Black Mesa is an upland area in Navajo County, Arizona. In Navajo it is called Dzil Yizhiin ("Black Mountain") and during Mexican rule of Arizona it was called Mesa de las Vacas (Spanish "mesa of the cows"). It derives its dark appearance from the numerous seams of coal which run through it. Location in the state of Arizona Formed March 21, 1895 Seat Holbrook Area  - Total  - Water 25,795 km² (9,959 mi²) 16 km² (6 mi²) 0. ... Navajo (also Navaho) (in Navajo: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken in northwest Canada and Alaska). ... Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (strip mining). ...

The mesa is located on the Colorado Plateau near Kayenta, Arizona, and rises to over 8168 feet. Its highest peak is located on Black Mesa's northern rim, just a few miles south of the town of Kayenta. Reliable springs surfacing at several locations mean the mesa is more suitable for continuous habitation than much of the surrounding desert area, and the mesa has been home to native peoples for at least 7,000 years. It is now split between the Hopi and Diné (Navajo) tribal reservations. The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateaus Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. ... Kayenta (Navajo: Tó Dinéeshzhee) is a census-designated place which is part of the Navajo Nation and is located in Navajo County, Arizona, USA. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 4,922. ... Hopi woman dressing hair of unmarried girl Part of a Hopi pueblo Hopi House near Grand Canyon, stereoptical view c. ... Navajo blanket Navajo Nation (Navajo: Naabeehó Dineé) is the name of a sovereign Native American nation established by the Diné. The Navajo Indian Reservation covers about 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometres) of land, occupying all of northeastern Arizona, and extending into Utah and New Mexico, and is...

Since the 1960s the mesa has been strip mined for coal by the Peabody Western Coal Company, stirring a debate over Peabody Energy's use of groundwater to transport coal. The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Strip mining is the practice of mining a seam of mineral ore by first removing all of the soil and rock that lies on top of it. ... History The Black Mesa plateau lies in the arid Four Corners region of the United States, overlapping the reservations of the Navajo and Hopi tribes. ...

External links

• History of the Black Mesa
• Environmental concerns relating to the coal extraction operation