Apartheid: American Style The Battle For the Soul of Black Mesa

By Marsha Monestersky

July 1999

South Africa’s notorious group Areas Act enforced tribal and racial homelands and forcibly relocated millions of black South Africans, shocking many Americans. But few of us realize that similar policies here in the United States have resulted in massive relocation of the Dineh (Navajo) Indians from their homes in the Black Mesa region of northern Arizona. Three thousand more stand to be forcibly relocated in February 2000 – for the benefit of mining interests – unless action is taken now.