— Phoenix, Arizona —
Well, it’s happened again.
“It,” meaning the passage into law, of some unrelated, completely
irrelevant deed — irrelevant that is, in relation to America’s annual
National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA — a spending bill for the
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
This time around, Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake have
teamed up to snatch and sell off national forest land that has long been
sacred to the Apache people, through a slippery NDAA rider that has
effectively set the stage for a land-swap — an exchange between
Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, and the government — aptly named the
Southeast Arizona Land Exchange.
The rider was a last minute provision slithered into the massive,
must-pass, NDAA of 2015 last December — an effective political ploy used
by many a politician to sneak something into code that would not
otherwise pass by itself.
In fact, the swap had already been attempted out in the open as
standalone legislation in the past by Arizona legislators, and had
fallen flat in the face of an executive protective order from the 1950s
every time. The provision however, successfully accomplished the land
sale in backdoor fashion, and involves Resolution handing over about
5,300 acres of private land to the Forest Service in return for the
right to mine the 2,400 acres in question.
Considering the careers, benefactors and campaign contributors of McCain
and Flake, it is not surprising to see the Rio Tinto gift arise in the
defense bill at all. Reverb Press reports, “John McCain just happens to
be Congress’ largest recipient of campaign contributions from Rio Tinto.
Jeff Flake’s piece of the puzzle? He was once a paid lobbyist for Rio
Tinto. Is anyone surprised by these revelations?”
Resolution, is a subsidiary of transnational UK-based mining giant Rio
Tinto — a company worth over $100bn dollars and riddled with controversy
— more on that in a few paragraphs.
Earthworks also reports that the company is owned and parented in part
by Australian behemoth BHP Billiton, and that BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto
are the first and second largest strip-mining Goliaths in the world
respectively.
ReverbPress reported the situation thusly:
An ancient and beautiful Apache holy site is about to be handed off
to a foreign mining company, thanks to Republican Sens. John McCain and
Jeff Flake. What will be left behind, when the company is through, is a
caved-in pit, 1,000 feet deep and two-miles wide.
Sacred Ground at Oak Flat
The place sitting smack-dab in the heart of the bullseye in this story
is Chi’Chil’Bilda’Goteel — or Oak Flat as it’s known in English — a
sacred Apache burial ground and ceremonial site. Congressional testimony
by the Society for American Archeology said that the Apache have been
occupying the space “since well before recorded history.”
In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower declared the area protected — a
definite monkeywrench for companies like Resolution Copper Mining that
have wanted to get their paws on the large quantities of precious ore
known to be sequestered beneath the sacred site.
Oak Flat Campground
An around-the-clock encampment has been under way for several months
where participants have been camping out in protest and to send a
message that they are ready to fight to save Oak Flat. The movement also
has a website titled Apache Stronghold where the public can receive
updates about the ongoing effort. The homepage of the site bears these
words by Wendsler Nosie Sr. — long time opponent of Southeast Arizona
Land Exchange and Councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe:
The greatest sin of the World has been enacted by Senator McCain,
Senator Flake, Representatives Kirkpatrick and Gosar of Arizona by
including the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange in the National Defense
Authorization Act. We are calling on all religious faiths, &
military veterans, for this country was founded on freedom of speech,
religion and worship which has been given away to a foreign mining
company. They declared war on our religion, we must stand in unity and
fight to the very end, for this is a holy war.
Lydia Millett, Contributing Op-Ed Writer for the New York Times recently
wrote this in her piece about Oak Flats:
The land grab was sneakily anti-democratic even by congressional
standards… If Oak Flat were a Christian holy site, or for that matter
Jewish or Muslim, no senator who wished to remain in office would dare
to sneak a backdoor deal for its destruction into a spending bill — no
matter what mining-company profits or jobs might result. But this is
Indian religion. Clearly the Arizona congressional delegation isn’t
afraid of a couple of million conquered natives.
Rio Tinto’s Indigenous Land-Grabs
Rio Tinto is no newcomer in the arena of steamrolling over the rights
and wishes of indigenous people, and their sacred lands. In a lawsuit
from 2000, Rio Tinto was sued for genocide and high war crimes on
Bougainville Island in the country of Papua New Guinea, after violence
erupted over what was once the world’s most massive copper mine.
At the time of the revolt, about twenty percent of the total revenue
from the mine was payed as royalty to the government of Papua New Guinea
— the tribe, who owned the land the mine was on, was getting about one
percent.
The lawsuit claimed Rio Tinto instigated a civil war by paying off and
directing the government of Papua New Guinea to slaughter at least
10,000, and possibly as many as 20,000 Bougainvilleans, after local
tribesmen blew up power pylons at the mine in an effort to shut it down.
That effort was successful — the mine was shut down — and many locals
gave their lives to keep it that way.
A documentary put out in 2011 by SBS Australia stated:
What hasn’t been revealed until now is the powerful support the
people of Bougainville had when they launched their class action — none
other than Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare —
providing the court with this sworn affidavit — alleging that it was Rio
Tinto that was calling the shots during the Bougainville war — forcing
the PNG government to launch the blockade of the island — and the
military action — in order to reopen the mine.
Judge Mary Schroeder said in a written statement regarding that case,
“The complaint alleges purposeful conduct undertaken by Rio Tinto with
the intent to assist in the commission of violence, injury, and death,
to the degree necessary to keep its mines open,”.
To the enragement of many, in June of 2013, after nearly a
decade-and-a-half of legal battles, Rio Tinto was let off the hook in
the case — leaving many Bougainvillean families affected by the conflict
further dismayed.
What the Future Holds for Oak Flat and the Apache
Although the off-the-wall 2015 NDAA rider paved the way for the
land-swap, it would seem that the battle at Oak Flat is far from over.
Considering the fighting spirit and history of the apache, it is
probably safe to say the 24/7 encampment rolling there now is almost
sure to meet any mining efforts head-to-head should any occur in the
near future.
Oak Flat -- Apache Ceremonial Gathering -- Photo-Arizona Mining Reform
Coalition
The minerals from under the earth at Oak Flat are not yet mined, and the
battle is far from over as a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
must be written and then approved — a process that will surely take
years.
It also seems likely that this land-swap provision could be challenged
in court. Even then, other legislation could be proposed to repeal it.
[Editor’s Note: Since the release of this article, Representative Raul
Grijalva has proposed legislation to repeal the language.
If one thing is for certain it’s that the Apache are historically, and to this day, a very tough and resilient people, and it doesn’t look like they plan on giving up without one helluva fight. - http://environews.tv/world-news/arizonas-gop-senators-sell-off-apache-burial-grounds-to-rio-tinto-with-sneaky-ndaa-land-grab-rider/
- http://environews.tv/world-news/arizonas-gop-senators-sell-off-apache-burial-grounds-to-rio-tinto-with-sneaky-ndaa-land-grab-rider/
2 comments:
The bastards need to have their necks stretched a foot or two.
Traitors...
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