Page 12 RAIN July 1980 Occupation on the Reservation © Winona La Duke Where will we all be 20 to 25 y_£ars from now when all the coal has been consumed and the companies operating these gasification plants have cleaned up and moved away? There will be nothing there; they will be working elsewhere, and we will be sitting on top of a bunch of ashes with nothing to live on. ... Lucy Keesewood, Coalition for Navajo Liberation, 1975 While a final decision on coal stripmining at Burnham, New Mexico, is in the judge's hands, Consolidation Coal Company of Pittsburgh has begun grading land and moving earth just 200 yards from the Burnham Chapter house on the Navajo reservqtion. Within a few hours, the company had desecrated five graves. Lawyers for the Burnham residents obtained a temporary restraining order on April 14, but the company continued operations. The bright orange stripmining machine known as a "dragline" was assembled, and the company's project office stabilized. On April 18, four days after the restraining order had been issued, the company leveled an area for incoming equipment. "It has always been our position to meet with the local people either at the chapter house, or our offices in Farmington," said Dennis O'Neil from Consolidation headquarters in Pittsburgh. for the Burnham residents, there was nothing to talk about-the company was operating in violation of a temporary restraining order. The Burnham residents called for support from the American Indian Movement and surrounding communities. Within hours nearly 20 persons, Burnham residents and supporters, arrived at the Consolidation mine site. Within minutes, 27 police cars and twice that number of personnel surrounded the occupation site. After discussi~g the situation, the protesters moved 100 yards east and began setting up a camp. "We decided that to get arrested now would not be effective," said Laura Villegas, one of the protesters. The camp overlooks the Consolidation mine site, sitting between two hills. The occupation is directed from a canvas tent supplied by the Burnham residents. A sign on the tent welcomes visitors to the "Commission on Whiteman Affairs" area office. At the camp, meetings are held between the 30-plus occupiers and the Burnham residents, at ,least 1000 of whom face relocation for the project. It's not a chance occurrence that pits a 60-year-old Navajo (Dine) woman against the country's number two coal producer, the Navajo police department and the Department of Energy. Years of legal battles and promises from Navajo officials appear meaningless in the face of the Energy Mobilization Board. The only recourse seen by the protesters is what the Department of Energy terms "local resistance .'' In December of 1968, Consolidation Coal Company (a subsidiary of Continental Oil) entered into a project with El Paso Natural Gas. The company received a lease approved by the Department of Interior and the Navajo Tribe for 40,000 acres. Pacific Lighting Corporation, known for its interests in the Pt. Conception (California) and the Crow (Montana) coal gasification plants, entered the deal with Texas Eastern Transmission. Western Gasification Company (WESCO) was formed, and plans emerged for a mammoth coal gasification complex-six of the largest and best-ever-built plants.
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