From Oak Flats to Oakland The fight to save all of our Mountains on Turtle Island

pemIt was a low, silent whisper/em/p pemThe Cries of Mama Earth were those of a woman who believed no-one would find herbr / if you listened very carefully you could hear a low destroyed cry rise up with every drop of grayish-white blood that seeped from her skin/em/p p emMama Earth was screamingbr / It was the scream at the end of a rapebr / when we barely have enough energy to breathe... excerpt of MountainRape bynbsp;tiny/em/p p ldquo;If this act goes through, it will not just mean the privatization of Oak Flats- but of all federal open land all across the US,rdquo; Duke Romero, indigenous land warriornbsp;andnbsp;member of the Apache stronghold occupation at the sacred site of Oak Flats, Arizona, spoke about trying to save Mama Earth from more corporate destructionbr / As Duke said In December of 2014 Arizona Poltricksters Anne Kirkpatrick, John McCainnbsp;andnbsp;others went to congress to present a midnight rider addendum called the Southeast Arizona land exchange to the National Defense Authorization Actnbsp;andnbsp;then it wasnbsp; passed by the U.S. Housenbsp;andnbsp;the Senate. It is a bill pushed by Arizona Representatives Gosar Kirkpatricknbsp;andnbsp;Arizona Senators McCainnbsp;andnbsp;othersnbsp;andnbsp;will effectively open up all federal land to kkkorporate desecration/p p emIt was a low, silent whisperbr / The Cries of Mama Earth were those of a woman who believed no-one would find herbr / a low destroyed cry would emanate with every drop of grayish-white blood that seeped from her skin/em/p p Whennbsp;a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/indigenous_media"POOR Magazinersquo;s Indigenous Peoples Media Project/anbsp;wentnbsp; on a humble journey to the part of Turtle Island the colonizers call Arizonanbsp;andnbsp;specifically a sacred site called Oak Flats. Our hearts were already heavy with the endless war on the poornbsp;andnbsp;indigenous peoples of the Bay Areanbsp;andnbsp;all across Amerikkklannbsp;andnbsp;on the day we arrived,nbsp; the news of the pordquo;Lice murder of Loreal Juana Barnell-Tsingine. in Winslow put us over the edge with sorrow. The war on the poornbsp;andnbsp;our poor bodies of color never stops- never takes a day off,nbsp;andnbsp;yet now it seems, if its possible, its gotten worse./p p As we walked through Miami, Arizona which like Superior, Arizona is a settler-colonial town so small you could miss it, there was a sorrow-filled silence that filled the atmosphere. The grey air was heavy with peoples loss, economic, spiritualnbsp;andnbsp;physical. Following the amerikkklan model, the settler-colonizers who colonized this Apache land: read: perpetrated mass genocide on the 1st peoples of the area, then enslaved, stole, worked themnbsp;andnbsp;the poorest white people among them to death. After they had destroyed everythingnbsp;andnbsp;everybody, the 21st colonizers who call themselves names like Freeport-McMoRannbsp;andnbsp;Rio Tintonbsp; proceed with the rape of every shred of Mama Earthrsquo;s body.nbsp;nbsp;Andthen like the kkkorporate rapists they are, once there was nothing left to steal, take or profit off of, abandoned hernbsp;andnbsp;her earth peoples for dead.nbsp;/p p ldquo;They are even planning to take the whole road out,nbsp;andnbsp;close off the access to very small towns like Top of the World if this goes through,rdquo; Duke proceeded to tell the horror story of the proposed monster mine ldquo;tailingrdquo; of 2500 feet tallnbsp;andnbsp;15 miles long that is being proposed by Rio Tinto, a multinational corporation dredging, bleeding, destroying water, airandnbsp;poornbsp;andnbsp;indigenous peoples liveable land all over the Mama Earth in search for coppernbsp;andnbsp;other metals needed for the endless need for electricity to power all of our electronics.nbsp; Mine tailing is the ldquo;weird , sad moon-like mountain of waste produced when these corporations desecrate mama earthrsquo;s mountains for her resources. In so many of the places we traveled the quietnbsp; medicine bringing mountain ranges of Arizona were transformed into what resembled the surface of the moon. No life grows there, no green, no water, no color remains.nbsp;/p p Duke told us that with this proposed monster mine which was aptly named Resolution there will be even more poisoning of the water than there already was in most of Arizona due to the already existent multitudes of mines, as well as air contamination into an already dust-filled environment of Arizona which will be an increase the dust storms to include arsenic, mercury,nbsp;andnbsp;other dangerous chemicals.Add this to the insanity of nearby Flagstaff, Arizona with the desecrationnbsp;andnbsp;poisoning of the San Francisco Peaks sacred siteandnbsp;the nearby aquifers with fecal matter, hormonesnbsp;andnbsp;pharmaceuticals run-off used for snow so people can mindlessly skinbsp;andnbsp;you have effectively poisoned most of the people in Arizona./p p ldquo;Now that the mine is leaving town we are looking for new things to bring into our economy,rdquo; PNN Indigenous peoples media project attended the City Council meeting of Miami, Arizona, on the day after we spoke to Duke Romero only to hear most of the townsfolk agreeing with the exciting news of the ldquo;new Resolution Minerdquo; which is purported to bring thousands of new jobs into townnbsp;andnbsp;revenue for the town./p p ldquo;People are excited by the jobs, but what they donrsquo;t know, is most of the mine will be run by autonomous machinery, in other words, no humans will be needed to work the mines.rdquo; Most of the time in the destruction of Mama Earth, kkkorporate rapists cite the ldquo;jobsrdquo; that will be generated. Instead, this is usually the way they ldquo;sellrdquo; rape on the people of their own resources.nbsp;/p p ldquo;This is not just an Apache issue - but an everyone issue, all races, all people, mountain climbers, campers, nature lovers, everyone needs to come together to fight this Land Exchange Act,rdquo; Duke Romero concluded with ways folks need to urgently help.nbsp;/p p What people in large urban areas rarely think about is the way that we are impacted by the poisoning of our mountainsnbsp;andnbsp;deserts, but what is rarely discussed is the direct connection that poltrickster desecration moves like the Land Exchange Act will impact everyone. Locally, in California we have hundreds of ldquo;mineablerdquo; mountains, if this goes through it will open up federal land from Yosemite to Yonkers, from Oak Flats to Oakland. From Apache Land to Los Angeles, who knows what these corporate rapists havenbsp; in store.nbsp; Saving Mama Earth from more desecration truly means saving us all.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p p emDuke explained that there are two repeals of the Federal Land Exchange Act being presented in congress right nownbsp;andnbsp;that all of us can help by writing ( a snail mail or phone call, email not so good but better than nothing), to ask your local congress person to support the Repeal of the Land Exchange Act. Remember it may not feel like they are listening, bu they have to record it if its a phone call or snail mail. For more informationnbsp;andnbsp;ongoing updates go tonbsp;a href="http://www.apache-stronghold.com/about.html"http://www.apache-stronghold.com/about.html/a/em/p