Native-Americans meeting June 11 in opposition to Oak Flat mine proposal

Native-Americans meeting in opposition to Oak Flat mine proposal

By: Mike Leiby, The Independent
06/18/2010

WHITE MOUNTAINS - Native-Americans representing Arizona's Apache Tribes met at Hon-Dah resort June 11 in opposition to legislation which allows copper mining on traditional, sacred lands, but even more so to talk about what San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Wendlser Nosie Sr. says has been a long-time lack of voice in government for indigenous Native-American peoples.

Called "Enough is Enough: Tribal Voices Must Be Heard," the Southwestern Tribal Summit was held to share, collect and disseminate information from Tribal people/representatives with the goal of submitting that information to the United Nations. Much of the information includes examples of infringements/injustices suffered by Southwestern U.S. Tribes since they became wards of the U.S. Government.
One of the most recent infringements according to Nosie, is the quest by Resolution Copper (RCC) to gain access to approximately 2,400 acres of traditional/sacred/holy Apache Lands known as Oak Flat in the Tonto National Forest about four miles east of Superior known to contain billions of dollars worth of high-grade copper in exchange for 5,500 acres of environmentally sensitive land throughout the state.
Nosie says the mining would not only have negative impact on Oak Flat, Gaan Canyon and Apache Leap, all sacred sites to the Apache people, but for communities downstream as well because of water pollution from block cave mining activities.
"The United States complacency and support in allowing RCC to continue to degrade this holy and sacred place without considering our right to exist is unacceptable and is a state-sanctioned violation of the human rights of the Apache People to have access to our religious and spiritual places which are vital and necessary for our survival, and to maintain the foundation of our identity as Apache People," says Nosie.
He notes Oak Flat as well as Gaan Canyon are sacred not only to the Apache Tribe, but other Native-American Tribes as well.
"Although the area proposed for mining by RCC is currently owned by the United States government as the Tonto National Forest, this land is within the traditional aboriginal homeland of the Apache People which we have occupied since time immemorial," he says.
He says the Apache Tribe no longer has any voice in how non-reservation, but traditional, sacred lands are used. He says the mind set regarding such matters is a direct result of 19th century government policies "to kill and remove the Apache People" from their homelands in order to make room for western expansion and settlement.
Nosie says he strongly opposes allowing RCC, a conglomerate of foreign based multi-national mining grants, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, to mine in the area. He says the Legislation, backed by Arizona Senators John McCain and John Kyl, and Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, is just another example of how the U.S. has ignored written agreements granting protection of lands sacred to Native-Americans.
That is what Nosie and others who feel the mine would be a catastrophe want to stop.
He says he does not want to divide the white community from the Native-American community, on the contrary his goal is to unite the two through education and understanding of the two different lifestyles and world views. He does however want the voice of Native-American peoples to be heard and acknowledged by the powers that be.
"One of the things with the Oak Flat, the mining issue, yeah it starts with that, but it sort of woke us up to the way the United States governed business with foreign companies or companies within the United States, " Nosie says. "It showed us the political activities in Washington that take place, and the reason why I say this is because if you do a chronology of everything that is passed by the federal government in The United States Congress, the Tribes have adhered to that, we've been obedient, the "good citizen" following everything they said.
"But in return there is an issue with government when it comes to consultation with the tribe, a trust responsibility The United States has with the Tribe into the well-being of the Native-American People, it is in the treaties," he says.
"So what has happened since the time Indian peoples have been made prisoner's of war, it has been educated to us that the U.S. will have that trust responsibility and take care of us, so the people who were first put as prisoner's of war believed that and it was passed on to the next generation that The United States would always protect their interests," Nosie says.
He says when Apache lands which have spiritual meanings were put in the protection of the U.S. Forest Service, the tribes relied on the U.S. to protect the land through that trust responsibility. He says that is what Friday's summit was all about, securing a voice in government for Native-Americans regardless of tribal affiliation or reservation boundaries.
Resolution Copper has completed initial feasibility studies and begun informal discussions with the U.S. Forest Service concerning the proposal which would involve block cave mining. Block cave mining is much more ecologically destructive than the traditional method of mining used in Superior.
Roy Chavez and Roger Featherstone with the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition say the effects on regional water supplies as a result of a block cave mining at Oak Flat would be profound.
"This mine would disrupt the fragile riparian habitat that makes Oak Flat an ecological and recreation haven. It could also disrupt water supplies for Superior, Globe, Miami, and the eastern portion of the San Carlos Apache Reservation as well as for the Phoenix metropolitan area, as this mine would change the hydrology of the area," says Chavez.
He says the lands in question are critical to several Native American Tribes adding that both the Arizona Inter-Tribal Council and the National Congress of American Indians oppose the land exchange.
Rio Tinto recently admitted that a mine at Oak Flat would create a hole the size of Meteor Crater near Winslow.