Free Republic

A high-stakes, yearslong legal battle over a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada resumes Thursday with arguments from lawyers for the mining company, the U.S. agency that approved it and the rancher, tribes and conservationists fighting the project. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du has refused twice over the past year to grant temporary injunctions sought by tribal leaders who say the mine site is on sacred land where their ancestors were massacred by the U.S. Cavalry in 1865. But Thursday’s hearing in her Reno courtroom marks the first on the actual merits of the case and will set the legal...

Like most new racial history exercises, land acknowledgments are less about a true reflection of the past than grievance politics and superficial gestures.Leftist media was all aglow on Feb. 23, when Interior Department Secretary nominee Deb Haaland began her testimony before the Senate by stating: “I acknowledge that we are on the ancestral homelands of the Nacotchtank, Anacostan, and Piscataway people.”A Vox article gushed: “It’s likely the first time a Cabinet nominee acknowledged tribal lands upon testifying before the Senate.” An indigenous activist in the Washington Post called it a “rebuke of … the countless politicians and bureaucrats who dedicated...

A Native American tribe this week criticized the Biden administration’s order halting agency approvals for oil, gas, and coal permitting on federal lands including tribal lands. As the Washington Times reported Friday: The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, which has run an oil-and-gas operation on its 4.5 million-acre reservation for more than 70 years, requested Thursday an exemption for tribal lands from the Interior Department order that halts agencies from issuing permits and leases on mineral production for 60 days. In a letter Thursday, chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee Luke Duncan wrote, “The...

As U.S. Indian tribes are urging the government to authorize the opening of tribal casinos closer to cities where gamblers reside, Arizona Senator John McCain reportedly argues that the Interior Department should produce regulations that would help authorities oversee the development of off-reservation gaming venues. Currently, tribal proposals regarding off-reservation casinos are ruled on according to certain exceptions to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act adopted 17 years ago. According to a department official, off-reservation gaming projects have stirred conflicts in numerous communities across the U.S., but the Interior Department has yet to finalize clarifying regulations regarding Indian gaming. McCain, chairman...