[Onthebarricades] Indigenous peoples unite against mining

[Andy]

Resistance: Indigenous Peoples empowered to fight mining in Americas

Sunday, September 30 2007 @ 07:21 AM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070930072140151

IndigenousTUCSON, Ariz. -- Indigenous Peoples from throughout the Americas
fighting mining gathered to organize and support one another to halt the
mining destroying their communities and the environment. The first in the
series of articles focuses on the delegation from Peru, fighting copper
mining and the poisoning of water sources.

Resistance: Indigenous Peoples empowered to fight mining in Americas

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Indigenous Peoples from throughout the Americas fighting
mining gathered to organize and support one another to halt the mining
destroying their communities and the environment.

The first in the series of articles focuses on the delegation from Peru,
fighting copper mining and the poisoning of water sources.

Coal, gold, silver, copper and uranium mining in Indigenous territories
has reached the level of a global crisis.

Nikos Pastos of Alaska's Big Village Network said climate change and
melting ice, combined with oil drilling, result in unprecedented dangers
for polar bears, walruses and whales.

On the Navajo Nation and near its borders, proposals for new uranium
mines, coal mining and the Desert Rock Power Plant pose threats to land
and air already heavy with toxins.

Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo, said the sacred sites endangered by new proposed
uranium mining include Mount Taylor in New Mexico, sacred to Pueblos,
Navajos and other tribes in the region.

At the root of the problem, says Western Shoshone Carried Dann, are the
IRA tribal governments who are acting in the best interest of energy
companies, rather than the best interest of the people.

Louise Benally, Navajo from Big Mountains, Ariz., said the Earth is being
"butchered" by mining and elected leaders at both the tribal and federal
level are responsible and must be replaced. The Bush Administration has
accelerated mining on Indian lands and is pushing for oil extraction and
land claims in the thawing Arctic.

In a story which repeats itself in every geographic region of the
Americas, mining is rupturing communities and poisoning the environment,
including the First Nations in Canada, Mayan in Guatemala and the Spokane
Nation in Washington.

A series of articles from interviews at the Western Mining Action Network
Conference in Tucson on Sept. 27 - 28, 2007, exposes the tactics and
destruction of mining in Indigenous territories in the Americas.

Read more:
Censored Blog
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
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