Content Background
Strip Mining
The strip-mining process in the Western United States is quite different from the Eastern part of the nation. First, the climate in the west is arid or semiarid, with low precipitation annually. This type of environment has drought conditions with hot days and cold nights. The erosions of soil and rock are seen visibly because of sparse vegetation. Water is the key when reclaiming lands in the west. There are five main types of surface coal mining techniques: area mining, open-pit mining, contour mining, auger mining, and mountaintop removal.7 When the Black Mesa mines, began the implementation of strip mining, there is a process in how to excavate coal.
Surface mining follows these necessary steps to limit damages during the removal of the land.
- First, surface vegetation (trees, bushes, and shrubs) and homes where the coal seam is found are scrapped and removed.
- Next, the bulldozers, scrapers, and loaders remove the topsoil. The operator either stockpiles the topsoil for later use or spreads it over an area already mined.
- Below the topsoil are layers of rocks drilled, blasted, and removed by bulldozers, shovels, bucket wheel excavators, or draglines.
- After removing the layers of stones, the exposed coal seam is fractured by blasting.
- The operator then loads the fractured coal onto trucks or conveyor belts to transport to silos or trains.
- The operator dumps the rocks removed during the mining into the mined area and grades and compacts it. Special handling may be necessary if any of the stone contains toxic materials, such as acid or alkaline-producing materials.
- Any excess rocks that remain after the mined area is completely backfilled (Eastern mines generally have substantial excess spoil) are deposited in a fill.
- Finally, the operator redistributes the topsoil and seeds and revegetates the mined area.
While these necessary steps are relatively consistent, the environmental impacts of the five main techniques vary significantly.8
The final stage of strip mining is not the end. Damage to the land is irreversible because many lives were changed. The Dine people who lived there, the wildlife, the native vegetation, and the small ponds, streams, and creek beds are no longer there. The natives who live on federal reservation lands are in a unique situation because when the government says we need your natural resources, they will come in and take it. They moved the native people and their homes, their pasture ranges, and livestock to get to the coalbed. The treaties signed during the 1800s were an agreement from the government to provide the Indian people necessities to become American citizens—natural resources of uranium, coal, and oil were not stated in the treaties.
The rolling hills do not fit the natural contours of the mesa. Based on what I have seen, the stripped area is an ugly area like a bald spot. The short rain bursts caused rapid running streams, which form gullies and ravines and eventually form erosion when the vegetation is not deeply rooted. The constant wind creates twisters and sandstorms, lifting the topsoil into the air. The native vegetation on the mesa adapted to the arid climate, and these plants provide soil stability during rain and windstorms. I rarely see this previously abundant large animal wildlife (coyote, bobcats, mountain lions, badgers, deer, elks), various birds (hawks, owls, hummingbirds, and others), and smaller burrowing animals. They died or had to move to another part of the mesa. Some animals cannot adjust to the sudden change of land disturbance. These places were their habitats for breeding, and the caves and burrows were their homes. Since the mine initiated with an increase in human activities, larger game animals are rarely seen.
In addition to the strip mine issues, there is also the coal slurry pipeline problem. There have been numerous spills along the pipeline route to the Mohave Generating Station. The slurry is composed of water and coal powder. The spilled coal slurry can damage waterways and threaten wildlife. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA say the pipeline maintained by Black Mesa Pipeline Inc. has leaked more than half a million gallons of coal slurry in 15 separate spills.9 Corrosion of the pipe caused the leaks, and Peabody is not properly monitoring the pipeline. For each discharge, the company has to pay a fine and conduct the cleanup. Some spills not reported promptly caused more damage. Nearby communities and environmentalists want Peabody to pay penalties for each spill. It stated that some of the slurries’ spills were never cleaned.
Done is finished, and it cannot change, but we can prevent it by learning more about what happened to the land in terms of mining, water, vegetation, wildlife, and people on the Earth.
Today, there are guidelines and regulations available to the public. We need to educate our children and ourselves and not let these large corporations come in and take what they want and leave a mess.
Water
Water is scarce in the Southwestern United States. The precipitation in the Southwest varies in elevation. Some areas receive more rain than others do. The four-corners region receives an estimated ten to twenty inches of rain per year. Water is vital to all living creatures, especially in the Southwest, where water is valuable. In the Diné Nation, about 30% of families do not have running water. The families use water for personal use, watering their livestock and cornfields. On the Diné Nation, the Navajo people quote, “Tóbee iiná,” meaning water is life.
When Peabody Coal Company came onto the mesa to extract coal, it took vast amounts of water from the aquifers. The water supply for all mining operations (including coal transport) derived from five wells spread two miles apart at a depth of approximately 3,600 feet; groundwater pumped from the deep Navajo Sandstone aquifer (N-aquifer).10 The company constructed wells to transport slurry coal from the Black Mesa Pipeline to the Mohave Generating Station. The coal slurry is a mixture of water and powdered coal. Four pumping stations convey the coal slurry through an18 inch diameter pipeline that stretches 275 miles at a velocity of five miles per hour.11 The transportation of the black mud was continuous for 35 years, since 1970. From 1970 to 1978, Peabody’s estimates from average and maximum annual withdrawals were exceeded in six of nine years the pipeline was in operations, which accounted for 75% of total water pumped from the N-aquifer.12
The water usage on Black Mesa by Peabody caused the rapid decline of the aquifer after constructing three more wells. The water table level lowered gradually to the N-aquifer that exhibited low water levels in the wells. It caused many tribal concerns, including: how much water level decline is the result of mine-related pumping, what further decreases may be expected over the life of the mine, and what will the long-term effects on the availability of water from the N-aquifer for other uses.13
Thank goodness! The Mohave Generating Station shut down in 2005 and ceased the use of a vast amount of water from the N-aquifer. Between 1994 and 1999, the 275 mile Black Mesa Pipeline failed twelve times; eight failures spilling coal-slurry onto the landscape or into nearby washes.14 It is estimated that approximately 2,290 tons of coal-slurry outflowed; no reclamation procedures or impact studies were performed.15 These spills impact the topsoil and cause leakage into the groundwater. The extent of damage of over two tons of coal spread onto grazing land is uncertain, and the company will not take the initiative to clean the spills. These spill incidents were not publicly disseminated for all people to be informed.
The N-aquifer is a massive lake under the mesa. With time and yearly rainstorms, the aquifer will slowly increase its water level with the mine’s closure. Yet, it will take years to equal the discharge from rain, stream, and creek beds. I hope when companies come onto the reservations, they will show care about the land and will not destroy the ground and taint the water. The Dine leaders need to ensure that all people who come onto the nation know how our culture respects the land, water, and air.
Reclamation
Black Mesa, as many western-mined areas, have vast lands, but water on these lands will always be an issue. Water is the main factor when environmentalists begin to reclaim mined arid regions. The choice of plants, the site of planting, time of planting, the water quality, and the erosion potential are essential elements on a successful reclamation. Expert knowledge of these essentials is the basis to reclaim the mined land back to its original state or better. The mesa’s goal is to provide the residents’ rangeland for their livestock (sheep, cattle, and horses) and cornfields. For most families, their herd and cornfields are their primary sources of income.
A study conducted in two land areas, one on mined land and the other on the undisturbed ground, demonstrated an important comparison. Runoff data from the watersheds evaluated the effectiveness of revegetation efforts on the distribution and yield of surface water within the mined area.16 The data collected estimates of water quality, minerals, chemicals in the sediments, soil moisture content, water movement through soil, and the distribution and availability of plant growth, to examine whether these factors impacted the land and water. These collections are primary factors in revegetating the property. It would be desirable to ensure a steady supply of water to have the last cut filled for stock water from moisture that percolates through the mined ground.17 The results are that the soil content of both the mined and natural areas are similar. The texture of both soils is loamy; however, the mine soil has a more excellent range of water availability for plant growth than the natural area.18 The mine area still has no structure, and water tends to puddle, but in due time the conditions will get better for vegetation. The stripped area needs to show growth and productivity despite the arid conditions of lack of rain, and dry winds.
The vegetation needs years and years to return to its natural state. Many of the wildlife species, such as coyote, deer, badger, bobcat, and mountain lion, will not return because of the reclaimed area changed their natural habitat. Maybe the smaller ones, like rodents, insects, and snakes, will return. Today, when I drive around the land, many of the stripped areas do not look natural. I just see hills, more hills, a few shrubs, and no trees. The mining corporations left behind their metal structures, which are eyesores on the landscape. The mines shut down a year ago and there are no obvious signs of thorough clean up.
When the established mines are on Indian (Federal) land, the land, vegetation, wildlife, water, and people take a toll from the contamination. Therefore, when tribal herbalists search and collect the herbs used in traditional medicines, they have difficulty determining if the medicinal plant is safe for humans to use or they have problems finding the plants at all. This results in them needing to travel further to other areas, off the reservation. I experience this same problem when I attempt to collect sage, tea, and pinion branch. Peabody stated they were careful to replant species of plants that have cultural importance. But some of the medicinal plants used by medicine men for ceremonies are no longer in existence on the reclaimed land. The medicine men said the grass planted took the place of herbs.
Dine People and medicinal plants
The Dine people have been using and practicing natural medicine as long as they have been on Earth. Research says the Dine people have been in the Americas since at least the 1500s when the Spaniards made contact with the Navajos. In one of the many books and articles I read, there was evidence of an ancient hooghan (hogan) discovered in the southeastern part of Colorado, dating back to the 1300s. The Navajo people know the southwest area and use the function and purpose of different plants in the area. They use these plants for medicines and for food.
When someone is sick within a traditional family, a family member will seek a traditional herbalist. The herbalist will prescribe the herb for the specific illness, which can be for the lungs, muscle, bone, and other ailments. The patient usually drinks or applies the plant as a topical to help with the sickness. When the herbalists search for herbs, it is difficult today to find because of the damaged land, lack of water for the herbs, and some plants are not safe anymore because of human encroachment. The individual has to travel further, where no contamination has damaged the land and vegetation. For example, the ch’il ahweeh (Navajo tea) grows along certain parts of the highway. You cannot pick them because of vehicle exhaust, trash debris tossed from vehicles, and restroom pit stops along the road which are evidence of human exploiters of the environment.
There are common herbs many families know about and use readily. Herbs like Tsa’aszeh tsotsi (Banana yucca), Nidishchii (Pinion pine), and ch’il ahweeh (Navajo tea) known as Green threads are common plants grown on the Colorado Plateau and hand-picked during a particular time for food, medicine, and ceremonies. An herbalist or traditional person picks the plants reverently and respectfully. The individual begins with a prayer facing the east, then to the Earth, the surroundings, and to the particular plant. The prayer is to bless the plant and to thank the plant for providing food or medicine. A gift of corn pollen or sacred stones is placed on or under the plant for giving a part of it. Then, part of the plant is snipped above the root, about three to four stems. The individual moves to another plant and cuts again; this process is repeated until the individual feels the plant’s amount is enough for food or medicine. The medicinal or food plant has completed its use; the remnant of the plant is returned to nature and not tossed into the trash. When the herb has served its purpose, it is returned to the environment and placed under a juniper tree to feed it back into the Earth. These are the actions of humans as caretakers.
Reclamation teams have planted up to fifty different species of culturally and medicinally important plants. Plants including green Mormon tea, banana leaf yucca, four-wing saltbush, cliffrose, Gamble oak, fringed sage, Indian ricegrass, needle-and-thread grass, and pinion pine.19 The future of the mined areas will be an example of a hopeful and prosperous reclaimed land.
Banana Leaf Yucca
Tsa’aszeh tsotsi (Banana yucca). Scientific name: Yucca spp. Plant type: cactus.20 Flowers bloom in May and June, livestock and wildlife favor the fleshy and succulent fat yellow or green shaped banana. The ancient plant is found throughout the Western states. The banana yucca fruit is a traditional food. The stalks, seeds, and flowers prepared by roasting or baking are additional food luxuries. The fruits picked before they ripened, and the fleshy banana pounded into pulp to form into sweet flat cakes. Then eaten when ready or sun-dried for later. The roots are used for soap, shampoo, and as a laxative. I remember eating the flat fresh and delicious cakes. I also remember my mother digging out the roots to wash my hair, and my hair was squeaky and very clean. The leaf stems are woven into mats, ropes, and sandals. In addition, one hundred two stem leaves are used for counting win and loss points during a Navajo Shoe game.
Pinion Pine
Nidishchii (Pinion pine). Scientific name: Pinus edulis. Plant type: gymnosperm.21 The tree is a native plant found in the Southwest from 3,000 to about 8,000 feet elevation along with yucca and sagebrush plants. They grow in semiarid regions on rocky foothills, mesas, and plateaus. The leaves are needles, and the plant produces cones. The cones provide pinion nuts during the fall season in August through October. Neeshch’ii’ (Pinion nuts) are preferred snacks for the natives who pick the nuts. The nuts are roasted for meals or mashed into a salve to relieve burns. The needles are boiled into a drink like tea that is used for stomach ailments and is a good source of vitamin C. The jeeh (sap) from the tree is heated and applied onto sores, cuts, bites, or boils to ooze out the infection. Chewing on the sticky juice relieves coughs, sore throat, and is used as a laxative.
Navajo Tea (Green thread)
Ch’il ahweeh (Navajo tea) is known as Green thread. Scientific name: Thelesperma megatamicum.22 The plant is native to the central and western parts of the United States, and is found at elevations of 4,000 to 8,000 feet. The herb is a perennial plant with stem branches up to 25 to 30 inches. The leaves are small and yellow flowers bloom at the top of the stem. The primary use of this plant is brewing for tea drinks. The tea acts as a mild diuretic to help the kidneys, alleviate stomach cramps, and purify the blood and headaches.
In arid regions with very little rain, the plant does not thrive abundantly in the wild. However, the hardy plant will grow sparsely in harsh conditions. Today, many of the Dine people begin to plant and harvest the tea plant because of human exploiters who damage the land. Some will sell them commercially, and others will donate the tea plant to people who need them for their ailments.
Cliffrose
Awééts’ áál (Cliffrose). Scientific name: Purshia mexicana. Cliffrose is found on cliffs, mesas, and in washes, at elevations from 2,500 to 8,500 feet.23 The shrub survives in drought conditions in the Southwest, and in the Great Basin regions. The plant grows in pinion-juniper woodland and shrubland areas. The shrub plant can grow up to eight feet tall. The flowers are white with cream to yellow color stamens and they bloom from April to June. The fruits ripen from September to October. The barks are shredded and used for padding cradleboards for the infants. The tiny leaves with dotted hairs are sticky to touch. The leaves can be pounded into a pulp and applied to sores and wounds. The leaves and twigs are made as a tea to induce vomiting for an upset stomach.
These native plants found in the Western United States at specific elevations can survive in that zone. They are hardy plants that can survive drought conditions. However, companies come to take these resources; the demand for progress and the encroachment of humans who destroy the native vegetation and wildlife species are increasing. The elders, medicine men, herbalists, and traditional native people are worried about the struggle to find native medicinal plants. They have to travel further to collect individual medicinal plants. Even the common plants seen along the road are not suitable to pick. They need to walk to places where there is no evidence of human footprints, to choose the selected plants. Yet, when selecting these plants, they need cleaning. Washing, baking, boiling, and roasting helps clean the herbs for distributing them to the sick or for personal use.
The content strategies and classroom activities are from the Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) model. The founder, Marcia Brechtel, wrote a book, “Bringing it all Together, Language and Literacy in the Multilingual Classroom”. The book has numerous strategies and classroom activities I have used with my students during my many years of teaching. When teaching the unit, I will use the Dine culture and language when using the strategies and during classroom activities.
Content Strategies
Focusing and Motivation - Cognitive Content Dictionary and Inquiry Chart. The Cognitive Content Dictionary (CCD) involves a student’s metacognition. Students are thinking about their thinking. It is a word study of a specific word from the unit of part of speech, other word form, antonyms, synonyms, word origins, and syllabication. The key in using the name is, the teacher uses the word all day, as a word study to practice breaking down the word and to use body movement and gestures for the word to help students remember the name. By the end, the teacher and students have heard and said the vocabulary about 45-85 times a day.
The Inquiry Chart is similar to the KWL chart. The inquiry chart sets the purpose for student learning using their background knowledge and their answering and questioning technique. On a poster chart, two written questions, ‘what do you know about strip mining and what are you questioning about strip mining?’ The graph will stay up with the duration of the unit. The teacher and students will review the chart daily and will add answers to the question as the group progresses.
Input Strategies – Pictorial Input Chart (Comparative and Narrative Input Charts). The pictorial input chart is a crucial strategy because it is useful in all content areas. It makes content information comprehensible. The teacher pencil sketches the image lightly onto a poster chart. For example, within this unit, the Black Mesa strip, mined areas with the silos, conveyer belt, and dragline sketched and labeled with vocabulary words and short key phrases about the mesa are written on the chart. After the completed sketch, the teacher uses colored markers to trace the figures, vocabulary, and critical information in front of the students. This imprinting and chunking of information help students remember the concept.
Classroom Activities
Introductory Lesson or Engagement - Guided Practice: Sentence Patterning Chart (SPC), Picture File Cards, and Exploration Report – The sentence-patterning chart assists students in practicing vocabulary, sentence structure, and poetry writing. All activities are conducted with the teacher, and then students complete one as a team task. The SPC uses five of the eight parts of speech to form sentences in columns. The labeled columns begin with adjectives, then nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositional phrases. Students brainstorm as many adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and prepositional phrases as possible, until the columns are full of words. Then students practice reading or singing the words on the chart.
Picture file cards are specific pictures for the unit. These pictures stimulate questions, discussions, and writing. The images need to be high interest and collections from National Geographic Magazines. There are numerous activities for the picture cards, ranging from whole class to individual student, from oral language to direct teaching, to independent use.
The Observation chart is an activity that students can use with a picture file card. Students answer orally or write three questions using a picture file card: ‘what do I observe, what am I wondering, and what is my prediction.’ This classroom activity encourages students to use academic discourse, use the visual prompt to inquiry thinking, and models the scientific process.
Middle Lesson or Exploratory Lesson – Reading/Writing: Expert Groups, Process Grid, Co-op Strip Paragraph. The expert group includes one student from each table/group working with the teacher in a small group setting for thirty minutes. The teacher distributes a page about the topic with a mind map. The teacher and students read the text and create a mind map category, and then complete the mind map. The teacher uses pictures to identify the main ideas that students will learn. A paragraph at a time, the expert group (students) read the text chorally. After reading each section, the teacher guides students to highlight the main ideas in the book, and for each highlight, students sketch and draw a line connecting the sketch to the stress. As the activity progresses through paragraphs, the teacher releases responsibility to students to come up with the main ideas—students record information on the mind map adding their sketch and notes.
The process grid is a grid created on chart paper that organizes information into a visual across the top and down the side. The chart assists students with the processing of their learning by adding their information to the grid. Students use prior knowledge, questioning skills, generalization, predicting, and evaluating within the content. The teacher develops the category titles depending on the type of writing preferred. The teacher can use the grid to compare and contrast, sequencing, cause and effect, and academic vocabulary. The reason for the process grid is to prepare students for writing expository paragraphs.
After the process grid, the co-op strip paragraph follows and makes a connection from the chart. The co-op strip paragraph aids students in reading and writing expository text. It models the writing process with editing and revising. The teacher generates the topic sentence based on the process grid to insert the sentence string in the pocket chart. Then each team is to write one supporting sentence using the information from the process grid then the teams place their sentence strips in the pocket chart below the topic sentence. As a whole class, students watch the teacher tear the sentence strip to arrange the pieces in a paragraph format. The students and teacher orally read through the paragraph and ask the students if there are possible revisions like changing the order of the sentences or combined sentences. Then the class and teacher orally reread the item, and this time, ask the students of possible editing, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This classroom activity will help students see the writing process and help struggle students who need additional assistance in writing.
End of the Unit Lesson or Evaluative Lesson – Closure/Evaluation: Students create a five-minute or a power-point video about a common traditional plant that will then present on zoom. A rubric for the PowerPoint grades their presentation. The rubric is a five-point scale with content, slide creation, slide transition, picture and background, mechanics, and presentation skills. Students will search the internet, interview their parents and grandparents about the herb plant.
Another end of the unit lesson for evaluation is for students to create a Big Book about strip mining or herb plants as caretakers of the Earth. The big book needs to have six pages with a front and back cover, with the key repeating the phrase and essential concepts. Three photos, sketches, pictures on each page to support the topic. For example:
The critical thing about caretakers is they honor, respect, and revere Mother Earth. (Key pattern phrase)
- (first key concept)
- (second concept)
- (third concept)
Closing pattern phrase
When students complete the generated big book, they will use a rubric to self-assess their writing and explain why they gave themselves a particular score. Then the teacher will use the same rubric to provide the student with a score. The final score from student and teacher should be similar.
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