| Dine Citizens Against
Ruining our Environment (Dine CARE) is a grassroots
environmental
organization steeped in the Navajo tradition of
honoring Mother Earth. Composed entirely of Navajos,
Dine CARE is committed to maintaining harmonious
ecological relations and empowering the Dine (Navajo
for “the People”) to protect their
communities, their way of life, and their lands.
Basing their advocacy work on Dine ancestral wisdom
and the philosophy of the Beauty Way, the members
of Dine CARE seek to demonstrate the relevance
of traditional Navajo beliefs and practices for
addressing current social, economic, and environmental
concerns. Using this specifically indigenous approach,
Dine CARE has helped other local and Native communities
organize around environmental and public health
concerns and devise alternative strategies for
development. Although the organization opposes
injustice and discrimination against traditional
people on many fronts, it has been especially active
in addressing deforestation, toxic waste, and radiation
exposure. In the early 1990s, Dine CARE successfully
challenged the Navajo Nation’s environmentally-destructive
logging policies in the forests of the Chuska Mountains
and Defiance Plateau and it continues to monitor
the Navajo Nation’s forestry department,
which may resume logging even though critical habitat
within the forests has yet to be restored. Seeking
to protect this area from further damage, Dine
CARE is working to involve local people in the
forest management plan. Another area of primary
concern for Dine CARE relates to the social and
environmental effects of uranium radiation. Due
to uranium mining and nuclear bomb testing within
or near the Navajo Nation, the Dine have been subject
to high levels of radiation exposure. To address
this problem, Dine CARE has worked to obtain relief
and compensation for victims and to prevent future
uranium mining on Navajo land. At present, Dine
CARE is involved in a health survey for radiation
contamination from uranium. The data from this
survey will be stored on a Global Imaging Satellite
(GIS) map, available for future analysis and use
in advocacy
work. It
is
also working with the White Mesa Utes to fight
the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah, an active
uranium mill and nuclear waste dump that affects
Navajo and White Mesa Utes. |
| Indigenous Tradition |
United States of America
(Southwest) |
| 1988–Present |
Dine CARE was founded
in 1988 to resist the construction of a toxic
waste site in the southwest corner of
the Navajo Nation. This first campaign was a
success: through community organizing, education,
and protest,
Dine CARE warded off the proposed site. A similar
victory was attained in 1991, when the organization
prevented the construction of an asbestos dump
on Navajo land in New Mexico. In 1990, Dine CARE
helped to form the Indigenous Environmental Network
(IEN), an alliance of grassroots indigenous peoples
whose mission is to protect the sacredness of
Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation
by strengthening,
maintaining, and respecting traditional teachings
and natural laws. In 1994, after four years of
pressure from Dine CARE, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs Forestry Department and the Forestry
Department
of the Navajo Nation agreed to halt their 80
year-old destructive logging practices. Since
1994, Dine
CARE has been working to address the devastating
social and environmental effects of uranium radiation
on the Navajo Nation. In 1996, the organization
launched a GIS forest mapping project to gather
data for the reforestation of the Sanostee region
of the Chuska Mountains. In 1999, it spearheaded
the campaign to amend the Radiation Exposure
Compensation
Act and joined with other groups to form the
Western States RECA Reform Coalition. Although
the reforms
were enacted in 2000, Dine CARE continues to
press for the just and timely delivery of compensation
to victims of radiation exposure and for the
prevention
of future uranium mining on Navajo land. It also
works with other native groups to fight uranium
mining and storage on native land outside of
the Navajo Nation. In July of 2003, Dine CARE
formally
filed a protest against proposed oil and gas
drilling in Old Dinetah (ancestral Navajo land)
in northern
New Mexico, where active wells have already severely
damaged the environment, contaminated drinking
water, and adversely affected the health of close
to 100,000 Navajos living in New Mexico.
|
| “Dine CARE is an all-Navajo
environmental organization, based within the Navajo
homeland. We strive to
educate and advocate for our traditional teachings
as we protect and provide a voice for all life
in the Four Sacred Mountains. We promote alternative
uses of natural resources that are consistent with
the Dine philosophy of Beauty Way. Our main goal
is to empower local and traditional people to organize,
speak out, and determine their own destinies.” |
| Indigenous Environmental Network |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
Dine CARE
10A Town Plaza, Suite 138
Durango, CO 81301
Ph: 970.259.0199
Email: kiyaani@frontier.net
|
