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Mark Trahant
ICT

Nicole Horseherder, co-founder, Tó Nizhóní Ání, or Sacred Water Speaks, and Colette Pichon Battle, co-founder of Taproot Earth and former executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, were named Wednesday as winners of the 28th Heinz Awards for the Environment. Each will receive an unrestricted cash award of $250,000.

Horseherder is an energy justice leader working to protect the water, air and landscapes of the Navajo Nation and position the region to transition to and produce renewable energy. She is co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Tó Nizhóní Ání, which works to protect the aquifers, streams and land of Black Mesa, Arizona, from the impact of decades of coal extraction.

“It was quite a surprise,” she told the ICT Newscast with Aliyah Chavez on Thursday. “We fought hard to get mining, the mining company and the associated coal plant off of Navajo water. It was very intense and it was an effort that took a number of years to finally achieve. And we did it.”

She said the industrialization of Navajo water is particularly challenging because of the high desert climate, producing roughly 8 inches of rainfall per year.

“We don't have rivers and streams up here on Black Mesa. We rely completely on the groundwater and the rainwater. So when mining comes in and taps into the groundwater and starts using excessive amounts and we lose our springs and our seeps, the people naturally will rise up and defend the water source,” she said.

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The organization is now focused on the “just transition” away from fossil fuels.

“We have to say what the future economic development is going to look like,” she said. “We have to fight hard for sustainable development. We have to control how transition happens here. There's no one else that's going to advocate on our behalf. We can't ever be in a situation again where industry dictates how our lands and our resources are used.”

She said the people of Black Mesa paid too high a price for the “inexpensive” electricity in three states. “Up here on Black Mesa, we have spent the last 48 years, close to 50 years, supplying the coal from our lands and all the water needed to support … the impacts of coal mining and coal plants don't stop at jobs and revenue. These kinds of projects have huge environmental impacts, health impacts.”

The Heinz Family Foundation said research revealed that the Peabody Mine was depleting the Navajo Aquifer of 3 to 4 million gallons of pristine water per day for a slurry line to transport coal, while also exposing nearby residents to heavy metal-laden coal dust. Additional coal mining agreements in place since the 1960s were also exploiting Indigenous land and water to benefit growing populations in Arizona, Nevada and California. And while extracted coal was lighting nearby cities, those residing in Navajo and Hopi lands lacked access to electricity due to the exclusion of Indigenous nations in the Rural Electrification Act of the early 1900s.

Horseherder, her husband Marshall Johnson and community member Valencia Edgewater established TNA as a nonprofit in 200.

The award was established by Teresa Heinz in 1993 to honor the memory of her late husband, U.S. Senator John Heinz. It recognizes the extraordinary achievements of individuals in the areas of the Arts, the Environment, and the Economy. For more information on the Heinz Awards, visit www.heinzawards.org.