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Tribal Natural Resources News
TRIBAL NATURAL RESOURCES
Native American tribes around the West are making critical decisions regarding the management of their natural resources — land, water, fossil fuels and renewable resources. The Tribal Natural Resources Desk aims to produce objective reporting to tell stories of tribes empowering themselves through stewardship and decision-making around their natural resources.
When President Joe Biden took office, his administration acted quickly to unpublish an environmental report that gave the green light to a proposed copper mine in the Oak Flat area of Tonto National Forest. But it may soon republish the report.
→ More news from the Fronteras Desk
→ More news from the Fronteras Desk
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday in a case over a land transfer in the Tonto National Forest that would bring a massive copper mine to a sacred indigenous site about an hour east of Phoenix.
Native American communities have long utilized traditional natural resources such as water, lumber, minerals and crops. As they are taking greater roles in the management and preservation of these precious and sometimes finite resources, many are seeking to diversify and modernize their economies and infrastructure.
Oak Flat stretches across just over 2,400 acres of the Tonoto National Forest and is a sacred site to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and other Arizona tribes. A last-minute piece of legislation passed in 2014 put its future into the hands of a proposed mining operation called Resolution Copper.
Fifteen Native American tribes will get a total of $580 million in federal money this year for water rights settlements, the Biden administration announced Thursday.
The Havasupai Tribe announced that it is reopening Havasu Falls on Feb. 1. The famous waterfalls near the Grand Canyon were a major tourism draw before COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.
Geoglyphs are massive etchings on the land found found all over the world, including in Arizona, where development can threaten their preservation.
Long before there were grocery stores and fast-food restaurants, ancient cultures found sustenance in the Southwest through innovative farming techniques. A nonprofit seed bank in southern Arizona is keeping that agricultural past alive, restoring traditional crops and foods that in some cases go back hundreds of years.
→ More news from the Fronteras Desk
→ More news from the Fronteras Desk
President Joe Biden pledged to work closer with America’s tribes, and has taken a number of steps to fulfill that pledge.
The president recently took another.
Although big water projects such as dams are front and center when Arizona cities talk about their water supply, the state’s wildlife relies on natural sources, like springs. A nonprofit is doing a survey on springs in the southern Arizona area known as sky island country.
After more than a century of dam building and development, the Colorado River ends as a trickle at the Arizona-Mexico border. The river was once the lifeblood of the Cocopah, or River People. The tribe has begun trying to return a sliver of that landscape to what it once was.
→ More news from the Tribal Natural Resources Desk
→ More news from the Tribal Natural Resources Desk
A proposed copper mine 70 miles east of Phoenix is facing another legal setback. The Arizona Court of Appeals has sided with the San Carlos Apache Tribe in its latest bid to keep Resolution Copper from moving forward.
The San Carlos Apache tribe has offered to make 65 million gallons of its Central Arizona Project water available while Rio Verde works out a long-term solution.
Environmental groups are suing the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland over an area that has been eyed for increased oil and gas development.
Members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe joined with members of the Grand Canyon Trust and others to protest White Mesa Mill uranium processing plant and the threats it might pose to local air and water quality.
Researchers from Northern Arizona University and University of Arizona are collaborating with the Cocopah Indian Tribe to assess environmental health issues at a Head Start and day care facility. Concerns include possible air and water pollution from surrounding areas.
The Cocopah Indian Tribe said Friday that the state of Arizona acted against its wishes by stacking shipping containers on its land to prevent illegal border crossings.
As sage has ballooned in popularity, journalists and activists are uncovering a dirty truth about the sacred desert plant: Sage is being poached in massive quantities.
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→ Hear more interviews from The Show
During the Cold War, the uranium industry dug hundreds of mines on the Navajo Nation. Officials with the tribe met recently to discuss the impacts of uranium exposure to tribal members.
The Bureau of Reclamation recently opened an Environmental Impact Statement on the Miner Flat Dam at Fort Apache to public comments.
Navajo President Jonathan Nez and tribal officials met with Arizona Congressman Tom O’Halleran and others recently to visit abandoned uranium mines near Cameron.
