Chairman Ron Wyden and Members of the Subcommittee

Hon. Jeff Bingaman, Chairman

Hon. Pete V. Domenici, Ranking Member

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

304 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Subject: Opposition to S. 3157 -- July 9, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

My name is Shan Lewis. I serve as President of the Inter Tribal Council
of Arizona. Our members include twenty American Indian Tribes, Nations
and Communities in Arizona on matters of international, national and
statewide importance to the Tribes. I also serve as Vice-Chairman of the
Fort Mojave Tribe, which has Tribal lands in Arizona, California and
Nevada. Several ITCA Tribes have lands in more than one state.

I speak today on behalf of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. It is
with deep concern that we respectfully oppose the passage by the Senate
Energy and National Resources Committee and the Senate of S. 3157 as
introduced on June 18, 2008.

We must say at the outset (as Chairman Wendsler Nosie of the San Carlos
Apache Tribe and President Bear on behalf of the Fort McDowell Yavapai
Nation testified before the House on November 1, 2007) that the Federal
agencies involved have failed to consult with us on a government to
government basis about this matter. Under the United States
Constitution, and our treaties, agreements, and Congressional and
Executive policy, we request that the United States consult with us on a
government to government basis about this matter prior to any decision
to move forward. In this regard, this hearing is quite premature. No
consultation has occurred. No environmental impact statement has been
developed, and Resolution Copper does not even know if the mine is
feasible.

The Forest Service only announced on June 25, 2008 that Resolution
Copper had filed a proposed "plan of operation for a pre-feasibility
study" for the mine to be conducted around Oak Flats, the land
Resolution Copper asks you to convey to it now. Comments on the
pre-feasibility study are not due until July 18, 2008.

Senate Bill 3157 would direct federal agencies to literally dismember a
federally established recreation campground authorized during the
presidency of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in an area within ancestral
Indian Tribal lands that are of unique cultural, spiritual and
archeological significance to American Indian tribes in the region. It
would facilitate a serious and highly damaging assault on the water,
wildlife, and other natural as well as archeological and historic
resources of the area by using highly surface-destructive block and cave
mining all in the name of making the mining operation ***cheaper*** for
the foreign multinational corporations that seek to extract the minerals
from the ground there.

Although we are not opposed to mining in general, this ***form of
mining*** and ***mining i**n this location*** does not make sense, is
offensive to us, and would pose a danger to many important values of the
region. Further, the proposed mining operation would cause the collapse
of the surface of the earth on the public lands owned by the American
People and endanger the historic terrain at Apache Leap, Oak Flat, and
Devils Canyon as well as the surrounding countryside.

The project would deplete and contaminate water resources from nearby
watersheds and aquifers leaving in its wake long-term, and in some
cases, permanent religious, cultural and environmental damage. Such
destruction of the Earth will remain long after Resolution Copper and
its foreign-owned parent companies, Rio Tinto, PLC and BHP Billiton,
Ltd. have taken their profits from the copper ore and water to which it
has no right, and have left the area. As American Indian Tribes, we have
seen this pattern repeated all too often and oftentimes with tragic
consequences for our people and natural resources.

This mining operation by Rio Tinto and BHP call for a land exchange that
entails taking public land located in a particularly sensitive area and
transferring it to the subsidiary of these two foreign conglomerates. To
us, it is inappropriate for the United States to go to such
extraordinary lengths to accommodate these foreign interests' desires to
mine an ore body with such profound adverse impacts.

These mining companies have sought to piece together a handful of small
conservation projects in the state that may be meritorious individually
in an attempt to soften the huge environmental blow that the mining
project would deliver to the environment of the area. The proponents, in
essence, advocate that the Congress agree to ***sacrifice ***the surface
lands and the water that flows through their subsurface on lands
immediately adjacent to Apache Leap; that is, to "look the other way,"
so as to consciously permit this substantial insult to the lands and the
resources involved to advance, just to facilitate the less expensive
form of mining to benefit Rio Tinto and BHP.

Aside from the unequivocal surface destruction that would take place on
lands under which the mining is proposed to take place, given the
unpredictable reaction of Nature and the extent of damage of block and
cave mining on the surface of land, contrary to claims by the mining
companies involved, there is not a soul on the Earth who can with
certainty assure that Apache Leap will not be damaged by this method of
mining, nor that it would potentially jeopardize the highway running
through the area, nor the water resources of other people in the region.
They can guess, estimate, and surmise . . . but they cannot guarantee.
We ask, then, why would the United States permit this to happen when it
is the Trustee for our People, our cultures, our interests, and our
Homelands as well as the steward of forest lands involved that belong to
the people of the United States?

These foreign interests, clearly concerned about bottom-line matters
rather than cultural and related matters of indigenous peoples, are
apparently willing to promise almost anything to obtain more lands owned
by the American public today for the self-interests of their
shareholders. We urge that should not be the driving force or deciding
factor in the Congress's consideration of this ill-considered venture.

The environmental consequences to the lands in the proposed mining area
as well as the harm to spiritual, cultural, archeological, and historic
resources from the proposed mining by these huge foreign mining
companies is to us, simply not something that our Trustee should
willingly and consciously countenance and support all in the name of
what is the "cheapest" way for these mining companies to turn a profit
on resources. This land and its environmental beauty and resources are
National treasures. There are time that our government should just say
no and this is one of them. This ***type of mining*** ***in this
location** should not occur.***

We strongly request and urge that you and your colleagues on the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee resist being pressured into
giving these foreign entities such incredible rights to lands and
resources at the expense of so many environmental, land stewardship, and
trust responsibilities for which your committee has such solemn
responsibilities.

ITCA and the San Carlos Apache Tribe, White Mountain Apache Tribe,
Yavapai- Apache Nation, Tonto Apache Tribe, Hulapai Tribe, Hopi Tribe,
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and many other Tribes will submit more
extended comments for the record of this hearing.

We thank the Chairman and the Subcommittee.

Inter Tribal Council of Arizona

By: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Shan Lewis

Its: President

cc: ITCA Member Tribes

Navajo Nation

Arizona Delegation