Black-Mesa Water-Coalition

Black Mesa Water Coalition is dedicated to preserving and protecting Mother Earth and the integrity of Indigenous Peoples' cultures, with the vision of building sustainable and healthy communities. BMWC was formed in 2001 by a group of young inter-tribal, inter-ethnic people dedicated to addressing issues of water depletion, natural resource exploitation, and health promotion within Navajo and Hopi communities. We continue to be strongly led by young adults while relying on an inter-generational support network. We hold at our foundation the concept of empowering our people and working in collaboration with surrounding communities and organizations to address the problems we collectively face.

The Navajo Nation’s first Tribal Council, created in the early 1920s, was actually a business council formed explicitly to sign deals with large energy corporations. Nine decades later, our Nation is an illustration of a broken economy dependent on fossil fuels. Despite promises that uranium, oil, gas, and coal leases would bring in millions of dollars in royalties and create thousands of jobs, a visit to our reservation reveals a completely different reality. The Navajo Nation’s unemployment rate hovers around 54% and the population’s average income is $7,500/year. While utility lines run right over our heads, 18,000 Navajo households live without electricity. This accounts for 75% of all un-electrified homes in the United States. Furthermore, the fossil fuel economy has left us with polluted air and land, contaminated and depleted water, resulting in various health ailments and social problems in our communities. Climate change is another concern that looms on the horizon, promising drastic changes in ecosystems and weather patterns.

Most importantly, in teaching us to ignore our traditional teachings to love, respect, and protect Mother Earth our current economic system further promotes our assimilation into consumer society. We are in fact economically dependent on our own cultural destruction. As young Navajo people brought up in our traditions, and reborn in the environmental justice movement, we at BMWC know we must break our dependence on the fossil fuel industry in order to realize the true potential of our Navajo and Hopi people.

Our work has developed into three main program areas: No Coal & Environmental Justice, Green Economy, and Leadership Development. Combined these three programs force a transition away from the fossil fuel economy, put in place a green economy to replace it, and ensure long-term support for a diversified, community-owned and sustainable way of life.