In the spirit of Mother Jones, who famously said:
Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living, I've got a small update on the
Pombo Amendment, below. Attached to the Budget Reconciliation,
it's still there. And set to make the (to put it politely) archaic 1872 Mining Act even worse. And one of the provisions that's been in the way of the Budget Reconciliation passing. So far.
Respected Native American activist, Vine Deloria, Jr, died Sunday, November 13th, succumbing to complications from surgery. The author of many books, his most well-known title was Custer Died for Your Sins. Amongst other things, this book is credited with helping return artifacts and human remains back to the appropriate tribes.
More on Deloria on the flip. And on Pombo Amendment.
Enrolled at Standing Rock Sioux, born in South Dakota in 1933, Deloria completed a Masters in Theology before earning his JD from University of Colorado in 1970. Aside from all who learned from his writings, countless young natives have grown up with him as an excellent role model and mentor. One notable quote:
When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, "Ours."
OK, now back to the Pombo Amendment. Saturday night, I diaried with background information on the 1872 Mining Act. A couple of dozen or so likely read it then.
To summarize, 1872 allows for the sale of public lands to anyone who proves they are mineral bearing. Land to be sold at $2.50-$5 per acre. Which provision remained in effect until 1994. When Congress failed at efforts to update this archaic law, the only compromise it reached was to put a moratorium on these giveaway sales. Sale price didn't even cover the price of public employees' salaries for processing the paperwork for title transfer, for heavens sake! And BILLIONS of dollars worth of metals are extracted from those lands, with landscape laid to waste in their wake.
Until now, that's how it's stood. Pombo's amendment allows the resumption of sales of public lands. For fiscal conservatives, the price is better, at $1,000 or fair market value (whichever is greater). Another change: they no longer have to prove the presence of minerals, which makes way for some serious mischief and boondoggles.
Various claims are made as to the potential consequences of the language of the Pombo Amendment. The Modesto Bee did some independent reporting which sheds light on the various claims and allegations.
"This is not a land grab and does not provide for selling off millions of acres of public land," said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the House Resources Committee [of which Pombo is the Chairman]. "What this is about is continued economic development for rural communities in the West that are dependent on natural resources industries."
Kennedy added that refuges, parks and designated wilderness areas would be off-limits, while Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein contended Wednesday that the bill "could be particularly severe" on national park land in California.
Kennedy cited a Bureau of Land Management estimate that a maximum of 360,000 acres nationwide would be subject to sale, based on current information about mining operations. Environmentalists retort that mining claims already have been staked on 5.7 million acres nationwide, thereby setting this land up for sale.
This is not the only effort of this kind. Rep. Gibbons from Nevada has been throwing on amendments of this sort for some time (see HR 2869). Tancredo has one pending (HR 3855) directing the Secretary of Interior to identify 15% of all public lands for sale to pay for Katrina, other emergencies and unenumerated other purposes.
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This diary is #1-A, a supplement to my series on Pombo Amendment and 1872 Mining Act. Next in the series will be No Summos Pendejos, which refers to an unofficial slogan during a successful anti-mine effort against Summo Minerals here in northern New Mexico. If you want to check into it ahead of time, here's a link to a feature done by High Country News. HCN likes you to register, but they'll show you the story without doing so. Be nice to them, they do good work. This was the front page picture that went with. FYI, I was there, too, but out of frame - don't much like my picture being taken. Graphic made by a local teen who didn't much like the idea of the mine.
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For a look at some of the scholarship Deloria inspired through writing, teaching, lecturing and mentoring, consider this diary, More News from Turtle Island: The White Roots of Peace, which made it to the Rec list for a short time this afternoon. In observance of Native American Heritage Month, it talks about the features American democracy drew from the League of the Iroquois. Which is typically left out of our history books.
Links to more information about Deloria: here, here here here and here at Wikipedia, which was the only site I found updated to note his passing. No obits yet.
Memorial contributions can be sent to:
Vine Deloria Scholarship Fund
Attn: Rick Williams
c/o The American Indian Scholarship Fund
8333 Greenwood Blvd
Denver, CO 80221