Posted on 12/28/2015 2:03:07 PM PST by JimSEA
A group of Native Americans in Arizona is taking on two Australian resources giants to try to save a sacred desert campground from being destroyed by a huge mining development.
Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Australia's Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, plans to turn the area around the Oak Flat campsite in the Tonto National Forest into the biggest copper mine in North America.
Members of the local San Carlos Apache tribe said Oak Flat was a sacred place where they had held religious and cultural ceremonies for centuries.
"It is no different to what people can relate to about Mount Sinai," Apache tribal leader Wendsler Nosie said.
The company has warned the underground mining operation could eventually cause Oak Flat to sink by 300 metres, making it inaccessible to the public.
"If this is destroyed it can never come back to us and that is the one thing I don't think Resolution Copper understands or sees," 16-year-old Apache activist Naelyn Pike said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
Actually the geology of the area is dominated by an extinct volcano called Picket Post.
So these tall tales combine with the fact that the area is loaded with Indian ruins from the time that the Apache invaded the lands of earlier tribal groups killing many of the earlier tribes. These other people, Hohocam and many others built extensive go back thousands of years. If you can't use some of these lands you'd have to depopulate the state. In fact, the Apache would have to go as they are "Johnny come latlely themselves.
MINE PLAN OF OPERATIONS
http://resolutioncopper.com/the-project/mine-plan-of-operations/
That’s the beauty of multiculturalism.
Any group can declare anything ‘sacred’ and you just have to accept it, because, you know, Political Correctness is not questioned.
It’s the concept of religious liberty applied by other-religioned. Religious freedom is believing what you want. Religious liberty means everyone else has to believe it, too.
It’s a nice campground. I’ve stayed there a few times.
Has quite few campsites.
Yes, and you used to get crawdads from the little ponds. There were people in Superior who worked with the CCC to build the site. We kids would climb on the granite boulders.
If they sink the campsite 900 ft. what about the highway?
It runs pretty close to the campground.
Off topic but; the highway from Globe to Superior is one
heck of an interesting drive. I’d love to drive it in a convertible.
To hear them tell it, every stone, cactus, and pile of buffalo droppings is "sacred."
Out here in the west we are just a repository for natural resources for everyone else. Let them strip mine Maryland or some other pesthole state for a change.
There are some hikes and backroad trips in that 26 miles that are fascinating. I’d start with Devils canyon hiking and the back roads from the Top of the World.
I wish I had had time to get out and hike and take some back roads. There are a few square miles there that could take a lifetime to explore. Seriously rugged country.
How sacred would the site be if they were building a casino?
Hear! Hear! A fascinating drive it is.
Setting aside all the copper mining -- which, evidently, is simply a matter of turning a mountain inside out -- the drive down Queen Creek Canyon is a trip.
For one thing, it's all rock. Just 100% ROCK!. And there are no rounded edges on the rock. All squared-off, sharp edges (nicely complimenting the only vegetation -- yucca). One of the most inhospitable geographys I've ever seen. <
And, then, there is that remnant of the old road thru the canyon, after the tunnel, below and behind the one soaring, arching, curving bridge over the creek. It's down at creek level and there is a parking lot before it narrows to one lane and winds its way up a steep grade to the old tunnel (also one-way).
You can almost see the model Ts, Pierce Arrows and Hupmobiles in the parking lot, waiting for their radiators to cool before they attempt that grade when the right-of-way reverses at the top of the hour. <
One of the best 26 miles in the USA. Competitive with, say, Oak Creek Canyon, Mulholland Drive, CA-1 on the Monterey Coast, the Verazzano Narrows bridge, Trail Ridge Road, the Million Dollar Highway et al.
I missed the old road but I’ll verify the rest with 100% agreement. I’ve driven thousands of miles throughout the west and that few miles is quite memorable. It’s rock alright. Rock rock and more rock like you’ve never seen before.
“Out here in the west we are just a repository for natural resources for everyone else. Let them strip mine Maryland or some other pesthole state for a change.”
I agree. The West is just the colony of the Eastern states.
Arizona? It isn’t what’s on the map. After you subtract the federal preserves, Indian reservations, and federal preserves, about all that the people of Arizona really control are strips of land along the highways.
Actually, if it wasn’t for the mineral exploitation, there wouldn’t have been any Arizone. From the Spanish to the Mexicans to the Gadsden Purchase, gold, silver and particularly copper were the reason behind most of the growth. Yes, there was some agriculture, cotton, beef and timber but they were dependent on the infrastructure the mines were behind. There are still some beautiful country that virtually no one knows about. For instance the Galiuro Mountains and the Gila Wilderness are amazing.
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