(Reuters/Gary Cameron http://on.rt.com/sbi0xc)
Environmental
concerns impact the most vulnerable, or disadvantaged communities most
dramatically. The class has explored several cases of land-rights disputes
between small populations and larger governments around the world, including
the Brazilian Amazon, Sierra Leone’s forests, Chiapas Mexico, and Somali pirate
waters. One student commented that luckily, United States policy is no longer
racially biased against the indigenous peoples. However, this Wednesday’s
release of the “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015” suggests differently.
The
House and Senate Armed Services Committee attached a provision to the National
Defense Authorization Act, which would hand over a large portion of the Tonto
National Forest to the foreign mining company, Resolution Copper. This land is
important to the San Carlos Apache Tribe as burial, medicinal, and ceremonial
grounds. Terry Rambler, the chairman of the tribe, stated that is where his
people have gathered acorns, a food source that has sustained his people for as
long as they know.
There is a deeper,
historical importance, as it also surrounds the Apache Leap, a summit from
which trapped Apaches once jumped to their deaths, rather than be killed by
settlers in the late 1800’s. “Since time immemorial people have gone there.
That’s part of our ancestral homeland," Rambler said, "We’ve had
dancers in that area forever -- sunrise dancers -- and coming-of-age ceremonies
for our young girls that become women. They’ll seal that off. They’ll seal us
off from the acorn grounds, and the medicinal plants in the area, and our
prayer areas.”
Resolution Copper
will use a variety of “block cave” mining that digs underneath the ore and
causes it to collapse from its own weight, which eventually cracks and subsides
the surface land. This would not only threaten the historic and present use of
the land, but the livelihood of future Apache generations. “What those
mountains mean to us is that when the rain and the snow comes, it distributes
it to us,” Rambler said. “It replenishes our aquifers to give us life.” It is
unknown what impacts this will have upon water distribution once the land
begins to subside.
Most United States
citizens do not generally feel the impacts of scarcity, as the powerful and
wealthy government is able to provide necessary resources and services to
compensate for the world’s diminishing resources. However, this is an
autonomous population that is acutely aware of the exploitation of their
subsistence resources they depend upon. Scarcity-induced
social conflict usually involves renewable, less ‘lootable’ resources, such as
water and arable land. Another case in the US includes the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation in Washington State over 1,600 acres transferred for industrial
development. With a growing number of cases of land disputes with the
disadvantaged Native Americans, could this potentially develop into a much more
vicious conflict as seen in Brazil?
Late Wednesday
night, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oka.) tried to offer an amendment to remove the
Resolution Copper deal from the defense bill, but lost in the House Rules
Committee on a 6-4 vote. The mine has filed an operating plan with the federal
Forest Service and starting a review under the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA). However, NEPA only applies to land that belongs to the federal
government. Western environmentalism is growing popularity with increasing
green initiatives and sustainability-conscience public. Indigenous lands serve
as a loophole. Perhaps this reflects the dichotomy between indigenous
environmentalism and western environmentalism. This demonstrates a need for
public environmental dialogue to incorporate more holistic, universal, and intrinsic
elements of indigenous environmentalism.
McAuliff, Michael. “Congress Raids
Ancestral Native American Lands with Defense Bill.” (Decmber 3, 2014). Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/ndaa-land-deals_n_6264362.html
“Congress gives Native Americans
lands to foreign mining company with new NDAA.” (December 4, 2014). RT. http://rt.com/usa/211531-native-indian-lands-mining/
