U.S. EPA seizes control of Oklahoma Indian lands for hazardous dumping and fracking

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Trump administration's EPA granted the state of Oklahoma wide-ranging environmental regulatory control on nearly all tribal lands in the state, stripping dozens of tribes of their sovereignty over critical environmental issues, Ecowatch reports.

The EPA action infuriated Oklahoma’s Ponca Tribe. Casey Camp-Horinek, Environmental Ambassador and Elder and Hereditary Drumkeeper Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, provided the following statement to TYT:

“After over 500 years of oppression, lies, genocide, ecocide, and broken treaties, we should have expected the EPA ruling in favor of racist Governor Stitt of Oklahoma, yet it still stings. Under the Trump administration, destroying all environmental protection has been ramped up to give the fossil fuel industry life support as it takes its last dying breath. Who suffers the results? Everyone and everything! Who benefits? Trump and his cronies, climate change deniers like Governor Stitt, Senators Inhofe and Langford, who are financially supported by big oil and gas. I am convinced that we must fight back against this underhanded ruling. In the courts, on the frontlines and in the international courts, LIFE itself is at stake.”

Democracy Now! said that the Environmental Protection Agency granted Oklahoma environmental regulatory control of nearly all tribal lands in Oklahoma, rolling back sovereign rights for dozens of tribes. The move effectively cancels out many rights that would have been gained after a landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this year asserted about half of Oklahoma remains Native American land, recognizing a 19th century U.S. treaty with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/10/us-epa-seizes-control-of-oklahoma.html