Mining of sacred ground would further exploit Native Americans
With the daily drama of politics, too few of us are likely aware of how many Native Americans continue to be exploited. On July 19 and 20, a coalition of Catholic sisters, including myself, joined Indigenous elders to stand in solidarity with the Western Apache in defense of their most sacred site, Oak Flat (Chi’chil Bildagoteel), Arizona, which risks becoming a two-mile-wide copper mine due to a federal land transfer to a private corporation on August 19.
Oak Flat’s decades-long federal protections were only recently retracted, through a last-minute provision on a “must-pass” defense-spending bill in Congress. Now, after several legal battles, the Apache site for sacred ceremonies, since time immemorial, faces total demolition by Resolution Copper, a multinational mining company and subsidiary of Rio Tinto, a corporation with a global track record of ecological damage and mishandling an important cultural site.
Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Western Apache and other allies, petitioned to protect Oak Flat with a religious freedom case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. But in May, the Supreme Court declined to hear the Apaches’ case, despite the Apache Stronghold’s assertion that the land transfer and mine would destroy their ability to practice Apache religion, a religion which is inextricably tied to the land at Oak Flat. Two justices (Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas) dissented against the majority decision to not hear the case, calling it a “grievous mistake” and a threat to religious freedom everywhere.
As members of the Catholic Church, the delegation of sisters stood with their Apache brothers and sisters in humble acknowledgment of the harm done historically by the Church to Indigenous people through the suppression of their religion and the theft of their land. The past is not past.
Sheila Karpan, Wheat Ridge
Law enforcement must also abide by the laws
Re: “Grateful for Mesa County deputy’s enforcement of laws,” July 25 letter to the editor
I take deep concern at the letter supporting the actions of Mesa County Sheriff Deputy Alexander Zwinck in stopping and detaining individuals whom he initially suspects of being illegal immigrants and messaging ICE their details. As noted in his letter, we are citizens of a country, state, and city built on laws, laws to help protect all (not just citizens or “god”) individuals and provide them with due process.
Deputy Zwink will get his chance in court to defend himself and his actions, but in my opinion and knowledge, his actions were deplorable and out of alignment with any state’s laws related to due process.
Randy DeBoer, Denver
Feeling squeezed by CDOT
Every day on C-470, somebody cuts me off in their frustration, and somebody else drives in front of me 10 miles an hour slower than I wanna go, and traffic is stop-and-go between University Boulevard and Quebec Street, in both directions.
CDOT built this highway with a capacity to handle 80-90% of the traffic that it actually gets. So we approach 100%-full, with the associated dangers, a lot more than we should. CDOT is quite good at designing highways, so they apparently intended to build a highway that would generate congestion, rather than safely handle the traffic that we always get. They are not, then, about safety and building good highways. Are they too interested in getting tolls? Do they enjoy the large fines that they get because frustrated people all across Colorado cross the double solid lines to get into that third lane? Yeah, apparently so.
If they’re not about safety and nicely flowing highways, what are they about?
Kenny Gilfilen, Highlands Ranch
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