PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release: October 2, 2012
Contact: Deon Ben, 928.774.7488
Grand Canyon Trust to support Protect the Confluence Coalition efforts
FLAGSTAFF – The Grand Canyon Trust has accepted an invitation from the People of the Confluence, an organized group of local families and voters from the Bodaway/Gap Chapter, to join their campaign to oppose the proposed Escalade development at the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers. The People of the Confluence are adamantly opposed to the development being pushed by Confluence Partners, LLC and have launched a campaign against the development because it is culturally insensitive to the traditional lifestyle led by many Navajo families, and will potentially harm sacred sites and prayer offering locations.
In a letter dated September 21, the People of the Confluence extended a formal invitation to several nonprofit organizations, coalitions, local tribal nations, and grassroots organizers to collaborate as the Protect the Confluence Coalition and assist them in their efforts to oppose the development.
“The Confluence Partners, LLC has vigorously pushed their proposed development on the Bodaway/Gap community and across the Western Agency of the Navajo Nation,” stated the letter from the People of the Confluence to invited coalition members. “The Confluence Partners, LLC’s inappropriate actions in our community have disrupted family, community relationships, and altered the balance of K’e (kinship).”
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