Congress may sell a Native American burial ground and national forest land in Arizona to build a copper mine by slipping a deal into must-pass legislation this December.
Sign the petition to stop lawmakers from destroying wilderness and Native American holy sites.
International mining conglomerate Rio Tinto has been vying for the 2,400 acres of the federally protected Tonto National Forest because a large copper deposit lies below the earth.
Federal land should not be given away – especially land that contains Native American holy sites.
The benefits of the mine are questionable: China would likely get most of the copper, and the mining company is planning to stop using human workers in favor of robots, which means very few jobs would be created.
If this deal is made, the land would become private property and the mining company would no longer be held accountable for completing environmental reviews, leaving thousands of plant and animal species vulnerable to radioactive contamination of groundwater, enormous mining waste, and clear-cutting of the ecosystem.
Sign this petition to demand that Congress stop all plans to secretly sell federal lands and a Native American burial ground in must-pass legislation!
