One of the largest deposits of coal in North America lies under the Black Mesa: the ancient homeland of the Hopi, and of the Navajo. The Navajo, with the exception of four years, known as the Long Walk, when they were forced off of their land and brutally marched to Fort Sumner in Eastern New Mexico, have lived on the Black Mesa since at least the 14th century AD. It has been the Hopi homeland since pre-historic times.

The agreements coerced from the tribes by Peabody Coal and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through Tribal Councils (really just a front for obtaining agreements for resource extraction from tribal lands) gave the tribes a small fraction of the market value of their coal, were disrespectful of tribal self-governance, and degrading to the people and their environment. They have resulted in the displacement of 10,000 Navajo and Hopi people, separating them from their land, their heritage, their livelihood and their way of life. The tragic story of this atrocity is told in the 1985 documentary film Broken Rainbow.

Imagery: The Black Mesa, Black Mesa coal mines, mine “reclamation” areas