FORT YUMA, Calif. ? A portion of the Indian Pass area in the Southern California desert threatened by a gold mine is now on one group’s prestigious A-list for protection.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation added the site June 6 to its catalogue of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in the United States.
At issue is an 880-foot deep, one-mile wide open pit, cyanide-leaching gold mining operation proposed in 1994 by Reno, Nevada-based Glamis Gold, Ltd. The area is on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management.
The Indian Pass location of the proposed gold mine is part of a network of points known by the Quechan tribe as the “spirit trail.” It links two mountains in the Southern California Desert, Avikwaame in the north and Avikwala or Pilot’s Knob in the south.
“Indian Pass is sacred to our people. We have already lost so much. If we lose Indian Pass too, all we will have left to pass on to the grandchildren will be fairy tales about what once was,” said Quechan tribal chairman Mike Jackson.
The listing does not, however, ensure that the area will actually be protected. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private organization whose designations are meant to raise awareness for endangered buildings and landscapes around the United States.
The Glamis gold mine has been a center of controversy since the Clinton administration denied a permit two years ago in an eleventh hour flurry of environmental regulations. The Bush Administration suspended many of these regulations and has reopened consideration of the mine.
The Quechans, however, say that they believe that there are legal objections to the mine beyond the Clinton Administration’s action. Quechan tribal attorney Courtney Coyle said that the “undue impairment standard” implemented by congressional action 20 years ago is ground enough for preventing the Glamis project. This standard would prevent extractive mining projects that would do irreparable harm to local communities. This standard is also a target of the rollbacks in Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s new guidelines last year.
Glamis, however, is maintaining that the entire issue is overblown. Dave Hyatt, vice president for Glamis investor relations said that the proposed site is a “full four or five miles” from the Indian Pass area and that the company has tried to work with the tribe by moving certain facilities away from culturally sensitive areas.
Hyatt said that there are no religious structures on this property, though he admitted that the braided spirit trail does cross part of the property. He said however that the more spiritually sensitive nodes in the trail, such as the area known as Running Man, are not effected by any mining operation.
“I guess (the tribe) just doesn’t want any kind of mining in the area at all,” said Hyatt.
Quechan tribal attorney Coyle disputed Hyatt’s statement that the mining operation would not effect the Indian Pass area. She said that proposed mine would sit in the area designated by National Trust and that tribal members and locals refer to the entire area as Indian Pass.
Since the Bush Administration has lifted the restrictions on permitting, Hyatt said Glamis is currently going through the permitting process for the second time.
Hyatt dismissed the National Trust as a “small, private organization,” and questioned the value of their designation.
The list of the 11 Most Endangered Places has been issued annually since 1988. Every year the National Trust goes through dozens of applications for sites around the United States. This year for instance, the Indian Pass area was selected from a total pool of 77 applications. This year’s list also included Pompey’s Pillar, a Montana rock outcropping with spiritual significance to the Crow and other tribes, and indigenous cultural and sacred sites along the upper Missouri River in the Dakotas and Montana.
“They don’t just hand out these designations to anyone,” said Quechan tribal attorney Coyle.
The National Trust, founded in 1949, is a private non-profit organization that claims to have over a quarter of a million members. Among its corporate partners are Banana Republic and Shell Oil.
The organization says it is an advocacy group to raise awareness and provide resources to protect important American sites that are in danger of destruction. Some of the former listings include the oldest surviving McDonald’s restaurants, civil rights landmark Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. and writer Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond.
National Trust President Richard Moe said that the area around Indian Pass is one of the few landscapes untouched by modern man. “The religion and culture of the Quechan people, who have used this land for thousands of years, is deeply rooted in the sacred mountains of Indian Pass,” he said. “They shouldn’t be asked to give up their souls so others can have an ounce of gold.”