'WATER IS LIFE AND LIFE IS WATER'
By- Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney
THE STATES OF TEXAS, CALIFORNIA, NEVEDA, NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, COLORADO AND UTAH ARE SUFFERING FROM FROM ONE THE MOST DEADLY DROUGHTS IN THE RECORDED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
THE ABUSE AND WASTE OF WATER BY MAINSTREAM CULTURE IS BOTH RACIST AGAINST NATIVE PEOPLE AND ENSURING THE DEATH OF THE EARTH MOTHER.
IN REALITY THE THE ABUSE OF MAINSTREAN CULTURE AND THEIR SO-CALLED POLICIES OF 'WATER WARS' ARE KILLING INDIAN COUNTRY!!
Native American Group Opposes Water Project"
Access to clean drinking and irrigation water is expected to become a major issue in the near future all over the world. (It is already a serious problem in many locations, and California just declared a drought a week ago.)
Cities in the arid American west are already looking for more water, and Nevada is proposing a pumping project to help Las Vegas.
The National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution to oppose the controversial water pumping project in Nevada.
NCAI acted on the requests of Nevada tribes who say the pumping will dry up their water sources.
“It’s the center of life. There is no life without water,” Fermina Stevens, the administrator of the Elko Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone, told The Deseret News.
The resolution was passed at NCAI’s mid-year session in Reno earlier this month. It calls on the Nevada state engineer to respect the tribe’s water needs.
(The Salt Lake City Deseret News-6/20/08)
Water Running on Empty - Unlike global warming, the crisis is right here, right now.
"Much of the world already knows that it is possible to live without oil, but that it is impossible to live without water.
Al Jazeera asks how long it will be before the US is runing on empty.
That reality is dawning upon people across the US as the country faces unprecedented water shortages.
Water-challenged Native Americans in Orne, Tennessee, are forced to line up for daily water truck deliveries after their local water source dried up.
On the Texas side of the Rio Grande Basin there are Americans forced to live without running water just like their Mexican counterparts across the border.
Along Oregon's Klamath river, local farmers and Native American fishermen have been fighting over what they consider to be their birth right to precious water allocations.
It is not just rural Americans facing chronic water shortage; the residents of Atlanta came within 90 days of running out of water last summer.
Many economists and climatologists believe profligate lifestyles and denial of the real value of water as a precious and diminishing resource are leading the US into a crisis far greater than its dependency on foreign oil.
Unlike global warming, the crisis is right here, right now. Peter Gleick, one of the country's leading water analysts, sets the factual context for the US water crisis from overpopulated desert areas in the Southwest, to the unchecked depletion of natural aquifers throughout the Midwest.
Pollution has made 40 per cent of the country's rivers and lakes unsafe to swim in, yet alone drink from.
Americans are often their worst enemy in the fight to maintain their traditional lifestyles which so depend on a diminished natural resource.
For example, a large hamburger takes 2,000 gallons of water to produce while a round of golf costs approximately 4,000 gallons of water.
Leaving the tap on while brushing your teeth or shaving uses an estimated 350 gallons, which is the daily per capita consumption of water in most African countries.
While the US is making billions of dollars by feeding the rest of the world, they are also exporting a third of their water supplies every year with the flow of "virtual water" to overseas markets in the form of food exports."
(Environmental,Health and Safety News-April 9, 2009)
More Water Wars strageties against Natives-It's illegal in the West to catch rain water.
This is really great thinking; they take water sources from OUR tribal lands and reservations during this drought here in the West, they leave Indian Country totally dry. Then they tell Native people it's illegal to catch rain water
' Water Wars Out West: Keep What You Catch!"
The West remains one of the fastest growing regions of the country, and that continues to put pressure on scarce water supplies.
So, Colorado recently made it legal for some homeowners to capture and collect the raindrops and snowflakes that fall on their own roofs. That had been considered stealing because the water would flow into a stream or aquifer, where it belonged to someone else; Utah and Washington state have similar bans.
The change in Colorado may seem minor, but this could signal the beginning of a water-law revolution.
Water law in the West is different than in the East. In the West, there's essentially a long line for water rights; those who signed up for rights first are in front. And in some cases around the West, Native Americans are near the front of the line because they've lived there for so long.
For five years, Karl Hanzel "took cuts" in that line because he illegally collected water from the snow that fell on his home outside Boulder, Colo.
"I struggle to understand the argument for these laws. It doesn't really make sense to me," says Hanzel. "The water that I'm detaining here, I'm not exporting it to Mars … We have a leach field; we water the garden; that water is still returned to the earth … We're just holding some of it for awhile."
Colorado takes this sort of illegal harvesting of precipitation seriously. If caught, Hanzel could have faced fines of up to $500 a day. Luckily for him, a law recently passed legalizes his collection system. It's a narrow exception to the ban for people who would have to dig a well or have water trucked in.
But in Washington state, Tim Pope is still breaking the law. He owns Northwest Water Source, a business that has installed about 200 rainwater collectors in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. Pope says state regulators tend to look the other way.
He's also president of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association, and he's on a mission to get rid of the bans.
"Western water-rights laws were done in the 1800s, and they need some serious overhaul," says Pope. He says the first-in-line basis is inefficient.
"It needs to be based on need — it needs to be based on proper use of water. We don't need to be using drinking water to wash cars and water lawns and gardens and flush toilets," he says.
Those near the front of the line disagree. Western tribes guard their historic water rights, as do municipalities like Denver.
"You have a basic foundation for how water is owned and administered in Colorado, and a wholesale change — to say, 'Oh yeah, take all the water you want off your roof,' — is actually a fundamental change in that," says Chips Barry, general manager at Denver Water.
Barry says he's not upset by Colorado's recent exception to rainwater harvesting — the effect on senior water-rights holders will be minimal. But he says if the practice were to become widespread, that could unwind a complicated system that has long determined who gets the limited water available.
There seems to be little risk that such a wholesale change will happen anytime soon. Recent efforts in Washington and Utah to get even minor exceptions to the ban on rainwater harvesting failed.
(Jeff Brady-NationalPublic Radio, June 1, 2009)
"HOPI PAATUWAQATSI RUN- WATER IS LIFE"
In an effort to bring back community involvement, known by the Hopi word naa’ya, Bucky Preston, founder of the Paatuwaqatsi Run, along with many volunteers organized the first Paatuwaqasti Run in 2003. Since then, the Run has grown and now has over 200 participants entering the different races.
Bucky Preston stated: “This was something that I had always wanted to do for many years. We are forgetting our Hopi values. We are forgetting to help each other’s out. I want to see that effort return to our community. Putting Hopi life values and teaching at the forefront is the purpose of the run.
Why are we taught to run early in the morning? Because running not only strengthens you physically, it strengthens you spiritually. A runner would take one of the many foot trails from the village in the early morning to a spring, take a drink from the spring and sprinkle himself with the cold water. This gave that person strength and provided healing for any ailments.
Everything at Hopi involves water—water is life.
Now, water is being abused and is depleting. In some places, it is gone and I want to bring awareness to the people.”
The run also helps to keep these trails ‘alive’. These trails are viewed as the veins of the village. By utilizing them the villagers keep them open, which helps to keep the village alive and brings the clouds.
The Paatuwaqatsi Run, since its inception, is based on these cultural values to remind the Hopi community of these teachings. The run also invites other cultures to learn from this and share their values about life enrichment and the role that water and running plays in their lives.
The Paatuwaqatsi Run’s main event is an Ultra Run which is a minimum of 30 miles. The course follows the old foot trails of the First Mesa Villages, including Walpi and visits seven natural springs. The Ultra Run is designed for conditioned runners who are used to covering distances of 20 miles or more. The course covers various types of high desert terrain from open sand to hard rock surfaces atop high mesas to riparian habitat around the base of the mesas.
In summary, the length of the Paatuwaqatsi Run is approximately 30 miles. The climbing/descent elevation of the Paatuwaqatsi Run is 4,825 feet at about 8 miles each, the rest relatively flat.
The Paatuwaqatsi Relay Run’s follow the same course. 3-person or 6-person co-ed teams each run a leg of the course. The 3-person team members each run 10 miles the 6-person team members each run 5 miles. A four-mile run/walk near the race site is also available.
This one-day event includes speakers who share their knowledge and work with water issues within their own communities. And whether you run or not, everyone is invited eat a traditional Hopi meal and become a part of the community who is concerned, better informed and reminded about the importance of water in our lives. All the work is done on a volunteer basis with no individuals compensated for their time.
(Paatuwaqatsi Run- Water is Life)
wwww.waterislife.org
Indian Country doing their part to resolve water crisis;
The Native American Water Association
Our Mission:
The Native American Water Association is a national non-profit, 501 (c) (6) organization founded to provide tribal water and wastewater operators, managers, utility commissions and tribal leadership with continued training and technical assistance in their goals to: Strengthen tribal sovereignty and Self-determination and protect health and environment in Indian Country.
Native American Water Association, providing a link directly to Tribes and tribal water and wastewater utilities. Creating strong internal resources for Tribes to participate with and draw from.
The Native American Water Association provides tribal water and wastewater training and technical assistance programs, tribal water and wastewater operator certification programs, on-site training, utility ordinance development, operation and maintenance assessments, Native American Water Association operator and manager apprentice training programs and other training and technical assistance opportunities. Working with Tribal water and wastewater professionals throughout Indian Country.
Contact Information:
Telephone
(775) 782-6636
Toll free
1(877)888-NAWA
Fax
1(775)782-1021
Native American Water Association
1662 Highway 395, Suite 212
Minden, NV 89423
NAWA@msn.com
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