FLAGSTAFF-In what better way could the beginning of summer be celebrated than with an Indigo Girls concert right here in northern Arizona?
According to Indigo Girl Amy Ray, the group's members feel the same way.
"We're excited to be coming to the Southwest," Ray said. "It's really a treat because we don't get to do it as often as we want to."
Additional reasons to celebrate include the release of the Indigo Girl's newest CD "Despite Our Differences" to commemorate the duo's 20th anniversary, and the fact that the concert was designed to benefit the local Just Transition Coalition (JTC) and their work to establish a new, safe energy economy-one based on the vast renewable energy potential of Native lands.
"The grassroots organizing in this region is compelling and inspiring. In the midst of such a destructive energy paradigm, Native communities are working to affect positive change and provide an alternative," Ray explained.
But wait, there's more...Honor The Earth executive director Winona LaDuke will also be at the concert to speak in support of the JTC and the need for sustainable energy in contemporary societies.
The Indigo Girls (Ray and Emily Sanders), LaDuke, and the acclaimed world-beat band Sonaya and the People's Crew will take the stage Tuesday, May 22 at the Pine Mountain Amphitheater in Flagstaff for a special night of music with a message. Gates will open at 6 p.m., and the show will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at www.pinemountainamphitheater.com and Rainbow's End.
"Despite Our Differences" includes 13 new songs that confront diverse cutting-edge topics and maintain the heartfelt tones that make the Indigo Girls incomparable to any other musical pair.
"Emily wrote 'Pendulum Swinger' to address patriarchy, to talk about feminism and a structure that is more geared toward humanity-not war, power or dominance," Ray said.
"For me, this album has story songs that address the idea of place and progress and displacement," she added.
Ray explained that the foundation of the theme of displacement stems from the current situation in her Georgian hometown where the rural nature of the community is dying as longtime residents are being forced out of their homelands.
"I'm writing about what that does to people and how their morale changes," Ray said.
In explaining the similarities between her community and Native communities that are displaced when power companies assume authority, Ray explained, "There's a loss of identity, people start using meth, making meth. When a community loses its identity what you get is this hom*ogenization of America."
Recognizing the need to help rural communities in this predicament, the Indigo Girls joined with Honor the Earth in 1992.
"Our work with Honor the Earth started out because the Native American environment was, to me, on the forefront and really wasn't getting recognition," Ray said. "We were drawn to working with communities to continue their way of life and to bring the good things of progress like solar energy, wind power...and to work to strengthen-not take, but give."
Honor the Earth works to increase funding and public support for Native communities to protect the earth. The organization's work extends throughout North and South America and is heavily invested in developing renewable, sustainable forms of energy on Native lands.
Ray expressed enthusiasm in the fact that since the beginning of the Indigo Girl's work with Honor the Earth alternative sources of energy have become more readily available and "incredibly viable."
"We see concrete things [happen], like the moratorium on uranium mining in the Navajo Nation. We've chosen very specific battles and the really exciting thing is when they win!" Ray said. "It maintains a really important balance."
Ray said she finds inspiration in the Just Transition Coalition and the member's level of grassroots activism. LaDuke expressed a similar sentiment.
"The tremendous work of the JTC to change the dynamics of energy development away from a reliance on fossil fuels and towards a renewable future offers a vital and positive vision for all of Indian country, and all of America," she said.
Honor the Earth program and operations manager Tom Reed said the involvement of the Indigo Girls with Honor the Earth has impacted the group enormously. "They've been extremely instrumental in getting us on the map and supporting us financially," Reed said.
The JTC emerged as a response to the closure of the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev., which was dubbed the dirtiest coal plant in the west. In 1999, the Grand Canyon Trust, Sierra Club and other groups filed a lawsuit against Mohave's primary owner, Southern California Edison (SCE), for violations of the Clean Air Act. That lawsuit resulted in a decree for SCE to retrofit Mohave or shut down by the end of 2005. The plant closed.
As a result of the closure, Navajo and Hopi communities have been hit hard economically due to lost coal and water royalties and lost jobs. The JTC's plan is to replace lost revenues and employment by developing reservation-based renewable energy financed by pollution credits from Mohave's closure.
When Mohave shut down, the plant stopped emitting more than 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide a year. Mohave owners can sell these allowances as credits to other utilities that need them.
Last year, because of the JTC's work, the California Public Utility Commission required SCE to establish an account to track revenues from the sale of Mohave sulfur credits, which are estimated to be $20 million a year.
The JTC's plan gives the California Public Utilities Commission an opportunity to restore some justice to the Navajo and Hopi communities and, at the same time, help California meet its renewable energy portfolio through the purchase of clean, tribally-produced energy.
For decades, cheap electricity for Californians came at the expense of water and land as well as the Navajo and Hopi people. Mohave sourced all of its coal from the Peabody mine at Black Mesa. Peabody drew over 3 million gallons of water a day from the Navajo aquifer (N-aquifer, which runs below Black Mesa) in order to pump coal through a 273-mile slurry line. Wells and ancient springs have run dry, and cracks and fissures have appeared across Black Mesa, threatening the centuries-old cultures of the Hopi and Diné that depend so heavily upon the aquifer for religious, cultural and day-to-day use.
"Energy does not have to come at the expense of a people's ecosystem and culture," LaDuke said, referring to the adverse impacts of energy exploitation on Navajo and Hopi communities. "We have a choice. We can either combust ourselves into oblivion or invest in renewable technologies that are culturally-based and sustainable."
Funding from the Indigo Girls benefit concert will support grassroots Native groups in the JTC, such as the Black Mesa Water Coalition, a group of young Navajo and Hopi activists. Enei Begaye, Executive Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition stated, "We have been a part of the Just Transition Campaign from the beginning because we believe this is a real plan for building wind and solar energy projects that will benefit Navajo and Hopi people... With this plan, our local tribal communities are leading the nation in developing a sustainable future!"
Begay added, "Honor the Earth brings the larger Native Country perspective on this type of work to us. It's keeping us motivated. The Indigo Girls are great in offering to support us and to do this benefit concert. It's really exciting to get that message out."
Begaye explained that the financial backing provided by the Indigo Girls is particularly important.
Prior to arriving in Flagstaff, the Indigo Girls will perform a show on May 21 at the Phil L. Thomas Performing Arts Center in Shiprock to benefit Navajo groups working to stop the Desert Rock power plant.
To learn more about the Just Transition Coalition call (928) 213-5909 or (928) 774-6103 or visit www.blackmesawatercoalition.org. To learn more about Honor the Earth or the Indigo Girls tour visit www.honorearth.org or call (612) 879-7529.
