http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/22/1404587/-Repugnicans-to-Apaches-Drop-Dead?detail=email
The Act included an eleventh-hour rider that would swap land between the National Forest Service and Resolution Copper Mining, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. The deal would turn 5,300 acres of Resolution-owned land over to the US Forest Service, in exchange for about 2,400 acres of public land, including an area known as Oak Flat. No secret what Resolution plans to do with Oak Flat: dig 7,000 feet into the ground to get at one of the world's largest copper deposits.
Sounds like a good deal, huh? The Forest Service takes in twice the amount of land it gives up, and the company claims that its new mine will create 2,400-plus jobs and generate $61 billion in local and state economic activity and tax revenue. And the copper? Well everyone knows the world needs copper!
The company's claim would mean more "jobs" than the entire population of the nearest town, Superior, Arizona, and about "twice as much revenue as the Super Bowl generates in 50 to 60 years." In addition to pipe-dream numbers, such digging has invariably led to wide, barren pits when the land caves in. The town already looks like a war zone, with dozens of craters created by other mines in the area.
But this isn't just any area around Superior; this is Oak Flat, a stunning piece of land in the Tonto National Forest. It is a sacred holy place to the San Carlos Apache tribe, where tribe members have performed traditional acorn gatherings and coming of age ceremonies--mostly for girls--for generations.
And there's plenty of archaeological evidence to back this up. The land has been protected since 1955, when President Eisenhower decreed it closed to mining due to its cultural and natural value. Even Richard Nixon's administration renewed the ban in 1971.
Ah, but today's Repugnicans feel no such need to preserve the sacred. Especially when both of Arizona's Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, have been on the Rio Tinto dole. According to the New York Times, Rio Tinto affiliates have long been contributors to John McCain's senate campaigns, and Jeff Flake was a paid lobbyist for the giant Rio Tinto Rössing Uranium in Namibia before being elected to Congress.
And they're not the only Repugnicans to try this: Former Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi was frog-marched last year to the Federal Correctional Institution at Morgantown, West Virginia for attempting to force companies to buy his ex-business associate's land so Renzi could repay a debt. In addition to his three-year sentence, Renzi was earned the distinction of being one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress," according to a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
centuries later and the paleface is still screwing the Native Americans and disrespecting their religious freedom and sacred lands. there has been a few stories of late about the republican and right wing skulduggery against the real Americans, wonder why we haven't heard anything about reaching out for their vote. should the evangelicals take up their fight since it appears to be one they think applies to them and their religious freedoms????????
