Congress Gives Native American Lands to Foreign Mining Co Under Military Budget

[Eldo]

Congress is poised to give a foreign mining company 2,400 acres of national forest in Arizona that is cherished ancestral homeland to Apache natives. Controversially, the measure is attached to annual legislation that funds the US Defense Department.
This week, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees quietly attached a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would mandate the handover of a large tract of Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining company Rio Tinto, which co-owns with Iran a uranium mine in Africa and which is 10-percent-owned by China.
The “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015” - named after the retiring chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services panels - includes the giveaway of Apache burial, medicinal, and ceremonial grounds currently within the bounds of Tonto. News of the land provision was kept under wraps until late Tuesday, when the bill was finally posted online.

The land proposed to be given to Resolution Copper, in exchange for other lands, includes prime territory Apaches have used for centuries to gather medicinal plants and acorns, and it is near a spot known as Apache Leap, a summit that Apaches jumped from to avoid being killed by settlers in the late 19th century.

Lands included in the plan will stop 1,500 feet short of Apache Leap and will not initially include an area known as Oak Flats, though, when it comes to the oaks, contradictory legal parameters are but a minor hurdle for a company like Resolution Copper to eventually drill there.

Not the Lost Dutchman Mine areas, but further to the south.

The problem is that these are the same companies that are threatening our rights to mine in AZ, and stake claims as individuals or small businesses.

These are the same companies that moved in offering large amounts of money to the govt, and had small timers pushed out of the valley, and the Natives taken from their sacred medicinal grounds in the past.

Why they are doing this is unbeknownst to me?......

there are already ten open pit mines in the area, a couple almost engulfing a small town and becoming the proverbial cash cow of their city's economic infrastructure, making them co-dependent to the mine owners' decisions and other negative influences they bring to the res and the territories.

To think that the US govt is now looking to take control over a part of the Supes...........Just like they did with the White Sands Missile Base, after finding gold......and they say this is over Copper.....

This isnt over copper. Take a look at the area yourself.

View attachment 1089687

Why is the US Military now moving their foreign assets into the US...........?

Because they are clearly looking for more than copper..........and stepping on everyone's Civil Liberties and Rights to use the lands.

The Natives are also being threatened, and their Medicinal Grounds will all be torn apart.......this is not good

Because the funding is coming from the Military budget........John McCain has been able to somehow force his way onto Native Grounds, further stepping on their lands

This will allow the US govt to use Military Force to make the Natives give up their property

 

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[Eldo]

Look at the terminology from their own website, and how they say the final plan will be different then what they are proposing.....

look at the disclosure saying, 'we warned you, were going to make last minute changes after we have secured our land claim'.....

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What I dont understand is how they get away with shutting the small guys out, the pickers, the diggers, and they get full rights to be moving this forwards, to make it the Largest Copper Mine in the US, after they already have tonnage coming from the valley

 

[Slingshot]

Big money and Fascist government always crushing the little guy. I hope the Apaches give em a run for their money!

 

[kayakpat]

john mccain is the head of the armed service comitee

 

[BrassEagle]

Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining company Rio Tinto, which co-owns with Iran a uranium mine in Africa and which is 10-percent-owned by China. U.S. government, giving away America again? Then they can hirer some of the 4 to 5 million illegal aliens to work the mines. Then they can ship the copper to Iran via china to make bullets so they can kill more Americans great plan! Thank Government.

 

[JrMack]

I would hope that any infringement upon Indian lands by the government is a sad turn of events! any lands owned by them are but a fraction of there historical lands-most bartered for during colonization of the country by states, and later government! Its the same as them taking your property rights using the imminent domain clauses for the benefit of a few..Reminds me of some of the indian standoff in the 60's as I recall.. only today it wouldn't even get national coverage because of !not wanting simpathizers to the issue! Very sad indeed

 

[Clay Diggins]

The land is being exchanged for lands the Federal government wants - nothing is being "given away". Federal laws require equal value for exchanged lands. Resolution could legally just claim the area as millsite land and pay a small yearly fee - they don't have to exchange land for land to take the area for mining. Resolution Copper is a United States corporation. Foreign companies can not mine public lands.

The Apache's "ancestral homeland" is interior Alaska and Canada - they are Athabascans. The Apache and Navajo Athabascans moved south over time and began raiding the native inhabitants of the southwest less than 700 years ago. Their culture and language is very different from the native desert tribes. They are seen as intruders by southwestern natives. Their short portion of the long history of the native southwest is told with tears and grief by those who do have a rightful claim to an "ancestral homeland" here.

There is no historical evidence that any Apache ever jumped from "Apache Leap". None. It's a made up story for tourists and eastern adventure readers. There was some initial objection from several rock climbing groups that rappel from the "leap" but they backed off when they realized neither the Apache Leap or the access to it was part of the land exchange.

The area in question has never been Apache land. It is not part of any native reservation or allotment and never has been. The nearest native lands are 40 miles away - about the same distance as the half million people in the city of Mesa. The town it is located next to has been actively mining and processing copper since 1875. The proposed Resolution mine is next to the 100 year old active mines and smelters. This is a continuation of a long history of mining a rich deposit. It is not a mine plunked down in pristine wilderness.

Bullets are not made from copper - even in China. Smart phones, electric wire, the computer you are posting with, the fresh fruits and vegetables you eat and most of modern life does depend on a fresh supply of mined copper. It costs more than $10,000 to mine a ton of copper today. In 2012 10.1 million tons of copper were mined. That may sound like a lot but it was still 129,000 tons less copper than what was consumed by industry - all those phones, power lines and the rest of modern life. That's a rolling deficit in an actual metal needed to support your lifestyle.

So you have a choice. You can get wired up by a slanted article about native rights where there are no natives and government giveaways that didn't happen and forget ever being able to afford a new phone. Or you can support responsible mining practices and continue enjoying your current lifestyle.

Copper doesn't grow on trees. Newspaper does.

 

[Slingshot]

"Bullets are not made from copper" - I have to disagree with this statement. The best bullets have copper jackets over lead cores.

 

[BrassEagle]

Cooper and tin make? Brass.

 

[yodi]

The government is out of control, its only about money. They take our land and our rights and sell them to foreign powers, its sad.