A Question of Power

For nearly half a century, North America’s largest Native American reservation relied on coal extraction and the burning of coal for jobs and economic vitality. Loved or hated, coal has been a mainstay for decades on the Navajo (Diné) Nation, even as it has polluted the air and scarred the land that the Diné hold sacred. Now, the coal era on the Navajo reservation is coming to an end. Opponents of the coal industry claim that the promised economic benefits were never realized, while the industry’s operations have caused damage to residents’ health and the environment. The coal-burning plants created a persistent haze and siphoned vast amounts of water desperately needed by residents. Furthermore, the electricity generated by burning coal travels hundreds of miles to cities such as Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles and San Diego, California; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Meanwhile, one-third of Navajo homes are without power, and forty percent are without water.

Between 2004 and 2007, photographer Carlan Tapp created photographs and video interviews that documented opposition to the proposed Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo (Diné) Nation near Farmington, New Mexico. The power plant construction was officially cancelled in 2011 due to widespread public opposition, falling electricity demands, and uncertainties surrounding climate change legislation.  It would also have increased greenhouse gas pollution and regional haze and polluted the local communities’ land and water. Desert Rock, a 1500-megawatt coal-fired power plant, would have become the nation’s sixth-largest carbon emitter. Through his photography and interviews with Diné people, Tapp documented the opposition to the construction of the power plant. Forty photographs and interviews with Diné people are presented in this exhibition.

Photo: Courtesy of Carlan Tapp

Jim Mason. Diné (Navajo) Medicine Man, Burnham, NM. (January 2006) explains:

"The ceremonial plants are dying from the pollution which falls from the sky. Their roots are dead. We no longer have the plants we need for ceremony. The blasting of Mother Earth for the strip mine shakes the ground I stand on every day. The walls of my hogan suffer from great cracks caused by the blasting. My sheep can no longer drink the water."