Trump Regime demolishing Native American burial sites for his fucking wall.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51449739

Native American burial sites have been blown up by construction crews building the US-Mexico border wall, says a lawmaker and tribal leaders.

Authorities confirmed that "controlled blasting" has begun at Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a Unesco recognised natural reserve.

Raul Grijalva, a Democratic congressman, called the destruction "sacrilegious".

The government failed to consult the Tohono O'odham Nation, he said.

Environmental groups also warn of the damage being done to the local underground aquifer, as well as to migrating wildlife in the remote desert region about 115 miles (185km) west of Tucson.

Officials say the aim of the project is to construct a 30ft-tall (9m) steel barrier that runs for 43 miles on the national park land.

The United Nations designated Organ Pipe as an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976, calling it "a pristine example of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem".

Mr Grijalva, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, represents a district that encompasses the area, which shares 400 miles of border with Mexico.

He toured the burial sites at the Organ Pipe, known as Monument Hill, last month, and was told that O'odham people buried warriors from the rival Apache tribe there.

"What we saw on Monument Hill was opposing tribes who were respectfully laid to rest - that is the one being blasted with dynamite," Mr Grijalva said.

In interviews with US media, he called the Trump administration's conduct "sacrilegious" and said the environmental monitor that the government assigned to the project would do nothing to mitigate the cultural damage.

One area contained artefacts dating back 10,000 years.

Tribal chairman Ned Norris Jr told the Arizona Republic that even though the land is now controlled by the US government, "we have inhabited this area since time immemorial."

"They're our ancestors. They're our remnants of who we are as a people, throughout this whole area. And it's our obligation, it's our duty to do what is necessary to protect that."

An internal report from the National Park Service obtained by the Washington Post says the border wall Mr Trump promised during his 2015 campaign would destroy up to 22 archeological sites within Organ Pipe alone.

Crews are reported to have also destroyed ancient saguaro cacti, which Mr Grijalva said the O'odham people see "as the embodiment of their ancestors".

"So to see them turned into mulch - it's deeply upsetting."

Is this legal?
The Trump administration has been able to build sections of the US-Mexico border wall on public land due to the 2005 REAL ID Act, which gives the federal government the right to waive laws that conflict with US national security policy.

In their bid to build the wall, the White House has waived dozens of laws - including ones that protected Native American graves, endangered species, and the environment.

Mr Grijalva said he will work towards repealing the 2005 act and will convene a congressional hearing in the coming weeks in an effort to do so.

Fuck Trump.

[Gandalf]

America gonna America, I guess.

[aerius]

Native land in Canada threatened by oil & gas pipeline construction: Years long mass protests, people get arrested but more protesters keep coming in to take their place. Coordinated grassroots campaigns to raise money for supporting protesters and buy support from government officials to try and kill the pipeline projects.

Native burial sites demolished for border wall in US: Angry screaming on internet

This is why your country is going to shit.

[Ziggy Stardust]

To be fair, oil & gas pipeline construction projects are absolutely MASSIVE in scope and require so much groundwork (both logistically and legally, as they often cross vast tracts of lands under various jurisdictions) that there is quite a LOT of time for protesters to organize and plan protests. While in theory the wall is a pretty ambitious project as well, in practice it has been appearing in fits and starts over various smaller construction projects as opposed to a single large ongoing one. So far as I can tell, most people just simply weren't aware that this construction project was planned until it was more or less too late to stop it.

But it is also sadly true that indigenous rights issues in the US are largely ignored or put on the backburner in terms of political priorities.

[Darth Yan]

This is the trump administration. OF COURSE they don't give a shit

[The Romulan Republic]

Native land in Canada threatened by oil & gas pipeline construction: Years long mass protests, people get arrested but more protesters keep coming in to take their place. Coordinated grassroots campaigns to raise money for supporting protesters and buy support from government officials to try and kill the pipeline projects.

Native burial sites demolished for border wall in US: Angry screaming on internet

This is why your country is going to shit.

Believe me, I'd fucking love to see mass protests on the US border, for this and about fifty thousand other things.

This is the trump administration. OF COURSE they don't give a shit

Which doesn't mean that WE shouldn't give a shit.

Above all, we must fight the normalization of evil, the sense that shit like this is just another day. Even, and especially, if it is.

[aerius]

Believe me, I'd fucking love to see mass protests on the US border, for this and about fifty thousand other things.

Let's be honest here, there's only 2 things that trigger mass protests in America - threats to the 2nd Amendment and white men shooting blacks.

ICE rounding up people and stuffing them in gulags, 1st & 4th Amendment getting used as toilet paper, national parks getting drilled for oil, nada. But all hell breaks loose as soon as a black person gets shot by whitey or the authorities try for a gun grab.

[The Romulan Republic]

Believe me, I'd fucking love to see mass protests on the US border, for this and about fifty thousand other things.

Let's be honest here, there's only 2 things that trigger mass protests in America - threats to the 2nd Amendment and white men shooting blacks.

ICE rounding up people and stuffing them in gulags, 1st & 4th Amendment getting used as toilet paper, national parks getting drilled for oil, nada. But all hell breaks loose as soon as a black person gets shot by whitey or the authorities try for a gun grab.

There were massive protests in the womens' march after Trump, the Muslim Ban, climate protests, and yes, even some against the situation on the border, especially when "kids in cages" first hit the headlines. And Occupy, several years back (which, come to think of it, probably marks the beginning of the shift toward socialist activism by American youth which Sanders has subsequently become the leader of).

The tricky part is sustaining the energy and momentum long term. People tend to get fatigued, and after the initial outrage and shock, people move on to the next story. And there is so much shit that needs dealing with, but sometimes it can be hard to find something to focus people on long-term.

It admittedly doesn't help that the Centrist crowd tends to wring their hands over "incivility" when protests do happen. When the children in cages story broke, some Trump Regime officials were publicly heckled. And immediately you had these Centrist figures going on the news decrying the lack of "civility" to people who lock little kids in cages for being brown and foreign. Not violence. Not threats. Merely heckling.

Yup, definitely got their priorities straight.

[Straha]

Native land in Canada threatened by oil & gas pipeline construction: Years long mass protests, people get arrested but more protesters keep coming in to take their place. Coordinated grassroots campaigns to raise money for supporting protesters and buy support from government officials to try and kill the pipeline projects.

Native burial sites demolished for border wall in US: Angry screaming on internet

This is why your country is going to shit.

This is coming in the wake of the DAPL protests which halted a pipeline, reversed massive governmental policy, and became a national touchstone for discourse and a prime source of fundraising for people all over the place.

All of which was reversed by Trump.

I haven't talked to people about this recently, but I used to hang out in the circles of protest organizers. They were pretty cleared eyed and savvy strategists. They keep their powder dry for the fights they know they can win legally and publicly, and for fights that they care about. Just eyeing the stories about this I'm inclined to think that the law here is a lot more ironclad than they'd like and would require winning precedent against national security legislation, which the courts are historically very leery to do out of deference to the other branches. I'd also guess, but would bet no money, that they're unwilling to fight hard for inactive burial sites when there are fights ongoing about resource access and governmental obligations, which are far more useful precedents, with better outcomes, and easier legal battles.