Stance of the People of the Confluence: Saturday March 17, 2012 in Tuba City, Ariz. This was read to Deswood Tome, special advisor to Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly.
Good morning Deswood Tome and tribal officials.
Welcome to Tuba City and we thank you for taking the time to pay a visit to us about an issue that is important to my family. Many of you have read, heard that the People of the Confluence are opposed to the construction of a tram, an airport and a resort at Grand Canyon East Rim. We confirm these reports. We are the stakeholders, residents, grazing permit holders and owners of home site leases.
These are the reasons we oppose THIS development.
Our faith: Many of us continue to practice the earth-base faith because we live between Father Sky and Mother Earth. We believe we are the children of White Shell Woman and our elders told us the earth is a part of us and we are part of the earth.The air, space, water, plants and land are very much alive and have beating hearts like ours.We take our prayers, corn pollen to the Colorado/Little Colorado River for blessings of good health, protection and prosperity. We, in addition, take offerings to the wind holes that pepper the confluence area and to Chuar Butte, which is considered a sacred-banded rock.
We depend on the fragile vegetation at the Confluence. The area has yucca root, which we use to cleanse ourselves during the final day of a Blessing Way. A field of white flowers grows in the area, which is used to heal the eye. The elders boil sage to calm ulcers.
Our Navajo faith, Hozhoh, requires balance.
This tram, airport and resort would tear into the heart of our religion and the land we know as Bidaa, The Edge, Tsa Taah, Among the fields of Sage Brush, Ts’a Ya naal k’id, Sage Brush Hill, Where the Earthen Dam is Fenced In, To bi naa az t’i. There are prayer sites along the rim. These areas will be destroyed.
Second Reason When economic development proposals started to emerge for the Confluence, some of us were excited because we believed it would give us an opportunity to plan the area with a developer, who is environmentally sensitive, had excellent credentials, transparent, practiced good business ethics and had good relations with the local people.
When Papillion Airways came to us in 2009, we believed their proposal to locate a helipad with a dramatic view of the Confluence, violated our faith because it would disrupt space, which the Holy Wind People occupy.
When Fulcrum Group LLC came to us the same year, they told us to hurry, make a decision because investors were waiting with abated breath. They told us the family would divide approximately $300,000 per year, that’s enough for eight pickup trucks.
They, in addition, told us the Hualapai Nation would snatch the tram idea away if we did not hurry to make a decision. They gave us deadlines. We did not jump on the board because it sounded too good. We grew suspicious.
The President told us he would support us by saying, “I’ll stand behind you” when he visited us June 4, 2011. By the time the president changed his mind to develop the Confluence in late July, 2011 we learned about Lamar Whitmer, who spearheads Fulcum Group. He was charged with theft in Maricopa County in the early 1990s.
Whitmer, according to newspaper reports, was indicted for allegedly taking nearly $45,000 in unauthorized pay from a tax-supported program. He was charged with one felony count of fraudulent schemes and three counts of felony theft, in 1992. The case went to trial.
Whitmer resigned as chairman and founder of the Maricopa County Sports Authority and he was acquitted. This information raised red flags for my family when considering the business proposal.
Mr. Tome and tribal officials, this caused the Confluence people to retreat, reflect, agonize and ask questions. This is when they decided to pursue their own plans to develop the confluence and wished to share it with Mr. Shelly.
Finally, I was a young girl when President Shelly chaired the Dine Rights Association in 1988/89. I heard stories about how he galvanized the people to oust America’s most powerful American Indian leader.
I understand Mr. Shelly demanded transparency, honesty. A young Shelly, an activist, never lost sight of what mattered in his heart. He volunteered to stand in frigid temperatures at the entrance of the Navajo Nation Council Chambers because the common people asked him to research, represent them and ask questions.
In the Confluence situation, we are appealing to that Shelly to support us in conducting a thorough due diligence of Fulcrum Group, aka Confluence Partners.
–Who are they?
–Has the group built a motel on the rez?
— Operated a retail store?
–Have they achieved a project that is equal to what you would like them to perform at the Confluence?
–Where can we find a successful project, which is in operation today?
–How involved was Lamar Whitmer in Grand Canyon Skywalk project on the Hualapai Reservation? Or did he strictly deal with over flight issues? Did you confirm this information with David Jin, founder of Grand Canyon Skywalk Development LLC?
–Why the rush to secure a tram at Grand Canyon East? How do you know the tram people are visiting Hualapai ? What kind of proof exists? Did you get a letter from the tribe or the tram business showing they visited the tribe? When? What year? Is this tram written in the Hualapai’s short-term or long-term plans?
–Finally, check with Arizona Public Access Case Lookup for backgrounds on each partner.
We are asking, President Ben Shelly, to be the activist from the late 1980s, and pursue the truth by triple checking the background of Fulcrum Group, akn Confluence Partners. It’s what any American Indian leader should pursue before he hands what is most valuable to his people, sacred grounds, to hungry investors.