The San Carlos Apache Tribe accused Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other department leaders of failing to ensure federally required consultation is occurring around a company’s bid to explore for copper in a sensitive and fragile watershed in Arizona.
Terry Rambler, chair of the San Carlos Apache, criticized Haaland and Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, in a letter last week for not doing more to ensure consultation around Faraday Copper’s proposed exploration adjacent to the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness and within the sensitive and fragile San Pedro Watershed, an area of cultural importance to the tribe.
The activity, Rambler said, is “very close to our Tribe’s trust lands, and we think the drilling may be affecting the Tribe’s cultural and ancestral resources, water rights, and downstream interests.”
BLM “has yet to complete substantive steps in the processes required by the National Environmental Policy Act or to otherwise learn about and analyze our concerns,” said Rambler, who added that the letter was signed on behalf of more than 17,000 tribal members.
