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Occupy Oak Flat Protest Against Resolution Copper

Leaders of Occupy Oak Flat say they won't give up until the U.S. government repeals the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange. The San Carlos Apache Tribe, leading a three-week protest at the Oak Flat Campground, vows to remain there until the federal government bends. The controversial exchange gave Australian-British mining company Resolution Copper (a subsidiary of the largest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto) access to a vast underground copper reserve under Oak Flat. The deal trades 2,400 acres of previously federally protected land for 5,300 acres of company property. The land exchange was attached to the 2015 United States National Defense Authorization Act as a midnight rider after it failed to pass as a stand-alone bill multiple times during the last decade.

Apache Occupation Of Planned Cooper Mine In Third Week

For more than two weeks, protesters have made camp at Oak Flat, the site of a planned copper mine that will result in a massive crater on the sacred site’s surface. “We’re not moving,” said Wendsler Nosie, a former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a vocal opponent of the mine. He is the organizer of the protest, which he describes as “Occupy Oak Flat.” Nosie and other mine opponents want a repeal of the legislation that turned over 2,400 acres of Tonto National Forest to a mining giant, before conducting environmental studies and having formal consultations with concerned tribal governments. “We can work with the United States to fix this,” he said in a phone interview. “If the United States fails and becomes defensive, then I have no control. There’s going to be a lot of tribes here coming from all over the country.”

Hundreds Occupy Oak Flat To Fight For Sacred Apache Land

Some 300 tribal members and supporters from across the country had gathered to protest the infringement of traditional Apache holy lands. There were Chippewa, Navajo, Lumbee, Paiute, Havasupai, and representatives of the National American Indian Movement and the National American Indian Veterans group, as well as non-indigenous supporters representing myriad concerns including those of environmentalists and other lovers of nature. All were furious at Congress’s sneaky transfer of sacred Apache land to a mining company and vowing to do what they could to see that it didn’t happen. “What was once a struggle to protect our most sacred site is now a battle,” said San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler, organizer of the grassroots movement aimed at stopping transfer of hundreds of acres of ceremonial land to those who would dig a mile-wide hole in the ground in a search for copper.

Taking From Indians Is An American Tradition

So just what is the state of Indian affairs today? Congress is again poised to significantly and negatively impact tribal lands via must-pass legislation. The Oceti Sakowin are unified against taking tribal lands that were never ceded to the United States, against a project that will bring increased violence, potential environmental destruction, and many other harms to their communities. Although the decision to attach Keystone XL to must-pass legislation likely won’t be made behind closed doors as it was with the Apache Land Grab, the end result will be the same: tribal people dispossessed of tribal lands to benefit extractive industries.

Apache Leader: Unite To Fight Proposed Copper Mine

Apache leader Wendsler Nosie issued a call for solidarity in the fight against Congress’ recent decision to give sacred Native American land to a foreign mining company. Speaking to a crowd of about 75 gathered Friday in South Tucson, Nosie invited people of of all races, religions and political affiliations to stand up against what he calls the “dirty” way in which legislators approved the land swap in December. He invited everyone to a spiritual gathering and protest at Oak Flat, about 100 miles north of Tucson, next Saturday. “This is not just our fight. This is an American battle,” said Nosie, former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. The reservation’s border is just east of the proposed copper mine at Oak Flat, sacred to Western Apache and Yavapai people.

Young Navajos Stage 200 Mile Journey For Existence

At dawn on January 6, 2015, a group of young Diné (Navajo) women and their supporters gathered at sunrise near the fire department at the base of Dził Na’oodiłii (Huerfano Mountain). From there the group embarked on a 200-mile trek through eastern New Mexico—a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the tragic “Long Walk.” Throughout this journey they have been raising awareness about the historical and present day challenges faced by Diné people and inspiring hopeful solutions to address these issues. Organizers are calling out for community support in the form of walking, hosting or helping to garner basic materials. This first journey will end at Tsoodził (Mount Taylor), their southern sacred mountain.

Penokee Mine Activist Sentenced To 9 Months Jail

Katie Kloth, aka Krow, is an activist, artist, forager, sustainable farmer, and biologist who has been committed to struggles to protect the environment and liberate all life for many years, and has spent the last several years organizing against the proposed Penokee mine in the north woods of Wisconsin, USA. On June 11th, 2013, she was cited by the Iron County Sheriff for theft due to her alleged involvement in a rowdy protest earlier that day that disrupted bore hole drilling on the Penokee Range. Since it was considered such a minor crime, she was neither arrested nor detained that day. On June 21st, it was announced that the Iron County District Attorney increased the charges to robbery with use of force (a class E felony), two counts of criminal damage to property and one charge of theft of movable property (<=$2500).

Resistance To Skouries’ Gold Mine Persists Despite Aggression

The Save Skouries/S.O.S. Halkidiki anti-gold mining campaigners held a follow-up demonstration today (28/12/14) to keep the pressure on Eldorado Gold Corporation after the disgraceful scenes of indiscriminate state violence against the peaceful demonstration held on 23rd. November 2014. Xekinima comrades made the trip from Thessaloniki to show solidarity with the campaigners who continue to oppose the destructive gold mining operation which threatens water supplies, releases a toxic cocktail of pollutants into the atmosphere and has laid waste to acres of forest. Once again the uniform and MAT riot police deployed teargas with a variety of delivery systems including hand-thrown grenades, compressed gas jets and the converted flare pistol which fires three gas cylinders at once indiscriminately into the crowd.

Mining Interests Challenged By Direct Democracy

Conflicts over mining are expanding across Guatemala. According to a recent report by Amnesty International, the Canadian government and Canada-based multinational mining companies have played a major role in the conflicts and abuses of human rights in indigenous communities. For the indigenous Mayan communities of Guatemala, the process of participatory decision-making takes the form of the community consulta, or consultation, which has played an important role in the interactions between indigenous peoples and the government. According to articles 1, 66, and 67 of the Guatemalan constitution, the government is required to respect indigenous land and protect their communal ownership system. In the event that a mining permit is issued on the land of indigenous communities, the government must consult the population two weeks prior to the issuing of permits for explorations.

Cree Youth Walk 850 Km To Protest Uranium Mining In Quebec

About 20 young Cree people have walked nearly 850 kilometres to Montreal’s South Shore from their village in northern Quebec, protesting against uranium exploration in the province. The youth left Mistissini, Que., northeast of Chibougamau in the James Bay region three weeks ago. On the way, they stopped in Quebec City to share their message. They arrived in Longueuil, just across the bridge from Montreal, Saturday. Their final destination is downtown Montreal, where they will deliver that message to the province’s environmental protection agency, known as the BAPE, when it holds the last of a series of public hearings on uranium exploration tomorrow.

What Resolution Copper Wants To Inflict On Apache Sacred Land

The San Carlos Apache Tribe is battling to save a sacred site that has been federally protected from mining since 1955. That is, until now. Lawmakers have slipped a clause into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would allow for a land swap, giving Resolution Copper Inc. 2,400 acres of copper-containing land in return for 5,300 acres of substandard land scattered throughout southeast Arizona. Problem is, it lies right on a scenic—and did we mention sacred?—recreation area set aside by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who specified that it be protected from mining: Oak Flat, Devil's Canyon, and Apache Leap. It is not only sacred to the San Carlos Apaches and related tribes but also would be subject to a technique called block cave mining.

Rape Of Appalachia: Admin Fails To Stop MTR

The process of mountaintop removal mining has made accessing coal seams easier and less labor intensive. It’s also blighted the Appalachian landscape of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia where it’s taking place, destroying 10 percent of the land in central Appalachia, ravaging forests, burying more than 2,000 miles of streams in debris and polluting water supplies with coal ash and chemicals. And it’s helped decimate employment in the coal industry, dealing another blow to one of the country’s poorest regions. It’s great for Big Coal, not so great for ordinary citizens. The report stressed the urgent need for federal action in light of the failure of state agencies to adequately oversee the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining. It pointed to the revelation that Fraser Creek Mining in Kentucky appears to have violated the Clean Water Act more than 28,000 times. . .

Greece: Brutal Police Repression Of Mine Protest

Once more a demonstration against Eldorado Gold’s Skouries mine in Halkidiki was met with tons of teargas by the riot police. More than 1.500 demonstrators of all ages marched to the location where Eldorado’s subsidiary, Hellas Gold, is developing a huge open-pit gold and copper mine right in the middle of what used to be a pristine forest. Approximately 180 hectares of forest have so far been cleared in order to make way for the mine, a processing plant and two monstrous tailings dams. For the past three years, the local people and the broader solidarity movement resisting the mine have faced extreme repression and penalization of their struggle.

Cree March To Ban Uranium Exploration

Seven young members of the James Bay Cree Nation began an 800-kilometre trek from Mistissini to Montreal Sunday to demand a ban on uranium development in northern Quebec. “We want a uranium-free Eeyou Istchee (Cree territory), ” said Youth Grand Chief Joshua Iserhoff, 36, who set out with six others at 11 a.m. in minus-2-degree weather. They plan to arrive in Montreal on Dec. 15, the final day of hearings on uranium development by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE). The march underlines the Crees’ opposition to uranium exploration and mining, which they say would encroach on traplines, poison the environment and threaten their traditional way of life.

Miners Shot Down: Blood On Whose Hands?

Interviewed by Rehad Desai in his new documentary, Miners Shot Down, Marinovich’s words form part of a forensic case built up over the course of the film that forcefully indicts the police, the government and the Lonmin mining company for their respective roles in the most deadly display of state violence witnessed in post-apartheid South Africa. It may have been rank-and-file police officers pulling the triggers, but, Desai’s film concludes, it is those at the top – “those who pulled the strings” – who bear greatest responsibility. “Heads need to roll at a very high level,” agues Ronnie Kasrils, a former minister for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and outspoken critic of President Jacob Zuma’s government. To date, not one policeman has been charged for what took place at Marikana, victims have been both blamed and put on trial, and suspicions of a cover-up stubbornly linger.

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