"Both of us are farmers," Robert Sumatzulu, the town accountant, added. "We grow crops to feed our families. Everybody who lives in this village is a farmer just like us."

Roy and Sumatzulu were pointing to a problem caused by the nearby Black Mesa and Kayenta surface coal mines owned by the Peabody Group. Each year these operations use close to a billion gallons of water from two aquifers to mix with ground-up coal so it can be sent through a 273-mile "slurry" pipeline to the Mohave power station in Nevada. The aquifers lie under the Black Mesa basin and are essential to the livelihood of the Native American ranchers and farmers who live and work there. Peabody is the world's largest coal producer.

Last year the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines produced 13 million tons of coal. For more than 30 years, the electricity generated from their coal has been essential to the growth of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and other cities in the region.

Black Mesa and Kayenta are on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. Because of hiring preferences won by the Native Americans, more than 90 percent of the workers at the mines belong to one of the tribes. Both mines are organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).

In a press release defending its use of the water, Peabody claims mining "has encouraged tremendous economic progress in Hopi and Navajo reservation communities by injecting $2 million weekly in direct economic benefits or more than $1.8 billion since mining began." Many Hopi and Navajo do not see it that way.

John Boyden, a lawyer from Salt Lake City who claimed to represent the Hopi nation, was one of the prime movers behind filing the leases that opened up the Black Mesa basin to coal mining.

"Boyden was only interested in coal and oil, not in the Hopi people," Vernon Masayesva explained in a phone interview. Masayesva lives in Moenkopi and is the founder of the Black Mesa Trust, an organization dedicated to defending Native American water rights. Masayesva is a former chairman of the Hopi nation. "Boyden was in the pocket of Peabody," Masayesva said. In fact, Boyden worked for Peabody at the same time he was claiming to represent the Hopi people.  
 
Hopi Land Settlement Act
In 1974 the Hopi Land Settlement Act passed Congress. Drawn up by John Boyden, a new boundary was set for the Hopi reservation that followed no known topographical feature. It gave approximately 900,000 acres to the Hopi who did not live over the Black Mesa coal deposit and proposed to relocate 12,000 Navajo and 60 Hopi who did.

"There is a theory that the only reason the land division was implemented was because Peabody needed the conflict between the Navajo and Hopi so that they could control the coal," Masayesva continued. "I believe that this is at least partially true. From the beginning the title to the land where the mines are located was unclear and leasing rights for cattle and sheep have always been difficult to determine. The mining takes place on land that had always been jointly used.

"Peabody plays the game of divide and rule very well," Masayesva said. "Our group has been trying to raise concerns not just for the Hopi but for the Navajo too. The lease Boyden signed was substandard," Masayesva continued. "The original lease gave the Hopi and Navajo only 30 cents per ton while other leases on government land paid an average of $1.50 per ton."

In June of 1999 the Navajo Nation filed a suit in U.S. District Court seeking the recovery of $600 million in damages from Peabody for "unlawful acts defrauding the Navajo Nation." The lawsuit claims that Navajos received "far below the market value" for the "strategically located, uniquely valuable high-BTU and low-sulfur coal" mined at Black Mesa and Kayenta.

In a statement released when the suit was filed, the tribe said, "Under terms of the 1964 lease, the Navajo Nation received less than 2 percent for its coal, a fraction of its real value."

In 1987 the Navajo Nation agreed to the federal minimum 12.5 percent royalty. In its suit the Navajo Nation explained that the 1987 agreement also forced the tribe to forfeit back taxes, back royalties, and future taxes and to concede more coal, more land, and more rights-of-way to Peabody.  
 
The Black Mesa coal slurry
Bechtel, the world's largest construction company, built the 273-mile slurry pipeline from Black Mesa to Mohave Power Station in Nevada. It is the only operating slurry line in the United States.

"The slurry was constructed so the technology could be sold to Russia and China where other slurries are used," Masayesva explained. At first the Hopi were given $1.67 per acre foot--326,000 gallons--for the water and the Navajo received $5. "That amounted to a huge subsidy for the company," Masayesva said. In 1986 the lease was changed so the tribes would be paid $300 per acre foot, which is divided in half between the Hopi and Navajo.

Masayesva said he formed Black Mesa Trust to try to force the Office of Surface Management (OSM) to conduct a supplementary environmental impact study on the aquifers. Although an OSM report concludes there is damage being done to the aquifers by the mining operation, "the problem is that OSM trusts Peabody," he said.

Peabody claims the aquifers are being recharged at a rate of 3,500 acre feet per year, Masayesva said, but "what they are not explaining is that millions of gallons of water have disappeared. They are not telling the public that even by their own statistics they are using up all the recharge plus an additional 500 acre feet."

"A very good question is exactly how much of the water is being sold and for what price when it reaches Nevada," Masayesva continued. "It's reasonable to think that owners of Mohave generating station use one-half of it to cool the plant and one half of it is sold to Phoenix and other cities."

"Right now at the grassroots level it's Peabody and the OSM versus the Hopi and the Navajo," Masayesva said. "I tried to get more information through the Freedom of Information Act but was told I was not an expert in this area. Next they told me I had to be more specific. Finally they offered me the material for $17,000. They claim that it would cost that much to duplicate everything. At this point our bank account is overdrawn by $67."

Peabody claims "we are for taking away jobs and are against the United Mine Workers union," Masayesva said. "Its not true. We are for more jobs. They should move coal by rail or another way, not by the slurry, which is an outdated method."  
 
 
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