{"id":9086,"date":"2021-03-15T16:45:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T20:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=9086"},"modified":"2021-03-17T11:35:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T15:35:22","slug":"bill-introduced-to-protect-sacred-apache-site-from-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/03\/15\/bill-introduced-to-protect-sacred-apache-site-from-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill introduced to protect sacred Apache site from development"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\" ><iframe class=\"embed-responsive-item\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-AxFlj5jHuw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Indianz.Com Video: <a href=https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/Video\/2020\/03\/12\/save-oak-flat-vernelda-grant-u.asp>Save Oak Flat | Vernelda Grant | US Capitol<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Bill introduced to protect sacred Apache site from development<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Monday, March 15, 2021<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source\">Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/grijalva.house.gov\/\">Rep. Ra\u00fal  Grijalva<\/a>  (D-Arizona) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/\">Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vermont) have once again introduced legislation to permanently protect a sacred Apache site from development.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<a href=https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/house-bill\/1884>H.R.1884<\/a>, the Save Oak Flat Act repeals a contested federal law that paved the way for a huge mine at Oak Flat in Arizona. Though the project is <a href=https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/03\/01\/san-carlos-apache-tribe-cheers-right-move-to-protect-sacred-site-from-copper-mine\/>on hold thanks to President Joe Biden<\/a>,  the two lawmakers want to make sure the site is forever protected. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThe San Carlos Apache never asked for this land to become a political issue, but this is not a fight we\u2019re going to lose,\u201d   Grijalva, who introduced the <a href=https:\/\/www.house.gov\/>U.S. House of Representatives<\/a> version of the bill, said  on Monday. \u201cI will work to move this bill forward, this land is going to be protected, and we\u2019re going to establish that you don\u2019t get to push around Native American communities just because you can make a profit.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n \u201cThe Biden administration was doing its job in withdrawing the Trump administration\u2019s politically motivated analysis, and now that we can move forward in a more rational way, this land is going to be protected for the long term,\u201d said Grijalva.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cToo many times our Native American brothers and sisters have seen the profits of huge corporations put ahead of their sovereign rights,\u201d said Sanders, the author of the companion bill in the <a href=https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/>U.S. Senate<\/a>. \u201cIt is wrong that a backroom deal in Washington could lead to the destruction of a sacred area that is so important to so many. We must defend the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are standing in opposition to this giveaway of our natural resources to foreign corporations.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">CORRECTING LINK:<br><br>Days after asking a federal judge to stop a huge copper mine on sacred territory, the San Carlos Apache Tribe is celebrating the Biden administration\u2019s decision to pull back the controversial development. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProtectOakFlat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ProtectOakFlat<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Arizona?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Arizona<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2Iy5Jqkus0\">https:\/\/t.co\/2Iy5Jqkus0<\/a><\/p>&mdash; indianz.com (@indianz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/indianz\/status\/1366551600358166528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nIn the final months of the Donald Trump administration, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/\">U.S. Forest Service<\/a> moved  to complete a land swap between the federal government and foreign   interests behind the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resolutioncopper.com\/\">Resolution Copper mine project<\/a>. The   <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resolutionmineeis.us\/\">final environmental statement<\/a> (FEIS)  and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resolutionmineeis.us\/documents\/draft-rod\">draft record of decision<\/a>  (ROD) were issued on January 15, just five days before Biden took office.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nDespite the apparent rush to finalize the project, signs of change began to emerge  in the nation&#8217;s capital not long after. On February 11, the <a href=https:\/\/www.achp.gov\/news\/background-resolution-copper-project-and-southeast-arizona-land-exchange-tonto-national-forest>Advisory Council on Historic Preservation<\/a> (ACHP), an independent federal agency, said it would no longer go along with the Forest Service&#8217;s plans for the mine.\r\n<P><\/p>\r\n \u201cIt is clear that the proposed undertaking would destroy significant historic properties, including the highly significant Oak Flat,\u201d  John M. Fowler, the executive director of the ACHP, wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/15\/210211achptermination.pdf\">letter to the  Tonto National Forest<\/a>, where the mine would be located. The <a href=https:\/\/twitter.com\/indianz\/status\/1359973494956646404>letter was written<\/a> after the Trump-appointed leader of the ACHP left the government.\r\n<P><\/P><div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><p><\/p>\r\nThen on March 1, the Forest Service  shared a  \u201cproject update\u201d about the mine. The agency rescinded the FEIS and ROD and said it would engage in more consultation with the <a href=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sancarlosaz\/>San Carlos Apache Tribe<\/a> and other Indian nations affected by the land swap.\r\n<P><\/p>\r\n\u201cThis is the right move by the Department of Agriculture,\u201d Chairman Terry Rambler    said at the time.. \u201cThe Resolution project will desecrate <em>Chich\u2019il Bildagoteel<\/em>, also known as Oak Flat, which is the heart of our religious and cultural beliefs.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAmid the change in course, the ACHP on March 4 said it had <a href=https:\/\/www.achp.gov\/news\/achp-extends-release-comments-resolution-copper-project-following-forest-service-land-transfer>collected more than 500 comments<\/a> about Oak Flat. The  comments will be submitted to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usda.gov\/\">Department of Agriculture<\/a> by March 29.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"h4-responsive\">Related Stories<\/div><a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/03\/04\/cronkite-news-biden-administration-puts-halt-to-mine-at-sacred-apache-site\/\" title=\"Cronkite News: Biden administration puts halt to mine at sacred Apache site\">Cronkite News: Biden administration puts halt to mine at sacred Apache site<\/a> (March 4, 2021)<BR>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/03\/01\/san-carlos-apache-tribe-cheers-right-move-to-protect-sacred-site-from-copper-mine\/\" title=\"San Carlos Apache Tribe cheers \u2018right move\u2019 to protect sacred site from copper mine\">San Carlos Apache Tribe cheers \u2018right move\u2019 to protect sacred site from copper mine<\/a> (March 1, 2021)<BR><a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/03\/01\/cronkite-news\/\" title=\"Cronkite News: Deb Haaland shares her vision for Interior Department\">Cronkite News: Deb Haaland shares her vision for Interior Department<\/a> (March 1, 2021)<BR><a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/02\/15\/cronkite-news-judge-wont-stop-copper-mine-on-sacred-apache-site\/\" title=\"Cronkite News: Judge won\u2019t stop copper mine on sacred Apache site\">Cronkite News: Judge won\u2019t stop copper mine on sacred Apache site<\/a> (February 15, 2021)<BR><a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/02\/09\/cronkite-news-apache-stronghold-fights-to-protect-sacred-site-from-foreign-mine\/\" title=\"Cronkite News: Apache Stronghold fights to protect sacred site from foreign mine\">Cronkite News: Apache Stronghold fights to protect sacred site from foreign mine<\/a> (February 9, 2021)<BR><a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/01\/21\/cronkite-news-republican-pardoned-in-connection-with\/\" title=\"Cronkite News: Republican pardoned in connection with Oak Flat land deal\">Cronkite News: Republican pardoned in connection with Oak Flat land deal<\/a> (January 21, 2021)\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/15\/verneldagrant-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"verneldagrant\" class=\"invisible\" height=\"0\" width=\"0\" \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva (D-Arizona) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) have once again introduced legislation to permanently protect a sacred Apache site from development.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20,13,1,14],"tags":[869,1300,42,991,94,75,1299,48,53,892,1072,126,43,597,91,598,556,474],"class_list":["post-9086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-117th","tag-achp","tag-arizona","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-h-r-1884","tag-house","tag-joe-biden","tag-mining","tag-oak-flat","tag-raul-grijalva","tag-sacred-sites","tag-san-carlos-apache","tag-senate","tag-terry-rambler","tag-usda","tag-usfs","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/15\/verneldagrant-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-2my","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}