[R-G] Independence Party / Sagebrush Rebellion

[Hunter Gray]

There seems to be increasing mention in much media about the pro-secessionist Independence Party [Alaska] and possible ties of the Palins thereto.  Ms Palin has denied this, although she does seem to have spoken at one of their assemblies.  Mainline media reports indicate her husband, Todd, [himself one-quarter Alaskan Native], belonged to it for awhile.  It remains to be seen how important this aspect of the Palin's interesting  odyssey will be seen as time goes on.

To make the Independence Party dimension more comprehensible, it has to be placed in the context of the waxing and waning [and waxing] Sagebrush Rebellion which seeks privatization of public lands, corporate takeovers of such, and abrogation of Native treaty rights and related agreements.  No matter how much this nefarious "crusade" may occasionally wane, it consistently breaks out yet again like a resurgent forest fire.

There are about 200 million acres of public lands -- mostly Federal -- in Alaska. About 40 million other acres are held by Native nations, via the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.  If, in the event, Alaska could effect secession, the public lands would immediately lose their direct and indirect Federally protected status -- and Native lands would be at considerable risk as well.  Ultimately, corporate interests already circling the pristine lands of Alaska like vultures and buzzards would land for The Feast.

This scenario is not likely -- in Alaska or in the targeted regions in the continental Western states.  But it's not beyond the realm of possibility, at least in the sense of cunningly maneuvered checkerboard land/resource seizures.  Good friends and neighbors of ours who are U.S. Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service officials keep an eye -- always -- on these things.

And so should we all. [Hunter]

Here is a substantial excerpt from a post of mine on the basic Sagebrush Rebellion thrust and the dangers it poses:

NATIVE LANDS, PUBLIC LANDS, GREEDY CORPORATIONS -- AND THE LATEST INCARNATION OF THE "SAGE BRUSH REBELLION"  [Hunter Gray    12/24/01]

Note by Hunter Bear:


. . . .This so-called "House Western Caucus" -- focused greedily, among other
things, on our national forests [Forest Service] and park lands [Park
Service] and other public Federal lands [Bureau of Land Management] and on
Indian lands and resources as well,  is  simply the newest in a very long
series of  land and resource grabbing schemes. [Much of this, BTW, has roots
in the East and even abroad.]

 As always, these things warrant continual, ever-vigilant scrutiny. ["Ride
the fence-lines, folks!"] I should say at the outset that I am  not against
all lumbering or metal mining by any means [ how could I be, I've worked in
those settings --although I'm  certainly completely against any uranium
mining, milling, refining. ] My Anglo mother came out of an old Western
ranching family.  There are ways of doing these things -- essentially
reasonable ways.  [But bona fide socio-economic democracy, of course, is the most
reasonable context of all!]

Given the historic and currently voracious appetites of the corporations,
their traditional relationship with public lands/resources  -- and with
Indian lands -- has at best been an armed truce. And, for at least the past
two or three generations, it's been more and more of an open war.  If the
Clinton administration was, despite its friendly-media hype, a fair-weather
friend of the Native people and conservationists et al., the Bush entourage
is obviously an open foe.

In addition to just plain grassroots Native power, Indian country -- Indian
lands -- are mostly protected [albeit uneasily] by the special Federal
treaty/trust relationship  grounded on  Article 1, Section 8 ["commerce
clause" and general Federal primacy in Indian affairs] and Article 6,
Section 2 [ all treaties made by the US government are part of "the supreme
law of the land"] of the US Constitution; by the general exclusion of state
jurisdiction via Worcester v. Georgia 1832 [Cherokee Nation] and a myriad
more of comparable decisions -- and embodied [for better and worse] in the
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.  But, despite all of these bulwarks and more,
Indian land and resources are under constant attack [ and the Bush
administration is, as I've just noted, an open foe of Native interests ] --
and Indian people and our allies are constantly maintaining extreme
vigilance.

Lately, our enemies have focused mostly on trying to block land-claims cases
brought by various tribal nations -- and the generally paltry "settlements"
eventually secured.  In all of this, too, the foes have generally been
unsuccessful -- but constant Native scouting and scrutiny in this realm are
also the absolute rule.  The enemies have been somewhat more successful in
trying to impede Native water rights [guaranteed in treaties and via the
almost century old Winter v. US decision] by blocking and diverting the
water when its respective headwaters and initial flow are located in
non-Indian lands.

But the most open goal  right now -- as discussed in the following news
piece -- are the  public lands of the West.  The major coveting interests
are not so much the small or middle-sized ranchers.  [Grazing and water
leases are now  generally 25 years, in contrast to the 99 years of the
obviously much older Taylor Grazing Act.]  The basic enemies are the mineral
corporations --  e.g., oil and gas, metal, coal; the lumber and sawmill and
pulp outfits; the big "recreational" and "development" companies.   None of
these are -- or ever have been -- content with "reasonable" solutions.   They
want it all.  And fast.

It's an on-going fight and the Native Americans and the Real Westerners and
the Real People generally -- in contrast to these greedy predatory outfits
and their allies in Washington -- can use all the help we-all can get in
protecting these very vital sections of our turf.

It's an intensive  fight -- always.

As I entered my teen years in Northern Arizona, a big kid, I had no
difficulty at all in that laid-back era in representing myself as 18 years
old when I was years short of that point. No problems -- people "in the
know" simply grinned -- and one of the arenas I went into full-force in the
years before I entered the Army was fire-fighting for the US Forest Service.
[ A great many Indian people have traditionally worked in that dramatic and
well-paying endeavour.  It's also egalitarian:  a forest fire really doesn't
care one way or another about your respective ethnicity. And the woodsmoke
and ash make everyone look very, very black.]

 At 17, I ran a major  fire and radio lookout  on the Coconino   National
Forest.  Close friends of mine had fathers who were regular USFS employees.
But I can remember when, at the obvious instigation of two lumber
companies --  Saginaw and Manistee, and Southwest -- an excellent district
ranger and a dedicated conservationist was suddenly transferred out of the
Coconino into the "Siberia" of USFS Region 3:  the old Apache National
Forest.  That ranger, half a century ago, had been a sharp  and effective
foe of ruthless lumber company expansion. "They" did a hatchet job on him --
but he certainly continued his vigorous conservationist activities on the
Apache.

The  predatory scope and the ruthlessness are now far, far greater than they
were 'way back in those far-away days -- infinitely more so.

I should add that Bureau of Land Management turf -- public turf -- begins
only a good stone's throw from my present back door here in Idaho.



HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

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In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
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high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
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on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings.  Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunter Bear]  
http://www.hunterbear.org/GRAY%20LANDS%20AND%20GRAY%20GHOSTS.htm