Congress To Sell Ancesterial Apache Lands To Chinese interests.

Congress Raids Ancestral Native
American Lands With Defense Bil
WASHINGTON -- When Terry Rambler, the chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, woke up Wednesday in Washington, D.C., it was to learn that Congress was deciding to give away a large part of his ancestral homeland to a foreign mining company.

Rambler came to the nation’s capital for the White House Tribal Nations Conference, an event described in a press announcement as an opportunity to engage the president, cabinet officials and the White House Council on Native American Affairs “on key issues facing tribes including respecting tribal sovereignty and upholding treaty and trust responsibilities,” among other things.

Rambler felt things got off to an unfortunate, if familiar, start when he learned that the House and Senate Armed Services Committee had decided to use the lame-duck session of Congress and the National Defense Authorization Act to give 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona to a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining giant Rio Tinto.

“Of all people, Apaches and Indians should understand, because we’ve gone though this so many times in our history,” Rambler said.

Rambler knew there was a possibility that supporters of the move -- which failed twice on the House floor last year -- would slip the deal into the must-pass legislation, but aides and officials involved had declined to reveal it. Even Tuesday evening, when Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee released summaries of the bill, the land deal was left out.

Rambler and other opponents couldn’t find out until late Tuesday night when the bill, named the “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015” (after the retiring Senate and House committee chairmen), was finally posted online. The news that Apache burial, medicinal and ceremonial grounds would be given to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, was on page 1,105.

“The first thing I thought about was not really today, but 50 years from now, probably after my time, if this land exchange bill goes through, the effects that my children and children’s children will be dealing with,” Rambler said in an interview.

The land includes territory where Apaches gather medicinal plants and acorns -- a food source that Rambler said has sustained his people for as long as they know. 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 1800s.

“Since time immemorial people have gone there. That’s part of our ancestral homeland," Rambler said, referring to the overall area in question. "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.”

There are supposed to be two areas excluded from mining, including Apache Leap, but the bill specifies Resolution Copper can get permission in just 30 or 90 days to drill among the oaks.

Rio Tinto has pursued the deal for a decade, and it was apparently pushed into the NDAA largely thanks to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). It passed the House once in 2011, but when leaders brought it to the floor twice last year, they couldn’t find enough votes, and pulled it. Most Democrats opposed it and growing numbers of Republicans were concerned about how it was being conducted. To many, it looked like a sweetheart deal being made outside of the regular process of dealing with federal land. And some were unhappy that the prime beneficiary, Rio Tinto, also owns a uranium mine in Africa with Iran. Others worried that most of the copper will go to China, which owns 10 percent of Rio Tinto.
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Not more than a month ago I posted something similar about land grab in Tanzania where the government sell-out the locals for foreign interest ,if I thought that this would be unlikely in the States then Hah!

Maybe now people will clue in to what many of us have been saying for a long time now. The land that the Govt. decides should be taken because it needs protecting from the public is only a way for the corporations to lay hands on whatever they want.

National Parks, Wetlands, private property and forests grabbed under the guise of protection is only Agenda 21 rearing its ugly head benefiting politicians and corporations that pay them. Remember when no one understood why parks were and still are being closed to the public? How about making room for surveyors to do their work uninterrupted.

We called it and I hope people are now starting to realize that we were right. This is how Govt. starts to pay the debt. Give away YOUR land to foreign interests while pocketing more personal wealth along the way.

Peace

Maybe a quick lawsuit would stop this. Stealing Indian lands is so 19th century.

Are the Apache going to fight back? I mean armed resistance.

originally posted by: Aleister
Maybe a quick lawsuit would stop this. Stealing Indian lands is so 19th century.

I donno I think this falls under something like imminent domain only this is the NDAA or National Defense Authorizations Act. meaning sell out to the Chinese is part of the national Defense..someone should tell Joe at NLBS to run this story.

we really need to find a way to put a stop to these sleazy tactics when they slip things into bills like this and try and slip it past us.

id like to join them if they do stand against this corrupt government.......

a reply to: Spider879

You have to ask yourself this question first!

How can the US Government sell land from a sovereign nation? It is not the USA, it is a sovereign land belonging to the Apache Nation.

The answer is the same way they can do this to the States. They were separate sovereign nations before the Civil War until the Federal government defeated the States.

Double post

a reply to: IncognitoGhostman

the way i understand it, although they are considered to be self governing and a sovereign nation, the majority of them still fall under some federal laws and guidelines.

here is just one link for it.
Bureau of Indian Affairs

a reply to: Spider879

First they came for the natives... And so the story goes.

originally posted by: Spider879
Congress Raids Ancestral Native American Lands With Defense Bill

Gee...what could possibly go wrong, there?

I don't think they're going to stand idlely by and accept this decision and it won't matter what jurisdiction the feds try to push this under and make immune.

They won't succeed.

a reply to: IncognitoGhostman

Thy said that the Apache are wards of the federal government. It figures. They use this excuse when they want to screw some Native nation or other over.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

You are correct as this is called "spoils of war". That was an interesting read and is really sad what US Government has done to them. Basically from what I read the gov holds their land in trust and derivatives. They can do what they want with it through an act of congress or executive power.

a reply to: Skid Mark
The Indians themselves are not wards of the government. Their lands however are!

I will support the Indians in anyway i can to preserve their lands. They are corralled up already.

originally posted by: pryingopen3rdeye
we really need to find a way to put a stop to these sleazy tactics when they slip things into bills like this and try and slip it past us.

Yeah, these earmarks or implanted sub-bills that are hidden in massive "need to pass bills" is corruption and misuse of power at its finest. The post said that the selling of this land wasn't even included in the summaries of the bill, which are what most politicians read..

What burns my bacon is that some of that land is sacred land. It's like driving a manure truck into a Christian's church and spreading it around.

Double post.

originally posted by: IncognitoGhostman

How can the US Government sell land from a sovereign nation? It is not the USA, it is a sovereign land belonging to the Apache Nation.

it is not part of the Apache Reservation, it is part of the United States Forest Service.