Grijalva steps up to bat on another Bush Interior ‘midnight regulation’

Grijalva steps up to the plate and goes to bat against another Bush Interior “midnight regulation” aimed at looting sacred water for the Peabody Western Coal Company while tribes perform spiritual ceremonies.

Dang, if you listen close – that sounds like a John Prine endorsement to me !

At least it’s serendipitous…

Grijalva weighs in on these practices – what academics call “environmental racism” – and insensitivity to tribal ceremony and public input at Interior demanding that Kempthorne suspend the threatening mine :

“The Interior Department and OSM are moving forward on this project to try to approve it before the end of the year,” said Grijalva. “During a time of sacred religious ceremonies on Hopi, OSM is expecting the Hopi people to understand a complicated legal process to approve mining without a functioning tribal council to represent them. The Secretary needs to suspend this process until the tribal council is once again functional and spiritual ceremonies have concluded. Doing otherwise ignores the important obligations the federal government has toward tribes.

More background – Federal officials listen but reject tribal members’ concerns about aquifer use – Indian Country Today

Comments

  1. kt Avatar
    kt

    From the article:

    “Mining at Black Mesa has caused springs on Hopi lands to dry up and jeopardized the sole source of drinking water for many Hopis and Navajos,” stated Grijalva. “The Secretary, as the trustee for Native American tribes, must ensure that mining is done responsibly on tribal lands and that tribes actually want mining to occur. This project does not meet that test.”

    Now THIS is a leader — who cares about people.

    WHAT, pray tell, are the other names floated for Interior doing right now? Polishing their cowboy boots? Stroking their gold coins from lobbyist fees? Figuring out what B. L. M. stands for?

  2. Tom Page Avatar
    Tom Page

    Now we can all sing along…

    When I was a child my family would travel
    Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
    And there’s a backwards old town that’s often remembered
    So many times that my memories are worn.

    Chorus:
    And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
    Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
    Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking
    Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away

    Well, sometimes we’d travel right down the Green River
    To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
    Where the air smelled like snakes and we’d shoot with our pistols
    But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

    Repeat Chorus:

    Then the coal company came with the world’s largest shovel
    And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
    Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
    Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

    Repeat Chorus:

    When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
    Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
    I’ll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin’
    Just five miles away from wherever I am.

  3. JimT Avatar
    JimT

    Ahhh..music in the morning.

    Grijalva continues to do his job while the rest of the candidates are busy trying to line them up. Hey. Obama and the Transition Team…WAKE UP!!

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