“In Arizona, a heated struggle over a patch of land has pitted Native Americans against Republicans in Congress as Apaches seek to regain protection for an area considered holy to their people. Members of the San Carlos Apache Nation are fighting tooth and nail to protect the land held as sacred for generations. The land in question, called Oak Flat, is situated about an hour east of Phoenix, and became endangered in December when Republicans slipped some fine print into a military spending bill that allowed Congress to sell away access to the Native holy land to a foreign mining company.
“Oak Flat has been under protection since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the area closed to mining. Despite the legal protections in place for decades, Congress agreed in December 2014 to give Oak Flat to a private, Australian-British mining company. This was made possible when Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake—both of Arizona—added some fine print allowing the trading away of Native American holy land to the National Defense Authorization Act, a military spending bill that would not be held back regardless of what atrocities were attached to it. Resolution Copper Mining aims to turn the sacred land into an open-pit copper mine.”
The New York Times says, “The land grab was sneakily anti-democratic even by congressional standards. … The deal is an impressive new low in congressional corruption, unworthy of our country’s ideals no matter what side of the aisle you’re on. It’s exactly the kind of cynical maneuvering that has taught the electorate to disrespect politicians — a disdain for government that hurts everyone.”
So what’s in it for Senators McCain and Flake? The mining company — Rio Tinto — is a McCain campaign donor, and Flake used to be a Rio Tinto lobbyist. And this deal is especially hard to understand in light of the fact that the world copper market is oversupplied, copper prices have plunged, and the stocks of copper mining companies are in the toilet. In other words, the world doesn’t need more copper production; it needs less.