The 1960’s came with a high demand of energy and expansion in the western region of the United States. This demand came with a love – hate relationship between the government and the Native Peoples. Black Mesa is an example of this.

Black Mesa is an upland mountainous mesa of Arizona falling in the Navajo and Apache Counties. The name comes from the dark appearance of numerous seams of coal that run through the area.

The plateau rises to over 8,168 feet. The highest peak is in the northern rim near the city of Kayenta, Arizona. Black Mesa is now split between the Hopi and Navajo tribal reservations. The mesa has been home to native peoples for over 7,000 years.

Black Mesa is also home to two coal mines owned and operated by Peabody Coal Company: the Black Mesa Mine and Keyenta Mine. The mines brought jobs and a new economy to an otherwise desolate area. In the 1960's controversy arose over a lease owned by the company that overlaps with the reservations of the Navajo and Hopi tribes.

The controversy stems from a faulty agreement made between the Peabody Coal Company and the Hopi Tribe. The agreements permitted the extraction of local ground water and an average of 14 million tons of coal per year to provide electricity for southern California, Nevada, and central Arizona. A prominent natural resources attorney, John Sterling Boyden, who claimed to be representing the Hopi Tribe, while actually on the Peabody Coal Company Payroll, negotiated the agreement.

The Black Mesa Mine's last day of operation was December 31, 2005. One of the power plants served by the coal mined at the location had the highest emission levels in the Western United States. The closing of the mine leaves in it’s remnants economic problems to the Native Tribes as well as years of environmental damage. The Navajo Aquifer is showing signs of serious decline, water levels have decreased more than 100 feet each year.