Circulated Petition to be Presented to Governments of the United States and Mexico

In a gathering on March 29, 2008, traditional O’odham leaders and international supporters arrived in the small village of Quitovac in the Northern Sonoran State of Mexico to honor the land, the sky, the water, and all life, and to continue organizing to stop the building of a toxic waste dump that’s planned to be placed just a few miles from one of the most sacred ceremony sites of the O’odham.

Since early in 2006 the traditional O’odham residing in the occupied territories of Northern Mexico and the South Western United States (and their international supporters) have persistently and patiently organized, protested and petitioned to try to convince the Mexican government federal Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the company CEGIR from building this toxic dump. So far, protest and international attention has held back the initial phases of the dump construction, but there have been no official statements from SEMARNAT, CEGIR or any other entity that the plans to build the dump have actually been officially canceled.

Traditional O'odham are asking for help in the continued effort to stop the toxic waste dump on O'odham ceremonial grounds, through the circulation of a petition that will be included in the original statement from the Traditional O'odham Elders to be re-submitted to Mexico's and United States government agencies, to request for an official statement not to pursue the project. CEGIR is presently waiting for a change in the local government to push this project for an approved land permit to dump 45,000 tons of toxic waste a year... read more>>>

For more information visit: the O'odham Solidarity Project and www.greenaction.org.