15 April 21
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15 April 21
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Reader Supported News
Democrats Plan to Unveil Legislation to Expand the US Supreme Court by Four Seats
Maanvi Singh, Guardian UK
Singh writes: "Democrats are planning to introduce a bill to expand the supreme court - proposing to add four justices to the US's highest court."
Proposal, aimed at breaking up a conservative majority on the court, is predicted to draw opposition from Republicans
emocrats are planning to introduce a bill to expand the supreme court – proposing to add four justices to the US’s highest court.
Senator Ed Markey, and representatives Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson and Mondaire Jones plan to present their legislation Thursday at a news conference. The measure would expand the number of justices from nine to 13, according to Reuters, which reviewed a copy of the bill in advance of it being released publicly. Although Joe Biden announced a commission to study supreme court expansion and reform, the politically incendiary question of changing the court is unlikely to be approved.
Progressives have been pushing to expand the supreme court, after Donald Trump’s three appointees tilted the judicial body sharply to the right. One of the positions that Trump filled was a seat that Republicans had blocked his predecessor, Barack Obama, from filling in 2016 – arguing that the winner of that year’s election should choose whom to nominate for the vacant. But last year, Republicans reversed course – rushing to approve ultra-conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett weeks before the 2020 election.
Discussions over reforming the court have taken on new urgency in recent months as the court is poised to address key questions on voting rights, reproductive rights and environmental protections.
Republicans and many moderate Democrats have opposed the idea of expanding the court, or what they sometimes call “court packing”.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said the idea of expanding the court was “a direct assault on our nation’s independent judiciary and yet another sign of the Far Left’s influence over the Biden administration”.
Biden has not taken a clear position on expansion. In the past, he has said he’s “not a fan” of the idea.
Last week, he created a bipartisan, 36-member commission aimed at studying the history of the court and analyzing the potential consequences to altering its size. The commission is lead by Bob Bauer, the former White House counsel for Obama, and Cristina Rodriguez, a Yale Law School professor who served as deputy assistant attorney general in Obama’s Office of Legal Counsel. But it is unclear what the impact for the commission would be – as it is not required to produce definitive recommendations.
Former Buffalo police officer Cariol Horne. (photo: Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Judge Rules for Black Buffalo Police Officer Fired for Stopping Colleague's Chokehold
Rebecca Falconer, Axios
Falconer writes: "A New York court on Tuesday reinstated the pension of former Buffalo police officer Cariol Horne, who was fired for intervening when a white colleague had a Black man in a chokehold during a 2006 arrest."
Driving the news: State Supreme Court Judge Dennis Ward noted in his ruling similar cases, like the death of George Floyd. Ward said the role of other officers at the scene in such instances had come under scrutiny, "particularly their complicity in failing to intervene to save the life of a person to whom such unreasonable physical force is being applied."
"To her credit, Officer Horne did not merely stand by, but instead sought to intervene, despite the penalty she ultimately paid for doing so ... She saved a life that day, and history will now record her for the hero she is."
Judge Ward
- Ward partially based his decision to overturn a 2010 ruling that upheld her firing on legislation signed by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in October, known as "Cariol's Law" — which makes it a "crime for a law enforcement officer to fail to intervene when another officer is using excessive force and also protects whistleblowers," per the Buffalo News.
The big picture: Horne, who is Black, said she heard the handcuffed man say he couldn't breathe — invoking the deaths in police custody of Floyd and Eric Garner, two Black men who said this in their dying words, which have become a "national rallying cry against police brutality," the New York Times notes.
- Horne said her fellow officer punched her in the face when she tried to stop him.
- The Buffalo Police Department claimed she had put her fellow officers at risk and she was fired in 2008, per NPR.
- There was no video of the incident.
Of note: The judge ruling in favor of Horne's lawsuit means Horne will receive a full pension, backpay and benefits.
What they're saying: Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Institute director Ronald Sullivan, an attorney representing Horne, said in a statement the ruling was "a significant step in correcting an injustice."
- The legal team was grateful to the court for acknowledging that "to her credit Officer Horne did not merely stand by, but instead sought to intervene, despite the penalty she ultimately paid for doing so," he added.
- City of Buffalo spokesperson Michael DeGeorge told 7 Eyewitness News in a statement, "The City has always supported any additional judicial review available to Officer Horne and respects the Court's Decision."
Read the decision and judgment in full, via DocumentCloud.
Police in Brooklyn Center fire tear gas into a crowd of people protesting the police shooting of 20-year-old Daute Wright on April 11, 2021. (photo: Chad Davis)
Daunte Wright Protesters in Minnesota Are Facing Off With Militarized Cops
Tess Owen, VICE
Owen writes: "The area around a police precinct in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, became a war zone Tuesday night when a small crowd of civil rights protesters were met with armored trucks, tear gas, and National Guard soldiers."
People protesting the police killing of Daunte Wright were met with armored trucks, soldiers in camouflage, and clouds of tear gas.
he area around a police precinct in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, became a war zone Tuesday night when a small crowd of civil rights protesters were met with armored trucks, tear gas, and National Guard soldiers.
Scenes of clashes captured on video by local activists and reporters were surreal: National Guard armored trucks traveling caravan-style, soldiers in camouflage firing “less-lethal” rounds through a chainlink fence, heavily-armed riot cops from neighboring agencies, and Minnesota State Troopers standing in formation.
The protesters were demanding justice for Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man killed by police from Brooklyn Center during a routine traffic stop Sunday afternoon.
Though the scenes may have been surreal, they were not unusual. America’s police departments, from big city agencies like the NYPD to small suburban precincts, have undergone creeping militarization over the last two decades, thanks to the 1033 Program. Once described as “Uncle Sam’s Goodwill Store,” the program has allowed billions of dollars worth of military equipment—including high-powered weapons, armored helicopters, and other tactical gear—to be transferred to local cops.
Brooklyn Park, a suburb near Brooklyn Center whose officers were present at the evening protests on Tuesday, has benefited significantly from that program. Since 1998, it’s received nearly $600,000 worth of surplus military gear from the federal government, including high-powered rifles, night-vision goggles, sniper scopes, and thermal imaging systems, according to a review of federal data by VICE News. They also received four “unmanned vehicles.” (A spokesperson for Brooklyn Park Police Department told VICE News that none of that equipment was used on Tuesday evening.)
A Marshall Project tally of 1033 Program recipients from 2014 identified Brooklyn Center as having received 14 rifles and an armored truck.
The sheriff’s department of Hennepin County, which encompasses Minneapolis, also deployed to Brooklyn Center precinct and appeared to bring an armored truck with them. It’s not clear where they got it and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to VICE News’ inquiry, but the same Marshall Project investigation noted that they received an armored truck prior to 2014.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota National Guard deployed around 500 members to the Twin Cities area on Tuesday. A deployment plan was already in place for the end of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd after he knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, setting off widespread protests last summer. But that deployment plan was accelerated following Wright’s death, KROC News reported.
The militarization of America’s police departments and their crowd control tactics was thrust into the national spotlight in 2014, when police in Ferguson, Missouri, brought out tanks and other military equipment to quell protests after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a Black teenager. Those protests were part of the first wave of the modern Black Lives Matter movement.
Amid widespread scrutiny of the 1033 Program that followed, former President Barack Obama signed an executive order limiting the initiative the following year. It remained intact, but his restrictions meant that the some of the most hardcore military-grade items — armed helicopters, firearms with .50 caliber or higher, grenade launchers, tank-like vehicles, and so on — were no longer up for grabs for local cops.
This was a major bone of contention for police unions, who put the reinstatement of the 1033 program at the top of their wishlist when Donald Trump took office. In the summer of 2017, he signed an order reinstating the program in full. Over the following three years, local law enforcement agencies obtained nearly half a billion dollars worth of surplus military gear via the 1033 program, a USA Today investigation found.
The 1033 program remains in full swing. House Democrats wrote a letter last month urging President Joe Biden to limit the 1033 program by executive order.
Last summer, Minneapolis became the epicenter of Black Lives Matter movement after Floyd’s death. Several buildings were burned down during the protests. With that memory so fresh, it’s clear that by bringing out armored trucks and other military-grade weapons, law enforcement is doubling down on efforts to contain uprisings triggered by Wright’s death.
In anticipation of further unrest, city workers were photographed on Wednesday erecting concrete barricades and fencing around the home of former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter, who killed Wright on Sunday. Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, and resigned Tuesday, along with the Brooklyn Center police chief.
Sen. Ted Cruz. (photo: Erin Schaff/Getty)
Six Republicans Voted Against a Bipartisan Bill on Anti-Asian Hate Crimes
Lauren Frias and Erin Snodgrass, Business Insider
Excerpt: "The Senate overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday to advance a bill addressing the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes amid the COVID-19 pandemic."
Led by Democrats Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Rep. Grace Meng of New York, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will require federal officers to "facilitate the expedited review" of hate crimes.
"It defines COVID-19 hate crime as a violent crime that is motivated by two things: (1) the actual or perceived characteristic (e.g., race) of any person, and (2) the actual or perceived relationship to the spread of COVID-19 of any person because of that characteristic," according to the bill's summary.
In a rare bipartisan effort, a vast majority of senators voted 92-6 to advance the bill — bringing it one step closer to passing.
But the legislation could still face a difficult path forward. Republicans only supported the procedure on the agreement they could add amendments to the bill after it advanced: They added 20.
Hirono told HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic, some of the amendments added, "have absolutely nothing to do with the bill."
Senate leaders will now have to agree which amendments to consider in order to pass the bill through the Senate, "very, very soon," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday.
Here are the six Republicans who voted "no."
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas
A representative from Cotton's office told Insider that he voted against the bill because "he's working on related legislation."
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas
Representatives from Sen. Cruz's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri
Representatives from Sen. Hawley's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas
Representatives from Sen. Marshall's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky
Representatives from Sen. Paul's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama
Representatives from Sen. Tuberville's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The world's wealthiest 1% is driving up carbon emissions. (photo: iStock)
Report: World's Wealthiest 'at Heart of Climate Problem'
Roger Harrabin, BBC
Harrabin writes: "It says the world's wealthiest 1% produce double the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%, according to the UN."
The world’s wealthy must radically change their lifestyles to tackle climate change, a report says.
t says the world's wealthiest 1% produce double the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%, according to the UN.
The wealthiest 5% alone – the so-called “polluter elite” - contributed 37% of emissions growth between 1990 and 2015.
The authors want to deter SUV drivers and frequent fliers – and persuade the wealthy to insulate their homes well.
The report urges the UK government to reverse its decision to scrap air passenger duty on UK return flights.
And it wants ministers to re-instate the Green Homes Grant scheme they also scrapped recently.
The document has come from the UK-based Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change.
It’s a panel of 31 individuals who study people’s behaviour relating to the environment. They were tasked to find the most effective way of scaling up action to tackle carbon emissions.
Their critics say the best way to cut emissions faster is through technological improvements - not through measures that would prove unpopular.
But the lead author of the report, Prof Peter Newell, from Sussex University, told BBC News: “We are totally in favour of technology improvements and more efficient products - but it’s clear that more drastic action is needed because emissions keep going up.
“We have got to cut over-consumption and the best place to start is over-consumption among the polluting elites who contribute by far more than their share of carbon emissions.
“These are people who fly most, drive the biggest cars most and live in the biggest homes which they can easily afford to heat, so they tend not to worry if they’re well insulated or not.
“They’re also the sort of people who could really afford good insulation and solar panels if they wanted to.”
Prof Newell said that to tackle climate change, everyone needs to feel part of a collective effort – so that means the rich consuming less to set an example to poorer people.
He continued: “Rich people who fly a lot may think they can offset their emissions by tree-planting schemes or projects to capture carbon from the air. But these schemes are highly contentious and they’re not proven over time.
The wealthy, he said, “simply must fly less and drive less. Even if they own an electric SUV that’s still a drain on the energy system and all the emissions created making the vehicle in the first place”.
Sam Hall, from the Conservative Environment Network, told BBC News: "It’s right to emphasise the importance of fairness in delivering (emissions cuts) - and policy could make it easier for people and businesses to go green - through incentives, targeted regulation and nudges.
“But encouraging clean technologies is likely to be more effective, and more likely to enjoy public consent, than hefty penalties or lifestyle restrictions."
But Prof Newell said existing political structures allowed wealthy firms and individuals to lobby against necessary changes in society that might erode the lifestyles of the rich.
The recent report of the UK Climate Assembly, for example, proposed a series of measures targeting carbon-intensive behaviours such as shifting away from meat and dairy produce; banning the most polluting SUVs; and imposing frequent flyer levies.
The Treasury told BBC News that a frequent flyer levy might require the government to collect and store personal information on each passenger.
This could raise issues of data processing, handling and privacy issues. It would also be hard to keep track of people with multiple passports.
But the commission’s report said: “The goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change cannot be achieved without radical changes to lifestyles and shifts in behaviour, especially among the wealthiest members of society.
“If change across society is to be brought about at the speed and scale required to meet agreed climate targets, we need to shrink and share: reduce carbon budgets and share more equally.”
The report is the latest in a long-running dialogue over what it means to be “fair” while tackling climate change.
Poorer nations such as India have consistently argued that they should be allowed to increase their pollution because it’s so much lower per person than emissions from rich nations.
The issue forms part of the tangled tapestry of negotiations behind next week’s climate summit organised by President Biden and the COP climate summit in the UK scheduled for November.
Yemeni-American activist Iman Saleh, who launched a hunger strike for Yemen in March 2020, participates in a protest in Washington, DC, the United States on April 3, 2021. (photo: Laura Albast)
Hunger-Striking Activists Demand End to US-Supported Yemen Blockade
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, Al Jazeera
Kestler-D'Amours writes: "The 26-year-old Yemeni American and her younger sister, Muna, came to Washington, DC late last month from the US state of Michigan to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where a war has raged for six years."
READ MORE
The Oak Flat Campground in Arizona. (photo: Epic Aerial Productions)
Oak Flat's Arizona Land Is Sacred to the Apache. They're Fighting to Save It From Copper Mining.
Dana Hedgpeth, The Washington Post
Hedgpeth writes: "Just as his Apache ancestors have done for centuries, Wendsler Nosie - the former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe - led a traditional ceremony on a mountaintop at Oak Flat, about 60 miles east of Phoenix, overlooking a landscape of basins covered in tall grasses, boulders and jagged cliffs."
Native Americans want to protect Oak Flat, a sacred site 60 miles east of Phoenix, from a mining operation
ust as his Apache ancestors have done for centuries, Wendsler Nosie — the former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe — led a traditional ceremony on a mountaintop at Oak Flat, about 60 miles east of Phoenix, overlooking a landscape of basins covered in tall grasses, boulders and jagged cliffs.
The tradition, called a sunrise ceremony, is a rite of passage for a teenage girl in which she goes through a series of rituals to recognize her transition to womanhood. The girl had collected plants from Oak Flat that have the “spirit of Chi’chil Bildagoteel,” the name of the sacred spot in the Apache language. Plants from anywhere else cannot be used — they don’t have the spirit that resonates from Oak Flat. And the girl spoke to “the spirit of Oak Flat,” giving thanks for providing acorns, yucca, cedar and saguaro cactus that the tribe uses.
Even in the 21st century, Nosie and his tribe still take part in the traditional, four-day ceremony and other cultural events at Oak Flat, a roughly 4,300-acre spot they consider sacred to Native Americans.
“This is where we came from,” said Nosie. “It’s the beginning of our being, our identity. Oak Flat is where the Creator made us and gave us this land. This is the centerpiece that makes up everything that we are.”
But Oak Flat is at risk of being damaged or destroyed to make way for a mining operation. Dozens of other sites that are considered sacred to American Indians have tribes and environmental groups fighting to keep out gas and oil operations, communications towers or highways.
Last week Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American interior secretary, spent three days at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, another sacred site under siege. She is expected to urge President Biden to restore Bears Ears to at least 1.35 million acres — its size before the Trump administration slashed its protected area by 85 percent.
On Tuesday, a House Natural Resources subcommittee will hold a hearing on saving Oak Flat. Like so many sacred Native American sites, Oak Flat is caught in a web of deep history, politics and legal wrangling.
A mining company wants the land because it holds one of the largest untapped copper deposits in North America. That doesn’t sit well with the Apache and other tribes, including the Zuni, Yavapai, O’odham and Hopi, all of whom consider the site sacred.
“Native Americans have heard a lot of thoughts and prayers that get broken,” said Luke W. Goodrich, a lawyer for the Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit organization run by Nosie that sued to try to stop mining at Oak Flat. “Congress and the federal government have repeatedly failed Native Americans. Courts are often the only option.”
The Apache say their ancestors have “lived, worshiped on, and cared for Oak Flat” and its surrounding lands “since time immemorial,” according to one of several lawsuits. They believe that Usen, their Creator, made Oak Flat as a blessed place where Ga’an, who are considered the messengers or guardians, live. The Ga’an protect the Apache and are the “buffer between heaven and Earth.”
Terry Rambler, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, testified to federal officials that parts of Oak Flat have rock paintings and petroglyphs that are said to be the “footprints and the very spirit of our ancestors.” He compared the significance of Oak Flat for Native Americans to the importance of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, or Angkor Wat in Cambodia, or the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“I call Oak Flat,” Rambler said, “the Sistine Chapel of Apache religion.”
It is also a place of tradition and ceremony.
The spring waters at Oak Flat are believed to have “healing powers not present elsewhere,” according to a lawsuit. Medicinal plants grow naturally there and are harvested. Bear root is boiled, and Native Americans drink it to treat a sore throat; greasewood is used to help those with diabetes, the Apache said. And a “Holy Grounds” ceremony is conducted at Oak Flat for those who are “sick, have ailments or seek guidance.”
For boys and girls, Oak Flat is a spot for their coming-of-age ceremonies. It’s crucial, Apaches said, for a boy to “have the opportunity to sweat at Oak Flat for the first time, when he becomes a young man,” a lawsuit stated.
For girls, the sunrise ceremony is planned for months and holds special meaning. At one point in the ceremony, tribal members surround the girl, while singing, dancing and praying. At night, the Ga’an “come from the mountains” around Oak Flat and “enter into Apache men,” called crown dancers, tribal members said. The Ga’an bless the girl, who joins the dancing.
On the last day of the girl’s ceremony, one of the Ga’an dancers takes white clay from the ground at Oak Flat and paints the girl’s face as a way to show that she is being “molded” into the woman she is going to become. She then washes it off in a spring at Oak Flat, Apaches said, where part of the copper mine would be built.
Debbie Ho, a D.C. representative for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, said she once tried to explain the significance of the old and tall Emory oak trees and their acorns to a lawmaker who suggested that the trees could simply be moved.
“You can’t just pick up these sacred trees and move them,” Ho said. “These are areas that are filled with unique significance to Native American tribes. It’s not transferrable. It’s not fungible. You can’t go build another place like Oak Flat.”
“It has power,” Ho said. “Their deities, their culture live there.”
Centuries ago, bands of Apaches are said to have hidden from invaders in Oak Flat’s rough terrain. One spot at Oak Flat is called “Apache Leap,” where Apache warriors fought the U.S. cavalry, but when they were pushed to the edge of the cliff, they chose to leap to their deaths rather than surrender.
Eventually, Apaches were forced off their land when Chief Mangas Coloradas signed the Treaty of Santa Fe in 1852 with the U.S. government. As part of the deal, the government promised to “designate, settle, and adjust their territorial boundaries” and “pass and execute” laws “conducive to the prosperity and happiness of said Indians,” according to the Apache Stronghold’s lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
But the treaty wasn’t honored, and the boundaries for Apache lands were never set. In a lawsuit, John Welch, an expert in Apache anthropology, said there is no evidence that the United States “compensated the Apache treaty rights holders” for Oak Flat, even though a map from the 1800s shows it as land that belonged to the Apaches. Welch said, “Oak Flat is Apache land, as it has been for centuries.”
In the 1870s, when gold and silver were found in the Oak Flat area, more settlers came, and federal legislation allowed mining. That led to more conflict. In a 15-year period, Apaches were attacked at least 35 times, according to a lawsuit. At one point, Army Gen. James Carleton ordered that Apache men be “killed wherever found.”
Gradually, the federal government used its Indian removal policies to force thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. By 1874, the U.S. government had forced approximately 4,000 Apaches onto the San Carlos Reservation. Native Americans dubbed it “Hell’s 40 Acres” because it was a “barren wasteland,” according to the Apache Stronghold’s lawsuit. As miners destroyed Oak Flat, the U.S. government forcibly removed children to Indian boarding schools and tried to convert Native Americans to Christianity, according to experts and tribal members.
In 1886, a band of Apaches led by the famous Geronimo surrendered. They were promised that they would get their land back if they agreed to two years of detention, according to a lawsuit and Native American historians. But that promise was broken, and they were imprisoned — some for as long as two decades — and once released they were sent to the San Carlos Reservation.
One federal analysis in the Apache Stronghold’s lawsuit said Native American “communities lost large portions of their homelands, including Oak Flat, and today live on lands that do not encompass places sacred to their cultures.”
Nosie said many people wrongly think that Oak Flat has always belonged to the federal government. The U.S. Forest Service is in charge of managing Oak Flat.
“We were exiled out of these areas, forced off our lands and placed in reservations that were concentration camps,” said Nosie, who lives in a teepee on Oak Flat. “There’s an assumption that we come from these reservations. We don’t. We were exiled out of our Indigenous lands.
“All we’re trying to do is go to our home. Where we are from. Where we originated, and Oak Flats is that place.”
There have been some previous attempts to protect Oak Flat.
In the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower reserved some of the land at Oak Flat, which is part of the Tonto National Forest, for “public purpose,” according to a lawsuit. And it was later placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In an eight-year span, at least a dozen congressional bills sought to give Oak Flat to mining companies, but they all failed.
That changed in 2014 when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) attached a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act that authorized the federal government to transfer approximately 2,400 acres at Oak Flat to Resolution Copper in exchange for about 5,300 acres scattered in other parts of the state.
“They didn’t respect Oak Flat,” Nosie said. “They gave it away.”
In January, Nosie’s Apache Stronghold group filed a lawsuit to try to stop the deal with Resolution Copper. The suit alleged that Resolution Copper’s potential mining operation at Oak Flat would “destroy the site forever — swallowing it in a nearly two-mile wide, 1,100-foot deep crater.”
Apache Stronghold has also argued in its lawsuit that transferring Oak Flat violated several federal laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and failed to honor the 1852 Treaty of Santa Fe.
Resolution Copper has said it will create much-needed jobs for the region and said it will work to “understand the concerns” of the community and “Native Americans who have historical ties to the land.” Recently, federal officials ordered a more thorough review of the cultural and environmental impacts of mining at Oak Flat.
Kevin Allis, former chief executive of the National Congress of American Indians, the largest lobbying group for tribes in the country, said lawmakers, federal agency officials and private businesses often overlook that tribes are land-based people and that where they’re from has a “spiritual significance” that is “not transferrable.”
“Our ancestral traditions and customs are tied to special places that are unique to that community,” said Allis, who is also a tribal member of the Forest County Potawatomi Community in Wisconsin and now runs Thunderbird Strategic, a consulting firm for tribes. “You can’t move that somewhere else. You can’t say move Oak Flat to Utah, Chicago or Kansas and it have the same significance.”
“When you want to mine for copper or uranium or poke holes for gas, you’re going to destroy that community,” Allis said. “Any alteration is a permanent scar on that spot that is so sensitive and sacred to that tribal community.
“You destroy it, and it’s forever gone.”
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