{"id":22703,"date":"2017-04-03T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colorlines.madeostudio.com\/article\/read-some-tribes-look-trump-coal-revival\/"},"modified":"2017-04-03T14:47:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:47:00","slug":"read-some-tribes-look-trump-coal-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/article\/read-some-tribes-look-trump-coal-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"READ: Some Tribes Look to Trump for Coal Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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READ: Some Tribes Look to Trump for Coal Revival<\/h3>\n

\n By Yessenia Funes<\/span> Apr 03, 2017<\/span>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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In some parts of Indian country, President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s plans to revive the coal industry led to specks of hope.<\/p>\n

Look to the Navajo Nation in the Southwest, the Crow Nation in Montana or the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. All of their economies are\u2014or have been historically\u2014embedded in the coal industry. And, as The New York Times points out<\/a>, a return of coal would boost their financial outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are not Trump fans here,\u201d said Crow Chief Executive Paul Little Light, to the Times. \u201cVery few. But we would be his best friends if he brought back coal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke<\/a> has already established a relationship with the Crow during his time in the House. \u201cA war on coal is a war on the Crow people,\u201d he told the Times. \u201cPresident Trump has promised to end the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, as The New York Times reports highlights, the issue is not black and white: Though coal would improve the economies of particular Native American peoples, it contradicts any responsibility they may feel toward their land and environment.<\/p>\n

The story lays out what the financial benefits look like for the Crow:<\/p>\n

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Here on the 2.3-million-acre Crow Indian Reservation in southern Montana, at least half of the tribe\u2019s nonfederal budget comes from a single source: a vast single-pit mine at the edge of the reservation, called the Absaloka<\/a>, which sends brown-black coal by rail to Minnesota\u2019s largest power plant.<\/p>\n

The Absaloka opened in 1974. It operates all day every day, employs about 170 people and has left a complex legacy. The work\u2014shoveling coal dust, hauling through the night in trucks\u2014is grueling.<\/p>\n

But on the reservation, coal royalties, taxes and mine salaries have funded college educations, weddings and much-cherished homes with ponies corralled in the back. A coal payment every four months of about $225 to every tribal citizen puts food on tables, warm jackets on backs and gifts under Christmas trees.<\/p>\n

Ms. Ten Bear Reed, the mother without running water, recently used her coal payout to buy a hot bath at a local motel. Normally, she sponge-cleans at home.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s also the Navajo and Hopi who are currently dealing with the stresses of a closing coal generating plant<\/a>. Revenues from the plant and its partner mine, the Kayenta Mine, account for more than 80 percent of the Hopi Tribe\u2019s general fund budget, according to the tribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other tribes, however, have proven adamantly against any <\/em>further fossil fuel development\u2014even if it would help their impoverished communities. The Northern Cheyenne sit right next to the Crow, and they\u2019ve been rejecting offers to mine their coal since the \u201970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d really be contradicting what our ancestors stood for, we\u2019d be contradicting the reason why the Creator made us, and that was far more important to us than having a coal mine on our reservation,\u201d tribal President L. Jace Killsback, to the Times.<\/p>\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n

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Tags<\/h3>\n <\/div>\n
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\n Archive<\/a>Coal<\/a>Coal Country<\/a>Crow Nation<\/a>Environment<\/a>Environmental Justice<\/a>Health<\/a>Native Affairs<\/a>Native Affairs<\/a>Trump Presidency<\/a> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While many have taken a hard stance against the president and his pro-fossil fuel agenda, others are hoping he follows through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_gspb_post_css":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[16402,3457,3459,3897,16422,5124,16420,16419,10312,16409],"article-type":[],"topic-meta":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22703"},{"taxonomy":"article-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-type?post=22703"},{"taxonomy":"topic-meta","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic-meta?post=22703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}