Updated 8/25/08
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The Sierra Club and a few
Indian tribes are pressing for a federal 'Traditional Cultural Properties'
(TCP) designation on 660,000 acres of US Forest Service public land outside
the town of Grants New Mexico. This would give a handful of Indians the
right to oppose multiple use on public land. This involves the Navajos and
some very small 'pueblo' tribes of just a couple of thousand people (Laguna,
Acoma, and Zuni Pueblos). Mt Taylor rises to 11,301 feet above sea level. The
tribes are claiming all the land on Mt Taylor above 7300 feet is a 'living
being' according to native beliefs.
The TCP would give the tribes the power to try to force the Forest Service to
manage the land in accordance with their 'spiritual beliefs'.
If the tribes get the TCP designation, they can ask the Forest Service to ban
other uses in order to protect their 'living being' mountain. Our
American ethic is to respect all religion, but not to favor any. This TCP would
be an act of blatant discrimination in favor of a very few people, at the
expense of the entire American public.
Mt Taylor is popular with hikers, mountain bikers and is a major elk hunting
area as well as OHV enthusaists. There are ranchers with grazing permits, and
mining leases. ALL of these legitimate uses are threatened by the TCP.
Before you think this is too ridiculous to be possible, realize that the
Washoe tribe in California got the Forest Service to ban rock-climbing on a
popular rock face on public land. The ONLY reason given by the Indians is they
claim the touch of the climbers body was hurting the spirit of the rock. (see
link at the bottom for the issue on Cave Rock, at Lake Tahoe).
The newspaper in Grants, New Mexico is running the poll again, and this
time the enviros are cranking out the responses. Their votes are tilting the
results in favor of the Traditional Cultural Properties. (TCP) federal
designation for Mt Taylor. Please help us PUSH BACK with our "NO"
votes.
We
all need to vote AGAIN. The poll now is 64% NO. Yesterday our side
had it as 90% NO. The enviros are working harder than we are now on this.
And it is a new day and we can all vote again ˆ yes, unbelievable.
The link is www.cibolabeacon.com
<http://www.cibolabeacon.com> The
poll is on the lower left corner of the webpage.
I know
alot of you have extensive email distribution lists. Please keep passing this
around and ask everyone you know to vote NO on the TCP.
This takes less than 20 seconds to help the fight for keeping public lands open.
Remember,
public land near you could be next. If the tribes are successful with
these strategies, we will be seeing more and more of these attacks on public
land.
Read
about how a TCP can be used against recreation, at:
Outline
for Access Fund Backgrounder on Cave Rock
closure
<http://www.accessfund.org/pdf/CRbackgrounder3-28.pdf>
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View
as HTML <http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:HyYxdN4GRawJ:www.accessfund.org/pdf/CRbackgrounder3-28.pdf+Cave+Rock+TCP&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us>
Cave Rock leads to an exchange of power between the rock and
climbers that. affects the materials of the TCP [Traditional
Cultural Property]; the rock has ...
www.accessfund.org/pdf/CRbackgrounder3-28.pdf
- Similar pages <http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=related:www.accessfund.org/pdf/CRbackgrounder3-28.pdf>
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