark the closure of Peabody Coal Company’s Mohave Generating Station, a station that has exploited, daily, over 3.3 million gallons of pure groundwater for the past 30 years from the Hopi and Navajo Aquifer, slurrying their coal harvest 273 miles north to Laughlin, Nevada. However, in those 30 years, Mohave Generating Station and Peabody Coal Company have provided more than 42 percent of the Hopi Tribal income, over 8 million dollars annually, enabling the Hopi tribe to establish educational scholarships for its youth, better healthcare for its elderly, and compensation for its war veterans. Yet with the approaching closure date of the Mohave Generating Station such programs funded by the mining royalties stand to be cut altogether. “Why [then,] cut the hand that feeds you?” a question asked by a concerned Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. in his October Tribal Press release. The answer is two-fold the first half, rests in a charge given to the Hopi since the beginning of time:

In their mythology the Hopi believe their people emerged from the third world into this world through a hole in the ground called the Sipapuni, believed to been located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The Hopi emerged fleeing from the destruction of the third world that was a result of human recklessness. Once here in the Fourth World, they encountered Maasaw, the Guardian of this land who granted them the use of Mother Earth as long as they promised lived humble, honest lives as he did, and swore to treat the earth and all that dwelled upon it with the utmost respect. With this lifestyle, like him, the Hopi would be the stewards of the land, and guardians of the water.

Thus, it is this scared charge and humble way of life that has remained and has undoubtedly been upheld in the wanted closure of the Mohave Generating Station in order to preserve their water. The Second reason for the mine’s pressured closure was concern for the environment, for not only was the pumping of the aquifer water to slurry coal an affront to Hopi culture but and affront to mother earth as well. For 30 years Peabody was allowed to operate without any meaningful input from the people whose lives were so drastically altered, the Hopi and Dinй, by the company's activities. I was only until the wells, washes, and ancient springs began to run dry, cracks and fissures began to appear across reservation landscape and the centuries old cultures of the Hopi and Dinй that depended so heavily upon the pristine aquifer for religious, cultural and day-to-day uses, began to suffer greatly that action was finally taken. The Black Mesa Trust, a grassroots organization founded in 1999 by the Hopi people, initiated efforts to educate Black Mesa residents and the wider public about the impacts of Peabody's pumping and prompted tribal and public action to close the Black Mesa Mine.

Though many contemporary officials fear the effects the closure of the mine may have on the Hopi People and tribal programs, the Hopi Government has examined a wide array of solutions. Ergo, the Tribal Council, since notice of Mohave Generating Station’s closure, has for a third time pursued the gaming referendums, believing that the profit to be made from gaming would more than replace the funding lost.

However, since the defeat of the 2004 gaming referendum in a 1,051 to 784 vote, consistent with the 1995 vote against gambling, the voice of the Hopi people has been ever constant in its opposition to gaming.

Still, the opening of casinos on Native American land is tempting, particularly since it brings jobs and money to impoverished