Letter appearing in The Navajo Times, May 6, 2010:

Is Desert Rock another empty promise?

Increasing jobs has always been a challenge for the Navajo Nation president and council delegates, but at what cost will these jobs come? Will we keep accepting any project that comes our way, even if it harms the physical, mental, spiritual and environmental health of our people and our land?

President Joe Shirley, his spokesman George Hardeen, Diné Power Authority's Steven Begay, and Sithe Global representatives Dirk Straussfeld and Frank Maisano have been telling the Navajo people for years how another coal-fired power plant, Desert Rock, will bring jobs and sovereignty to us. Let's first take a look at history. How many times have the government and energy companies made promises to us?

In the 1940s, just like today, our people needed jobs. The big "opportunity" at that time was uranium mining. Hundreds of Navajo men went to work in uranium mines. They were not given the proper safety gear, much less told of the dangers of radiation exposure from uranium ore.

The federal government and mining companies were aware of the dangers, but they decided following safety regulations was too expensive. Instead they studied how long it took for a human being to develop breathing problems, cancer, and then how long they lived. It was not until the 1990s when the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed that some, not all, families received monetary compensation.

Then there is Peabody Coal Company, which arrived in the 1960s. They told us we would be rolling in money. As a result of the mineral and water leases signed by the Navajo and Hopi tribal governments, our female deity (Dzil Yijiin) has been sacrificed for a few pennies.

What's more, we have allowed Peabody to take 267,240 acre-feet of water from the Navajo Aquifer that our people need for their livelihood. The current royalty rate, which is supposed to compensate for all this damage, is a mere 12.5 percent, the lowest possible rate allowable by the 1985 Indian Minerals Leasing Act.

But in the end, all the money in the world cannot compensate for the loss of culture, clean environment and the forced relocation of 12,000 of our relatives from Black Mesa.

These are just two examples of empty promises that were made to the Navajo people. Oil and gas issues are the same, as well as logging that went on for over 100 years to the Chuska Mountains (Ch'oshgai) our male deity.

After one realizes the overall picture happening to Navajo people (and to all indigenous people throughout the world) it would seem that allowing energy companies to come into our land, dirty up the place, push us around and then leave, is not making us an independent and sovereign nation.

What the Navajo people need is to be their own leaders and make sure that our representatives in Window Rock hear us loud and clear. President Shirley and profit-driven company reps tell us that Desert Rock is good for us, and now we are hearing that using natural gas instead of coal will make Desert Rock clean and harmless.

But we have a responsibility to keep asking hard questions about promises like this. Global warming is happening, and projects like Desert Rock are causing the heating of the earth.

We need to encourage our tribal government and DPA to develop renewable energy, so that our health and the health of our environment are not further destroyed. I know that I want clean air, water and food for myself, and for the generations to come, in a land that is not poisoned and polluted.

Robyn Jackson
Wheatfields, Ariz.