The Trail of Truth — an indigenous liberation movement currently on its way to Washington, DC — will be joining Haul No to stand in solidarity against the mining of uranium at the Pinyon Canyon Mine, located outside of the Grand Canyon. The project would see the transport of raw uranium ore across Diné lands to a mill in southeastern Utah.
Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine (formerly Canyon Mine) is a conventional uranium mine located on Red Butte, a sacred mountain and Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) only six miles south of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The owner and operator, Canadian company Energy Fuels Inc. is nearing completion of the mine and plans to transport the uranium ore to the White Mesa Mill for processing, located in southeast Utah, a few miles north of the Ute Mountain Ute community in White Mesa, Utah.
Energy Fuels owns and the White Mesa Mill, the only operating conventional uranium mill in the country.
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe embarked on a Trail of Truth on August 4th leaving Chrissy Field in San Francisco in its Bay Area homeland by horseback, headed to Washington D.C. to raise public awareness, to cultivate allyship, and to demand that the Congress and the Administration affirm the Tribe’s never-terminated federal status. The Tribe was previously recognized as the Verona Band of Alameda County, but was illegally discarded by an Indian Agent named Lafayette Dorrington in 1927.
The Tribe will be leaving the coastal territories of present day California and begin moving through the Southwestern Nations, traveling through portions of traditional land-bases of Piipaash, Yavapai, Yaqui, Apache, O’odham. These Nations have been drastically affected by the illegal land grab known as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, after enduring enslavement and cultural decimation by Spanish mission systems that stretched from the New Mexico territory of Sante Fe, Tucson, and all the way up to San Francisco Bay. The communities endure today despite all of the attacks from militaries, missionaries, miners, and so many other manifestations of colonial domination motivated by the prospect of resource exploitation.
The Muwekma are joined by a delegation of Oglala Lakota, Pii Paash, and warriors and youth who are traveling with horses to ride across the lands and build in solidarity for Indigenous recognition and protection of the lands, water, people, and all Creation.
“We stand in solidarity with our relatives from Hualipai, Havasupai, and Diné lands. We understand the atrocities facing Indigenous people everywhere and are inspired by the movement occurring across Turtle Island to say no to extractive industries that continue to desecrate our sacred sites, use and destroy our natural elements like air, water, and land, and that have been key players in efforts against the genocide of our peoples across the country,” explains Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh explains.
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe has been pursuing administrative corrective action by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland or Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland, both of whom are empowered to acknowledge that the Bureau of Indian Affairs errored in excluding the Tribe from the original list of federally recognized tribes, when it was first drafted in 1978. Such action has been afforded to other California tribes that are similarly situated as Muwekma, including the Lower Lake Rancheria, the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, and the Tejon Indian Tribe.
Alternatively, Congress — having plenary jurisdiction over Indian Affairs — can take corrective action, as it did in 2019 when it affirmed the Little Shell Band of Chippewa Indians in Montana as a part of the National Defense Reauthorization. Congress has recognized 26 tribes through legislative action since 1978.
“As Lakota people we view all of creation as sacred. With the understanding that what happens upstream affects everything downstream. The extraction and destructive mining of the Grand Canyon must be stopped! Our relatives of the southwestern nations of Piipash, Yavapai, Yaqui, Apache, and O’odham people have suffered long enough. We stand in solidarity with our relatives who oppose this mine. We must unite to protect our sacred water! (Mni Wiconi) water is life. We must protect our homelands. We encourage all relatives, allies and comrades to join the resistance! Stand together to help each other in our struggles,” explains Mashan Poshe Camp, a warrior of the Lakota Nation a direct descendant of Chief Red Cloud.
“We say no to the pinyon canyon mine! No to hauling toxins across Diné’ lands to southeastern Utah. HAUL NO!” Camp adds. “In the spirit of Crazy Horse!”
The Trail of Truth will be arriving in Dine territory on August 24th, where it will join the HaulNo rally at Red Butte. For more information about the event or the Trail of Truth contact: Muwekma@Muwekma.org.
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