National

Trump Advisers Seek Oil Grab from Native American Reservations


NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–December 5, 2016

By TomP

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A Native American tribal flag stands atop a hill overlooking the Oceti Salowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in Cannonball, North Dakota , Sat. Dec. 3, 2016. AP/Photo David Goldman

Native American reservations, which are only about 2% of land in this nation, may have as much as 20% of the oil reserves. As the Exploiters open the entire nation for super-exploitation, the eye of Sauron has turned its gaze to Native Americans.

Now, a group of advisers to President-elect Donald Trump on Native American issues wants to free those resources from what they call a suffocating federal bureaucracy that holds title to 56 million acres of tribal lands, two chairmen of the coalition told Reuters in exclusive interviews.

The group proposes to put those lands into private ownership — a politically explosive idea that could upend more than century of policy designed to preserve Indian tribes on U.S.-owned reservations, which are governed by tribal leaders as sovereign nations.

The proposed path to deregulated drilling — privatizing reservations — could prove even more divisive. Many Native Americans view such efforts as a violation of tribal self-determination and culture.

“Our spiritual leaders are opposed to the privatization of our lands, which means the commoditization of the nature, water, air we hold sacred,” said Tom Goldtooth, a member of both the Navajo and the Dakota tribes who runs the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Privatization has been the goal since colonization — to strip Native Nations of their sovereignty.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Reuters): Trump advisers aim to privatize oil-rich Indian reservations

Hard times are coming fast. It’s open season for greed and destruction.

Source: http://dailykos.com

 


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