Despite Outside Magazine's tepid support of Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke for Trump’s Secretary of the Interior pick, Native Americans tell another story.
“Ryan Zinke has a dismal 3 percent lifetime environmental voting record (from League of Conservation Voters). His brief political career has been substantially devoted to attacking endangered species and the Endangered Species Act. He led efforts to strip federal protections for endangered wolves, lynx and sage grouse, voted to exempt massive agribusiness and water developers from Endangered Species Act limitations, and opposed efforts to crack down on the international black market ivory trade,” says Kierán Suckling, Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). Suckling is referring to the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act. Under the “SHARE Act,” Zinke supports aerial gunning, the baiting of grizzly bears and denning wolves on national wildlife refuges in Alaska, hunting with hounds, and the use of steel-jawed leg traps. Under SHARE, “sportsmen” are able to import a limited number of polar bear carcasses and ivory from African elephants. Zinke, described by the NRA as an “avid” trophy hunter, has introduced legislation to “block threats from anti-hunting groups” that seek to limit hunting on federal lands, and when previously running for Lieutenant Governor, went on record to say that in respect to wildlife management, he took his lead from “ranchers and hunting guides across the state.”
Trump’s sons—both avid trophy hunters—are pleased as punch with the pick, and Donald Trump, Jr. has been instrumental in his father’s long courtship, and support, of Zinke:
Don Jr. is known as an avid outdoorsman, which is why he might have an interest in the next head of the Interior Department. In fact, he once floated himself as the next interior secretary, telling an outdoors publication that, "the big joke at Christmas this year was that the only job in government that I would want is with the Department of Interior. I understand these issues. It's something I'm passionate about. I will be the very loud voice about these issues in my father's ear. No one gets it more than us."
Don Jr.'s role in the process raises concerns about the overlap between Trump's business -- which Don Jr. and his brother Eric are slated to run -- and the White House.
Link
You may remember this vile picture of the Trump sons a couple of years ago:
Zinke supports the delisting of grizzly bears in Montana in order to hunt them, which are sacred to Natives. This doesn’t sit well with a large majority of Native Americans:
GOAL, which remains one of the largest tribal coalitions in North America, is the force behind the campaign to keep the sacred grizzly bear out of trophy hunters gun sights, and to protect the ancestral tribal lands the grizzly presently occupies from an initial 28 mines identified by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the rule it is about to approve that will remove the grizzly in Greater Yellowstone from the Endangered Species Act (ESA)...
Zinke has championed the delisting and trophy hunting of the grizzly in direct opposition to every tribe in the state, either through resolutions, or being signatories to the historic "grizzly treaty".
Link: nativenewsonline.net/…
The “grizzly treaty” was just signed in October of 2016:
Fifty-plus Tribal Nations, supported by Canada’s Assembly of First Nations, now stand in opposition to the ESA delisting and trophy hunting of the sacred grizzly bear because they violate tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, requirements to consult with the Tribes, and spiritual and religious freedoms.
“The grizzly bear is not a trophy for the affluent to kill for ‘sport’. The grizzly bear is sacred. Our people have a connection to the grizzly bear since our ancient migrations,” explains Lee Wayne Lomayestewa, Kikmongwi (Chief) of the Hopi Bear Clan. “We, the Bear Clan, were the first people to arrive in the Southwest. It was the grizzly, the most powerful of bears, which guided and protected the first among our people to arrive at Tuwanasavi, the Center Place, which continues to be our home today,” he says. The Hopi Bear Clan leader will be joined at the event by Cliff Ami, leader of the Tewa Bear Clan.
Despite Zinke’s hunting obsession, and ‘love’ for the big outdoors, he is no conservationist, and has flip-flopped incessantly on the issue of turning public lands back to the states—a very, very bad idea for Western public lands, which would result in land grabs by gas and oil corporations and other anti-environment stakeholders. Montana Democrats listed out Zinke’s actions over the past five years, which are in opposition to his claims to support protecting federal public lands:
The Record Shows:
- Zinke Supported Plan to Sell Off Our Public Lands. In 2014, Zinke supports the budget by Rep. Paul Ryan which proposes paying off the national debt by selling public off our public lands. [Congressional GOP Debate, 5/28/14; Billings Gazette, 6/28/14]
- Zinke Pledged to Transfer Federal Lands to the State-Opening It Up to Privatization. In 2012, Zinke signed the Montana Constitutional Governance Pledge that included working to transfer federal lands to the state. Nearly 300 hunters and anglers protested possible transfer of lands, saying it would likely result in selling Montana’s lands to the highest bidder and close down access. [Polymontana, 5/04/12; Montana Constitutional Pledge, 5/04/12; Independent Record, 9/27/14]
- Zinke Opposes North Fork Protection Act.In 2014, Ryan Zinke said he opposed the North Fork Protection Act, saying “Up front, I didn't like the North Fork basin bill either, and I like Steve, you know we all love Steve but I didn't like that bill either because it took natural development out for perpetuity forever.” [GCRW, 5/21/14; Intelligent Discontent, 8/22/14]
- Zinke Supports a “Land Grab” Bill That Opens Unprecedented Development on Public Lands. Zinke supports a DC written bill that would turn over Montana’s public lands to out-of-state developers and jeopardize access to hunting and fishing.. [Billings Gazette, 8/31/14; Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 2/17/14; KPAX, 1/15/14]
- Zinke Received a 0% Rating from the Montana Sportsmen Alliance. In 2011, Zinke received a 0% rating from the Montana Sportsmen Alliance that fight for the interests of Montana’s hunters and anglers. [Montana Sportsmen Alliance, 2011 Scorecard]
- Zinke Voted to Block Access to More Fishing, Hunting and State Parks.In 2011, Zinke voted to stop the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks department from purchasing more land, which increases access to fishing, hunting, and state parks. [SB 301, 2/24/11; Montana Sportsmen Alliance, 2011 Scorecard]
- Zinke Voted to Destroy the Habitat program, Privatizing and Commercializing Wildlife and Hunting Opportunities. In 2011, Zinke voted for a bill that would effectively destroy the Habitat Montana program, privatizing and commercializing wildlife and hunting opportunities. The bill reduced funding for the Habitat Montana program by 30% over a four year period, cutting in half the dollars available for the purchase of access for hunting. [HB 209, 4/11/11; Veto, 5/10/11; Montana Sportsmen Alliance, 2011 Scorecard]
- Zinke Voted to Commercialize Hunting in Montana and Allow Non-Residents Hunters More Access. In 2011, Zinke voted for legislation that would add 2,000 more non-resident wilderness deer/elk combo licenses that would result in 2,000 more nonresident hunters competing with resident hunters, more commercialization, more roads closed and more land unavailable to resident hunters. [SB 400, 3/30/11; Montana Sportsmen Alliance, 2011 Scorecard]
- Zinke Defended the Government Shutdown that Cost Montana $45 Million.In 2013, Zinke defended the government shutdown. According to the Center for Western Priorities, the 16-day shutdown of national parks alone cost Montana’s economy nearly $1.6 million per day. Moody’s analytics, calculated the shutdown to cost Montana’s economy $45 million. [ [Billings Gazette, 10/21/13]; Moody's Analytics, 10/21/13; Bureau of Economic Analysis, 9/17/13]
Zinke also has a record of both disregarding Native American issues as well as supporting Native American sovereignty. This seems strange coming from an avid trophy-hunter and one who shows zero regard for preserving the whole of Native American way of life. So, Zinke's comment following his appointment gave me a little chill:
“Most important, our sovereign Indian Nations and territories must have the respect and freedom they deserve. I look forward to making the Department of Interior and America great again.”
Well, we know what “respect and freedom” really mean when spoken by a white Republican man about Native Americans: it means opening up Native lands and reservations for easier access and business for non-Natives.
It comes as no surprise then, that Zinke co-sponsored and voted for the federal law that was passed last year entitled: the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act of 2015 (249-177 with 24 Democrats joining a majority of Republicans—Obama ), which will roll back federal agency intervention in tribal affairs in order to “restore greater sovereignty to tribes.” In other words, there will be little to no federal protections for workers on tribal lands in casinos and other businesses—the sector targeted under the bill—under the auspices of “restoring control” to tribal leaders over employee and employer relations.
“This is about sovereignty, opportunity and respect,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke. “The federal government already saddles our tribes with burdensome regulations that hamper their ability to achieve the same goals of prosperity and success that we all aspire to. Considering the fact that the NLRB notoriously overreaches in the private sector, imagine what damage they would do to Montana’s tribes. H.R.511 is supported by tribes all across the nation. This bill affirms my strong support for their sovereignty.”
Yeah, right pal. I wonder if your boss, Donald Trump—casino owner—has anything to do with your sudden concern for tribal sovereignty? Donald Trump has spent his entire career trying to undermine and disparage Native Americans for his financial gain in his casinos. Here is a clip of a report by the Washington Post entitled, “Trump’s long history of clashes with Native American tribes”:
www.washingtonpost.com/…
Donald Trump claimed that Indian reservations had fallen under mob control. He secretly paid for more than $1 million in ads that portrayed members of a tribe in Upstate New York as cocaine traffickers and career criminals. And he suggested in testimony and in media appearances that dark-skinned Native Americans in Connecticut were faking their ancestry.
“I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations,” Trump said during a 1993 radio interview with shock jock Don Imus.
Trump’s harsh rhetoric on Native Americans was part of his aggressive war on the expanding Native American casino industry during the 1990s, which posed a threat to his gambling empire. The racially tinged remarks and broad-brush characterizations that Trump employed against Indian tribes for over a decade provided an early glimpse of the kind of incendiary language that he would use about racial and ethnic groups in the 2016 presidential campaign.
My suspicions go further, given that the current trend for Republicans with regard to Native American Reservations is land grabs, it’s no wonder that they recently tried two other horrific attempts to undermine Natives: “The Native American Energy Act,” (stalled in the House for the time being) and the “Utah Public Lands Initiative” (introduced).
Native American Energy Act:
Democrats already abandoned H.R.538, the Native American Energy Act, after their GOP colleagues refused to include a fix to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar. Now the Obama administration is taking aim at a measure that never received a hearing this year.
In a statement of administration policy, the White House Office of Management and Budget questioned several provisions affecting fracking, leasing, appraisals, the Navajo Nation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. While a veto threat was not issued, the opposition spells doom for the package that's up for a vote today….
"Overall, H.R. 538 would not ensure diligent development of resources on Indian lands," the White House said on Wednesday.
Utah Public Lands Initiative:
Utah Republican Congressmen Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz seeks to take 100,000 acres of Ute tribal lands and hand them over to oil and mining companies. Will Bears Ears be the site of the next standoff?...The proposed bill also seeks to remove protection from 18 million acres of land in eastern Utah and prevent President Obama from designating the Bears Ears area a national monument.
Adjoining Canyonlands National Park and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Bears Ears is an unprotected culturally significant region that contains more than 100,000 Native American archeological sites. These sacred sites are subject to continual looting and desecration. More than a dozen serious looting cases were reported between May 2014 and April 2015.
The area has been inhabited for at least 11,000 years. Many Southwestern tribes have longstanding connections to this land, including Navajo, Ute and Paiute peoples. The Navajo Nation and the White Mesa Ute Reservation border Bears Ears. Rock paintings and petroglyphs are found throughout the area.
With Zinke at the helm at Interior, he could help push through legislation that opens up Tribal lands to oil development, taking away tribal control and lease money. Since he is a climate-change “it's not settled science 'er” we can expect that he will do everything in his power to help the oil and gas industry gain a larger foothold in the West.
Last, Zinke generally has poor character. He is a shameless coward and liar, opportunist, and hypocrite who lies about his former SEAL career to elevate his political stature. Most notably, he tried to capitalize on the Seal Team 6 raid that eliminated bin Laden...because it was his former Team before he retired. While bragging about his connection to Seal Team 6 he exposed classified details in the process on May 2, 2011, then whoops! realized he was in deep shit, as the details with his name on them spread all over the country including in the New York Times (Zinke is quoted in that article, too). To save face he then turned around and became part of a conspiracy theory airing on May 7, 2011 that blamed Vice President Biden for outing Seal Team 6 on May 3...even though Zinke was on record on May 2. To further remove the appearance of culpability he created a PAC with the intention of making money off the lie and to blame Biden and Obama in the process.
In short, if his appointment is confirmed, we can expect roll-backs of wilderness designations, possible federal lands going to states in “state’s rights” policy, increased fracking and drilling on federal lands and possibly within National Parks, delisting of endangered species, increased brutality in hunting endangered or threatened animals, roll-backs of the Endangered Species Act protections, and treachery toward Native Americans.