Black Coal, Red Power

Item Information

Title:
Black Coal, Red Power
Description:
90 minute program, produced in 1972 by WNET, originally shot in color. Strip mining is occurring specifically in an area known as Black Mesa, a large ?black mountain? with pinnacles and plateaus. The strip mining and related power plants under construction nearby will, according to producer Shelly Grossman, severely affected the livelihood of the Indians by destroying the ecological balance. However, Grossman says he is ?concerned with what was happening on Black Mesa, not only for the Indians but for the whole Southwest.? There are about seven power plants in the planning stages for the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Power production is the only end use of the coal being mined. The power is transmitted to large cities like Los Angeles, Tucson and Phoenix. Power production is the only end use of the coal being mined. The power is transmitted to large cities like Los Angeles, Tucson, and Phoenix. Benefit to the Indian is minimal. An agreement signed with the Peabody Coal Company in 1969 allows the tribes royalties of about $1 million per year ? divided between the Hopis and Navajos on areas of joint uses. (The Hopi reservation sits in the middle of the Navajo reservation. On the land that is in the Navajo section only, that tribe will get all the income.) Also, Peabody promised to make up three quarters of its work force with Navajos, which amounts to less than 100 in a nation that is 130,000 strong. For the uninvolved Indians there are two serious issues at hand. To the Navajos it is the strip mining which is destroying grazing land for their sheep ? their primary income. The thin overburden ? topsoil removed to get to the coal, then respreads ? could make reclamation difficult in a climate with little rain. Peabody has said it would move the families affected. But since nearly every square foot of reservation land is allotted for grazing, the livestock cannot be moved. Also, to the traditional Navajos, all land is sacred. For the Hopis, the problem is pollution. Piles of clay shale sit near a creek that borders on the Hopi cornfields. Moencopi Wash, as it is called, is about seven feet below the cornfields. According to Dr. Vern Taylor of Prescott College in Arizona, sporadic downpours could cause the shale to filter down into the wash, dissolve rapidly and gradually raise its level, flooding the cornfields. The shale would cause the water to become salty and fresh crops would not survive. Since the Hopi culture is based on corn, the tribe?s natural economy would be destroyed. In addition, smoke stacks from nearby power plants release SO2 in to the air, which is killing plants Indian women use to make natural dyes. The film follows the strip mining operation from the initial dynamiting of the topsoil to when the coal is carried off in enormous trucks to power plants. Views of the Four Corners plant operated by the Utah Mining Company at Fruitland, NM, are good examples of the pollution pouring from stacks and penetrating the atmosphere to as much as 50 miles away. Other scenes depict the simple life style of the Navajo amidst the shadow of mines and power plants; evidence of a clay shale dump near the Moencopi Wash; a Navajo woman making her natural dyes, and other examples of how the Indians? life style is threatened. Grossman also filmed a Hopi family in an attempt to understand a day in the life of a traditional religious Hopi. Throughout the film Grossman stresses the need to find clean and non-destructive methods of producing power. Shelly Grossman and his wife Mary Louise were the creators of WNET?s ?Our Vanishing Wilderness,? a series of eight half-hour films based on the spectacularly illustrated volume, Our Vanishing Wilderness. Grossman has been a longtime photographic explorer of wildlife on three continents. Other books by him and his wife include Birds of Prey of the World and The Struggle for Life in the Animal World. ?Black Coal, Red Power? is a production of the national programming division of WNET/13. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Production company:
WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.)
Producer:
Prowitt, David
Producer:
Grossman, Shelly
Date:
May 22, 1972
Format:
Film/Video
Genre:
News
Documentary
Location:
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Subjects:
News
Business
Environment
Race and Ethnicity
Energy
Extent:
01:31:16
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-cz3222s60v
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