photo: Alberto Otero García via flickr
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Two stories recently really highlight the seemingly centuries-old conflict that occurs when one group of people's idea of "progress" and the resultant drive to acquire minerals conflicts with the indigenous people.
By the way, the quotes are there because more often than not in these situations the mythic idea of progress is just a convenient cover for the equally mythic notion of you have something that we want and because you don't want us to have it, or won't leave peaceably, you must be backward, primitive and holding up progress.
The two places in the spotlight are uranium mining in New Mexico on land held sacred by multiple groups of Native Americans (in BBC News) and the proposed mine to be operated by Vedanta Mining at Lanjigarh, Orissa in India (via Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources).
Mount Taylor Region Contains Hundreds of Archeological Sites
In New Mexico the issue is Mount Taylor, known as Tsibina to the Laguna and
Strathmore Minerals owns the mining rights to a patch of land about nine miles (14.7km) from the peak of Mount Taylor called Roca Honda, Spanish for "deep rock". Roca Honda is located in part on the designated traditional cultural property. The company is currently in the middle of the long process of obtaining mining permits and has already spent more than $12m on the project.The Roca Honda area holds 150 archaeological sites denoted by surveyors hired by Strathmore minerals. The artifacts range in age from settlements of the ancient ancestors of the Indians who inhabit the area today through the era of Spanish rule up to the 20th Century.
Albery Riley, a Laguna Pueblo tribal official and religious leader: "As an Indian nation, we're taught to respect mother earth, and when you see somebody doing that it's like somebody putting a knife in you."
And June Lorenzo, a Laguna lawyer: "I am not convinced that the industry has put the time and research and money into mining in ways that don't impact the environment. It's irresponsible to dive in, just looking with dollar signs in our eyes, and say it'll bring development."
More at: BBC News
Vedanta's Bauxite Mine to Devastate Tribals Way of Life
The other example, is halfway around the world in the Indian state of Orissa where the Dongria Kondh people, who have been at the center of the long-running controversy surrounding the UK-based Vedanta Resources bauxite mine, have been apparently granted a bit of a reprieve.
Earlier commissions by India's environment ministry warned that the mine was going to devastate the Dongria Kondh:
The report gave clear warning that the project would destroy the local Dongria Kondh tribe. According to Ramanathan, the 7,000-odd strong tribal group would not be able to make the transition from a forest-based lifestyle to one that would be necessary should the mining project take off.
But the Prime Minister nevertheless has urged that the mine be approved—it can't go ahead with approval from the Ministry of the Environment, which has established a new panel to study the mine's impact on the tribal people, as well as on wildlife and biodiversity.
Stephen Corry of Survival International:
The Prime Minister ought to be protecting the rights of India's most vulnerable citizens, not helping to railroad through a project that government experts have warned could destroy them.
Read more: Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources
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