"subtitles 22.7.2003-Sandra Tejnecka, Daniel Zapata,Stefan Szilva" "Vanishing Prayer" "Vanishing Prayer Genocide of the Dineh" "There must be peace in our land" "There must be peace in our hearts" "I am from the, southern sovereign Diné Nation" "I will fight for my right" "I will fight for my people" "In beauty before me, I walk" "In beauty behind me, I walk" "In beauty beloved me I walk" "In beauty all around me I walk" "It is beautiful indeed, it is beautiful indeed." "High in the desert of Northern Arizona, there is a vanishing traditional culture - the Diné." "The name that means "the people"." "Commonly known as the Navajo." "Within their own culture they are the Sovereign Diné Nation." "They are a matriarchal society, whose ancestors lived in this region, hundreds of years before Europeans set foot on American soil." "The Diné have always lived with sacred harmony with the land, building a complex spiritual society." "But the traditional Diné have been crying out for generations, pleading for intervention as their culture now faces extinction. [Navajo say:" "No!" "to relocation]" "As we are the children of our Mother Earth and how she feeds us is causing the whole thing." "We are going through, we are going through suffering from everything that what the BIA is doing to my nation." "Scores of scholars and non-governmental organisations insist that the US government has been waging a long term campaign of genocide against the Diné." "In 1863 they were forced to relocate in what was known as the Longest Walk." "Thousands died as their captors neglected to shelter, clothe and feed them." "The Diné were incarcerated into concentration camps." "Later Adolph Hitler would use this US designs in nazi Germany." "Eventually the US government put them in a reservation, a fraction of the size of a land, they once occupied." "The area designated for them to live has been changing ever since." "Today you see all Indians that own our land, all say the same thing, this is our homeland, this is our birthright, [Hopi Elder they don't want any white man come into here and tell us that you have to divide this wire this way or that way." "White man does not own this land, just because he has a gun, he said I took your land." "Over the following decades the United States government created various puppet tribal councils, [Stewardship or Fraud?" "]" "Which granted energy companies access to vast wealth of minerals lying beneath the reservation." "In 1966 these councils signed call coal leases against the wishes of the elders and the largest strip mine in the United States was created." "For traditional Diné this rape of the land would be a continuation of the war on their people." "We've had also the people that were always against the mine, people who spoke out or were very vocal against the mine and that have died mysteriously from unknown accidents and mysterious deaths." "The Diné believe that every part of the Earth is sacred, our mother." "That the coal is her liver and should remain in a ground." "Our mother is suffering because she is getting so much surgery." "You've been took her liver out which is coal." "To desecrate the Earth, the centre of the religious beliefs, is the equivalent of bombing Mecca, or bulldozing the Vatican." "American people are going to have to realize that their electrical supply is accumulated by human rights abuse." "[Peabody Coal" "People who live here do not have any more water, they don't have electricity." "This coal mine back here." "It does not respect the rights of my family and the people around it." "In order for the mining company to get the coal in 1974 President Gerald Ford signed Public Law 93-531 while on a skiing holiday." "Thus beginning the relocation of over 14 thousand Diné." "Congressman Udall:" "There is a simplistic view around that relocation is harsh and it is unusual and so on." "People get relocated in America every day and I don't want to compare troops but you ...but the interstate highway system they go through your living room with the bulldozers in the interest of getting so" "Over 10 thousand Diné were moved to outline towns in 1980, costing the American tax payer's a half of billion dollars." "There is no word for relocation in Diné." "To relocate is to disappear." "Never to be seen again." "25% of the first group who were relocated died within 6 years." "In 1979 during the Carder administration a large area near Sanders [Caution radioactive materials] a small town in northern Arizona was contaminated by the largest nuclear spill in US history." "Just one year later the Reagan administration would force relocation into this deadly area. [Relocation Housing]" "Today birth defects in the area are twice the national average." "Radiation, contamination and its effects are not new to the Diné." "Nearly one third of all US uranium was mined in the Navajo reservation." "Generations of mining families have perished or are dying of radiation related diseases." "We need to have, to somehow, all my people and my husband they killed them just like combat soldiers." "We should think about, more about safety." "In Cove Arizona just feet away from a school radiation levels exceed 7 hundred rads a minute. [Welcome to Cove day school." "Lov" "Today uranium tailings, one of the most toxic substances known to man still lie uncovered in populated areas." "Beneath Black Mesa lies the only source of water for the western Diné. [Caution, High pressure coal slurry pipeline]" "The coal mines` experimental slurry line has drained over 30 billion gallons of this pristine aquifer as it transports coal from Black Mesa to the Mohave Generating Station 275 miles away." "Today most of the wells on Black Mesa are dry and what water remains, is poisoned by the mines pollutants." "Ten years ago my family lost 86 sheep because Peabody had dumped ammonia nitrate in a stream that ran by the house." "It apparently was in our backyard and the sheep came cross the stream and they drank from the stream and 86 of our sheep livest died that night within the 24 hour period." "Diné tradition says that the sheep are the gifts from the holy people." "Each day the grandmothers sing to their herds because the sheep are sacred, caring for them guarantees of food, clothing and continuation of their culture." "The beautiful prayer weavings come from the sheep wool and months of diligent work." "Without the sheep these prayers cannot be made." "Government officials are reducing Diné herds by up to 90%." "They say it is due to overgrazing." "B.I.A. Impounding Navajo Livestock [Bureau of Indian Affairs]" "See what you did to my people, see what you did to them, you took their very lives away from them." "Elders, youths and the livestock have been severely brutalized during these impoundments." "I just want my family's livestock to graze up on the hill first and live there again." "I need to live there without being threatened or being evicted or been shoot at or whatever you know?" "This is my home." "During the 25 years of resistance, the families around Big Mountain has been forced to live in abject poverty." "Most families once easily independent are surviving on charitable donations." "And order, known as the "Bennett Freeze", prohibits families from maintaining all buildings and its structures." "Explosions at the mine have caused sacred ceremonial Hogan's and Dinè homes to collapse." "To the Diné Black Mesa is a holy shrine." "Over 2,400 archaeological sites have been destroyed." "Now it's all missing." "We used to have a beautiful mountains and now it's all gone." "In last two years affords of the Diné has reached an international high." "Yet in the US their cause is still ignored by Congress and is virtually unknown to the public." "There are over 250 NGOs, non-governmental organizations in the United Nations that supported Diné peoples` right to their land and condemned relocation and unsustainable mining practices by Peabody Western Coal Company." "The US government points it's fingers all around the world at human rights violations are going on and it's time that the world look within US for the human rights violations that are going on within it's borders." "In February 1998 a summit took place on Black Mesa." "UN's Commission on Human Rights sent it's Special Rapporteur Mr. Adafattah Amor to hear the testimonies of the Diné as part of them ongoing investigations into religious intolerance." "Over 100 people crowded to the Hogan of Glenna Begay." "Three elders from the Hopi tribe arrived to give their testimonies and show support for their neighbours, the Diné." "Their presence to disspell the public relations myth that the traditional Hopi and the Diné are involved in a range war." "Mr. Amor heard over and over again the violations against the Diné." "His report is scheduled to be presented at the UN Commission on Human Rights in April 1999 in Geneva." "As the world prepares to celebrate the new millennium, the Diné face the final, forced relocation with a deadline a February 1st in a year 2000." "President Clinton signed this final relocation law while playing a game of golf." "The elders say they were threatened and their names forced on the original agreements that surrender their lands and all their civil rights." "Only a very small minority of Diné elders can speak, read or write English." "It is time to recognize that the world has waited too long to uphold human rights." "It is time to stop a war in America that has never ended for its first Americans." "We need a help of the American people to realize the tragedy and the pain and suffering that is taking place here where our aboriginal home ground is being under siege by the US government and the mineral corporations." "The Diné had survived relocation, starvation, religious intolerance, poisoning and generations of militant intimidation." "Yet they remained dignified." "Hanging on to their land, which is their way of life, religion and culture." "Like other indigenous leaders around the world the Diné elders tell us that all life is interconnected and that what befalls them on Black Mesa, will befall all of humanity." "I am from the, southern sovereign Diné Nation" "I will fight for my right" "I will fight for my people" "The producers recognize that in this short film we cannot possibly convey the depth of the suffering and pain that he Dineh peo" "It is our wish that the clear voice of compassion be heard and that people everywhere unite to preserve this vital culture before it is too late." "We are indebted to the Diné and other indigenous wisdom keepers for holding the sacred bundle of life for us all." "Food and provisions are being delivered to the Diné Nation as often as supplies are made available." "The deadline for relocation is real." "These people desperately need your help." "This film is dedicated in loving memory of LAHE`ENA`E GAY, TERENCE UNITY FREITAS, INGRID WASHINAWATOK who gave the ultimate sacrifice - their lives - for what they believed in - working through non-violence, to protect the rights" "Special thanks to Irene Bedard for her narration, Elaine Seiler for enabling this film to be made, and to the makers of "Broken Rainbow" for the use of their inspirational footage... .Donations may be sent to:"