This was the headline recently in The New York Times.
So what does the U.S. Government’s selling off Apache Holy Land to an Australian mining company have to do with Fort Collins? It’s part of our larger picture. Foreign corporations, because of their money, have more clout with elected officials than their own constituents. For example, some people are researching the possibility that some of the “secret” money that recently helped elect several of our City Council members came from corporate mining interests– mining for oil and gas of course. Don’t ever say “It can’t happen here.” Ordinary folks need to take our political institutions back from special economic interests. And we need to stand in support of those who are putting their bodies on the line to protect their heritage. Here’s part of the Times story:
Three hundred people, mostly Apache, marched 44 miles from tribal headquarters to begin this occupation on Feb. 9. The campground lies at the core of an ancient Apache holy place, where coming-of-age ceremonies, especially for girls, have been performed for many generations, along with traditional acorn gathering. It belongs to the public, under the multiple-use mandate of the Forest Service, and has had special protections since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower decreed the area closed to mining — which, like cattle grazing, is otherwise common in national forests — because of its cultural and natural value. President Richard M. Nixon’s Interior Department in 1971 renewed this ban.
Despite these protections, in December 2014, Congress promised to hand the title for Oak Flat over to a private, Australian-British mining concern. A fine-print rider trading away the Indian holy land was added at the last minute to the must-pass military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. By doing this, Congress has handed over a sacred Native American site to a foreign-owned company for what may be the first time in our nation’s history