"I think we need to be very cautious that we don't fall into the colonial quagmire of 'divide and conquer' on Rep. Zinke's apparent nomination," warns Chief Stan Grier of the Piikani Nation. Grier's recent commentary on McMorris Rodgers was widely praised by tribal leaders.
"Rep. Zinke's record needs to be viewed in totality, not isolation. His work on the Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement was important, as was his support of federal recognition for the Little Shell Tribe, but much of what he has said about tribal sovereignty relates to the development and access to fossil fuel extraction on tribal lands," Chief Grier elaborates. Zinke's record in Congress supports Grier's assessment. "We need to invest in infrastructure projects like the Keystone pipeline," says Trump's Interior pick, while remaining silent on DAPL.
Like Trump, Zinke has been charged with using racial stereotypes, which the President-elect routinely dismisses as "political correctness." At an address in Helena, the soon-to-be Secretary of the Interior informed a Republican audience that "nowhere" is "the dependence on the government more apparent" than on Indian reservations. "You go back to, you want to feed someone, you need to teach a person how to fish," was Zinke's follow-up on the poverty crippling Montana reservations. "In order to jump-start job growth and economic development [on reservations] we need to get the federal government out of the way," was how he later qualified his position, a stance contrary to the federal trust responsibility. In 2014, he opposed $344 million in funding for Violence Against Women programs in Indian Country, sought to repeal the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and supported the budget proposed by Speaker Paul Ryan that would have cut $637 million from Indian Health Services. Congressman Zinke voted for the Native American Energy Act (NAEA), and the Indian Coal Production Tax Credit. Opponents fear NAEA will weaken the National Environmental Policy Act. "This could incentivize energy companies to partner with tribes simply for the benefit of skirting NEPA and profiting from restricted judicial review," cautions Congressman Raà ºl Grijalva, an outspoken advocate for tribal rights.
"Zinke consistently votes for the interests of oil and gas companies, which is not surprising since Oasis Petroleum is his largest campaign contributor and the oil and gas industry is his third-largest sector contributor. He has also voted against and attacked the establishment of protective national monuments on public lands," continues CBD's Kiera'n Suckling. Chief Grier's call for tribal solidarity and examining the ramifications of legislation like NAEA and the Zinke co-sponsored Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act that rolled back National Labor Relations Act regulations on tribal entity businesses is being echoed across Indian Country. "As contemporary tribal leaders we are stepping into the unknown with President-elect Trump," begins Chairwoman Amber Torres of the Walker River Paiute Tribe. "Tribal unity is imperative. What detrimentally impacts one tribe will ultimately impact all tribes due to consequence and precedent."
Chairwoman Torres and Chairwoman Laurie Thom of the neighboring Yerington Paiute Tribe identify the decades-long struggle over the abandoned Anaconda Copper Mine as a major concern under a Trump EPA directed by Scott Pruitt. The mine has contaminated ground and surface waters, and local wells have been poisoned with uranium, arsenic, lead and other toxic chemicals. Both leaders signed the grizzly-tribal unity treaty yesterday, now the most signed treaty in history. "This document and its importance have taken on even greater urgency since the election. Our worries and fears are real," concludes Chairwoman Torres.
>>>Addendum, referring to coverage in today's Santa Fe New Mexican:
Santa Fean John Horning of the nonprofit WildEarth Guardians opposes the nomination. "Zinke's pro coal and pro fossil fuel policy advocacy would be a disaster for our nation and our planet," Horning said.
Zinke supported a resolution co-sponsored by New Mexico Republican Congressman Steve Pearce that would turn over management of at least 200,000 acres of national forest lands in each state to local communities with the intent to thin forests and manage watersheds. The bill "would have handed over management responsibility on up to 4 million acres of national forest to state/local interests," Horning said. "Zinke favors state management of federal public lands to generate income to the benefit of the state of Montana, and that's not inconsistent with the value and vision of America's public lands."
>>>>
"It's great that Congressman Zinke has opposed the sell-off of our nation's public lands, but the rubber will meet the road when his campaign contributors come asking Interior for permission to drill those lands at the expense of Western communities," Chris Saeger, executive director of the nonprofit Western Values Project, said in a statement. "Saying you want to protect public lands is easy to do when your seat in Congress is on the line, but it's a completely different matter when powerful special interests ask to abuse those same lands at bargain basement prices behind closed doors.
I welcome the comment above by Mr. Saeger, which casts a slightly different but still deeply concerned light on what this probable Cabinet member will bring to the table at Secretary of Interior. Speaking of bargain basement prices behind doors, Zinke will have to make a point to avoid what former US Senator Albert Fall did as Secretary of the Interior in terms of the Tea Pot Dome oil lands leasing scandal that caused the total collapse of the already corrupt Warren G. Harding Administration.
(Article changed on December 15, 2016 at 09:43)
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