Under the Microscope: The American Indian lives in an uneasy alliance with mainstream society. This is illustrated by the experience of the Hopi Indians who live on the southern edge of Black Mesa, a formation that covers more than 5,000 square miles of north-eastern Arizona. Their story is told by Tim Folger in the Fall 2004 edition of onearth magazine, writes Dr William Reville
The Hopi have lived in this area for a long time. One village has been occupied since 900 AD, the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America. They now have a modern cash economy but most families still farm part-time. The land is mostly parched, so the Hopi practise dry agriculture, sowing seeds near gullies that flood in the summer rainy season.
However, ongoing habitation of this area is made possible only because of vast reservoirs of water trapped deep underground (aquifers), much of it there since the last ice age. The aquifers feed springs that weep out in places through rock faces and from the desert floor. Every Hopi village is built around a spring.
Unfortunately these springs are now drying up and the Hopi blame this on the coal mining company Peabody Energy. Black Mesa has rich coal deposits and 40 years ago the Hopi and the neighbouring Navajo tribe agreed to let Peabody strip-mine the coal in return for much needed jobs and income. The agreement also allows Peabody to pump water from the aquifer that provides drinking water for 10,000 Hopi and 27,000 Navajo. The Indians now want Peabody to stop pumping this water because of the region's drinking-water shortage.
Peabody has responded by saying that shortage of water may force it to close one of its two mines on Black Mesa. Since 60 per cent of the Hopi government's annual budget comes from Peabody, closing a mine would have disastrous consequences. Peabody ships coal from one of its mines on an old rail line to a power plant on the Navajo reservation.
The coal from the other mine goes to the Mohave power station in Nevada, owned partly by Edison. The coal is sent to the Edison Plant in the form of a slurry pumped through a 280-mile-long underground pipeline. The slurry is made by mixing crushed coal with three million gallons of water a day pumped from the 3,000-feet deep Navajo aquifer.
The deal struck by the Indians with Peabody 38 years ago was a poor one from the Indians' point of view. The royalty payment they agreed for removal of the coal was only half that charged by the American government for taking coal from public land, and the fee agreed for pumping the water was derisory. Twenty years later, under pressure from Indian activists, a more realistic agreement was struck with Peabody.
The aquifer surface springs are now visibly drying up, but Peabody claims it is not damaging the aquifer. The aquifer contains about 130 trillion gallons of water and Peabody claims its pumping doesn't significantly reduce the total amount. However the pumping may be disrupting the outflow of water from the aquifer because it represents about 25 per cent of the annual discharge from the aquifer.
US government studies have shown that, since Peabody began pumping, water levels in some wells have dropped by 100 feet and flow from most springs has decreased by more than 50 per cent. It is difficult to know how much a regional drought has contributed to these declines.
Peabody has offered to stop pumping water from the Navajo aquifer if it can locate an alternative source of water. There is another vast aquifer available, the Coconino Aquifer, which lies above the Navajo one. The water in the Navajo one is pure and is suitable for drinking without treatment. The Coconino water is brackish and requires treatment before drinking. Peabody could have used it before, but it was worried dissolved solids would damage the pipeline.
Peabody will consider using the Coconino aquifer, but this will require a new pipeline to be built. This must be done before the end of 2005 because Edison has been asked by the US government to clean up its power plant by fitting emission filters. This will cost $1.1 billion and Edison wants a guarantee that Peabody can continue to supply cheap coal before it makes such a large investment.
Basic Indian culture has a passive, respectful attitude towards nature and has no interest in modern western culture which is competitive and acquisitive. Confined to reservations, it finds it difficult to flourish under its own steam and must negotiate with the broad alien culture. Unskilled in hard-headed deal-making, the Indian culture often comes off second best.
The Hopi attitude is illustrated by their belief that their land was originally empty except for a humble farmer called Massau. When they arrived, Massau taught them how to survive there and he warned of dangers ahead. He said, "There are others who are coming in a short time. They will not ask, they will take. With each step they will say "This is mine". They have a disease called owning. They will claim the land, the water and the air. They will think they are gods."
And Massau added, "This is not my land, I only take care of it. I am a farmer, not a god."
William Reville is Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Director of Microscopy at UCC