GOP Newest War: Native American Rights — "Damn Foreigners" Right, Right...???

Native Americans Left High and Dry

(Thanks to Sens. McCain and Flake (R-AZ)

Professing to Stand With All Americans 

(Only the Ones they Pick and Choose)

This story was forwarded to me - it's a great piece and an issue I didn't know anything about, and I bet you didn't either.

From the NY TIMES here.

Date and Place: About an hour east of Phoenix near a mining town called Superior lies Oak Flat, Arizona. 

Story in part: Three hundred people, mostly Apache, marched the 44 miles from tribal headquarters to begin this occupation on February 9, 2015. The campground lies at the core of an ancient Apache holy place, where coming-of-age ceremonies, especially for girls, have been performed for many generations, along with traditional acorn gathering. It belongs to the public, under the multiple-use mandate of the Forest Service, and has had special protections since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower decreed the area closed to mining — which, like cattle grazing, is otherwise common in national forests — because of its cultural and natural value. President Richard M. Nixon’s Interior Department in 1971 renewed this ban.

The key: Despite those protections, in December 2014, Congress promised to hand the title for Oak Flat over to a private, Australian-British mining concern. A fine-print rider trading away the Indian holy land was added at the last minute to the must-pass military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). By doing this, Congress has handed over a sacred Native American site to a foreign-owned company (a foreign entity) that may be the first time in our nation’s history.

Until this NDAA, that swap always failed due to a lack of support. But this time was different. This time, the giveaway language was slipped onto the defense bill by Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, both from Arizona, and at the 11th hour. That tactic was successful only because, like most last-minute riders, it bypassed public scrutiny.

Transparency, right Mr. and Mrs. Gee Old Poops? You bet cha’ as Palin would say. Damn right, I suppose.

Continue at the NY TIMES line above, and thanks for stopping by, and oh, yeah, remember to Vote GOP in 2016 and help preserve America for Native Americans, right? 

Oops...!!