Tribes, environmentalists battle copper mine in Arizona
The Associated Press - Anita Snow
May 19, 2019 11:32 AM EDT
Last Updated May 19, 2019 2:36 PM EDT

SONOITA, Ariz. — Scenic State Highway 83 gently curves through southeastern Arizona’s wine country, past waves of blond grass dotted with orange-tipped ocotillo plants before the dark Santa Rita Mountains loom into view.
The Milepost 44 pullout offers a panorama of the range in the Coronado National Forest where a Canadian firm wants to carve out a massive copper mine near Tucson. The $1.9 billion Rosemont Mine, at a half-mile deep and a mile wide, would sprawl across federal, state and private land, leaving a waste pile the height of skyscraper.
Native American tribes and environmental groups have sued to stop Hudbay Minerals Inc. of Toronto, arguing its mine could desecrate sacred, ancestral lands and dry up wells and waterways while ravaging habitat for endangered jaguar and other species. Last week, they asked a federal judge to prevent the project from proceeding until the lawsuits are decided.
“I pray to our Creator every morning that things will work out,” said Austin Nunez, chairman of the Tohono O’odham’s San Xavier District, a piece of tribal land just south of Tucson. “Our ancestors’ remains are there, along with archaeological sites, including a ball court. We cannot risk any further harm to our ancestral heritage.”
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Is the rule of law in and of itself illegal?
By Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today
Monday, May 20, 2019

The writers of a recent book PLUNDER are trying to bring into the consciousness of indigenous peoples like us out here in the Northern Plains the thinking of Third World ideologies as the only way to rid ourselves of America’s use of “the idea of the rule of law,” deemed to be a risk to “minority” populations. The text does, of course, bring up the issue of “majority rule,” doesn’t it?
Why would we go there now to condemn “the rule of law,” when we are at a crossroads? Presently it seems more important than ever before to defend ‘the rule of law,” we Americans have a federal regime that seems intent upon abandoning “the rule of law” entirely.
As of this week, the Congress of the United States is charging the US Attorney General with “contempt,” which means, one supposes, that even as we think of law as an essential trait of democracy, it is said by the Trump lawyers, to be just a “buzzword” rising out of the 16thcentury, and they counsel the AG that he doesn’t even have to show up to discuss the argument with the elected officials of Washington, D. C.!
It’s probably important to remember that the AG is an APPOINTED official, not elected by the people.
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Another death reported at a jail in an Alaska Native community
Monday, May 13, 2019

Three people have died over the last two weeks in detention facilities in Alaska Native communities.
Robert Nick, 54, died in a jail in Akiachak on Friday, May 10, The Anchorage Daily News reported. The incident is under investigation by the Alaska State Troopers.
"On 5/10/19 at about 2053 hours, Alaska State Troopers in Bethel received a call from Tribal Police in the village of Akiachak reporting a death at the village jail. Earlier in the evening Robert Nick (54 yoa of Akiachak) had been placed into protective custody by tribal police officers due to his level of intoxication. Robert was found unresponsive in the jail cell by tribal jail guards," the dispatch report AK19030381 states. "Life saving measures were attempted, but unsuccessful. Troopers responded by boat to Akiachak and conducted an investigation. The remains have been sent to the State Medical Examiners Office in Anchorage. Next of kin has been notified. This incident remains under investigation. Alcohol appears to be a contributing factor."
Becca White, 24, and Isaiah Parka, 22, died in a jail in Napakiak on Sunday, April 28, The Daily News reported. Both had been locked in their cells when a fire broke out in the facility.
“What I’m wondering is why they couldn’t open the jail cells right away,” Miranda White, who is Becca's sister, told the paper. “If they had the keys, why didn’t they just open it?”
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Native Americans and Black Hills backers support mining reform bills
By Staff | on May 15, 2019
By Talli Nauman 
Native Sun News Today Health & Environment Editor

WASHINGTON, DC – Navajo, Chilkat and Black Hills representatives joined lawmakers here on Capitol Hill on May 9, to announce introduction of the Hardrock Leasing and Reclamation Act of 2019.
“Reform is needed for outdated laws that go back to 1872,” said Navajo Nation speaker Percy Anderson of Manuelito and Gallup, New Mexico.
“Where I come from, past uranium mining activities within McKinley and Cibola counties have contaminated groundwater, resulting in unsafe drinking water for many communities that now have to import their drinking water from other locations and other sources for human and livestock consumption,” he said.
Companion bills in the House and Senate would entail large hardrock mining operations to meet some of the same requirements and standards that already apply to oil, gas, and coal development on public lands.
Among other measures, they would establish strong reclamation standards and bonding requirements. They would create a fund to restore abandoned mines and areas impacted by mining activities.
“Attention is now critical for healthy communities and clean drinking water,” Anderson said. “For too long we have suffered under the weight of extracting for minerals and fossil fuels and the devastation that extraction has done to our health and well-being for individuals, families, communities, and the environment. Too many have passed on without seeing their children and grandchildren prosper.”
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