Under the watchful eye of engaged youth, Pangea and the PLA’s “City Concept” plan was halted by tribal council

Saca­ton, AZ- At the Octo­ber 17, 2012 Gila Riv­er Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty (GRIC) Trib­al Coun­cil ses­sion, Pangea, LLC and the Pecos Landown­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (PLA) attempt­ed to rush for­ward their plans per­tain­ing to the con­struc­tion of a city and free­way with­in the reser­va­tion. Pangea sought the trib­al council’s approval for a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) which grant­ed Pangea and its investors exclu­sive rights to devel­op over 5500 acres of trib­al land on the reservation’s west­ern end along the route of the pro­posed Loop 202 free­way, which GRIC vot­ed against last Feb­ru­ary. The PLA attempt­ed to pres­sure trib­al coun­cil to approve the Pangea corporation’s ini­tia­tive for yet anoth­er com­mu­ni­ty vote on the Loop 202.

But to their sur­prise, Pangea and the PLA were con­front­ed by young peo­ple wear­ing breath­ing masks and No Build 202 shirts who sought to hold both Pangea and the PLA account­able to last February’s Loop 202 vote. In that vote, GRIC vot­ers vot­ed in favor of the No Build option for the free­way. The Gila Riv­er youth, whose breath­ing masks sym­bol­ized the envi­ron­men­tal tox­ins that free­ways bring to the land and air, were at the trib­al coun­cil meet­ing to demand that their elect­ed offi­cials uphold the No Build voice of the peo­ple.

“I can’t vote yet, but if I could, I would have vot­ed No Build too. The peo­ple who want the free­way should think about what my gen­er­a­tion will go through if all we have to inher­it is free­way pollution”said 14 year old Lily Miles, of Komatke and Vah-ki, who was one of the twelve who wore med­ical breath­ing masks and No Build shirts in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the community’s No Build voice.

Since the his­toric Loop 202 vote, many GRIC mem­bers, espe­cial­ly the youth, have felt their trib­al lead­er­ship has not ful­ly upheld the community’s No Build stance. This sus­pi­cion is height­ened since GRIC Gov­er­nor Men­doza allowed Pangea to con­sult with GRIC’s Office of Gen­er­al Coun­sel for their City Con­cept and free­way plans. In addi­tion, Gov­er­nor Men­doza pre­sent­ed the PLA ini­tia­tive that calls for anoth­er Loop 202 vote at the Sep­tem­ber 26th GRIC Leg­isla­tive Stand­ing Com­mit­tee (LSC).

If approved by the GRIC Trib­al Coun­cil, the mas­sive Pangea City Con­cept, the size of over 5000 foot­ball fields, would be the largest con­struc­tion project in the his­to­ry of the Bureau of Indi­an Affairs (BIA) and the Gila Riv­er Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty. The GRIC No Build sup­port­ers who attend­ed the Wednes­day coun­cil ses­sion were com­pelled to raise their voic­es against Pangea and the PLA in the trib­al coun­cil cham­bers with­out say­ing one word. Their breath­ing masks and No Build 202 shirts, stat­ing “Bio­haz­ard 202” spoke to the loom­ing des­e­cra­tion of Muhadag Do’ag (South Moun­tain) and to the neg­a­tive impacts the pro­posed free­way would bring to the envi­ron­ment and over­all com­mu­ni­ty health.

“Our trib­al lead­ers must be held account­able for where their alle­giances lie,” said Renee Jack­son of Vah-ki, who was one of the No Build sup­port­ers who wore breath­ing masks and Bio­haz­ard 202 shirts dur­ing the meet­ing. “Our rep­re­sen­ta­tives must be trans­par­ent in where they stand on the issue of the free­way”.

While coun­cil went to exec­u­tive ses­sion to decide the mer­it of Pangea’s MOU and the PLA vot­ing ini­tia­tive, the twelve youth engaged pro-free­way Gila Riv­er landown­ers in the hall­ways out­side coun­cil cham­bers. The youth shared their con­cerns regard­ing the envi­ron­men­tal, health and cul­tur­al impacts the City Con­cept would bring to their future while coun­cil was in exec­u­tive ses­sion and closed to the pub­lic. The mere pres­ence of these twelve helped give a voice to the 720 GRIC mem­bers who vot­ed for No Build, and their breath­ing masks showed the poten­tial dan­ger the free­way would bring.

“Today we showed where the youth stand and we showed that there are youth who care. Pangea and the PLA’s city con­cept is a dan­ger to our future and both are bio­haz­ards to the land and to the moun­tain,” said Andrew Pedro, 18 years old, from Saca­ton, who print­ed the Bio­haz­ard shirts. “Peo­ple were ask­ing me for more t‑shirts, and I believe that this is the first of more visu­al demon­stra­tions to come.”

“I felt like it was my respon­si­bil­i­ty to be here and get informed about what is hap­pen­ing around me and in my com­mu­ni­ty because I will be inher­it­ing this land too.” said Kar­ma Miles, 11 years old, from Komatke and Vah-ki.

Despite the dif­fer­ences the youth had with fel­low GRIC landown­ers, the youth pre­sent­ed them­selves in a respect­ful mat­ter, and even helped PLA elders by set­ting up chairs dur­ing exec­u­tive ses­sion.

After near­ly an hour in exec­u­tive ses­sion, Trib­al Coun­cil decid­ed that eleven key points need­ed to be met before any MOU regard­ing Pangea’s land use plans could be approved. The eleven points cen­ter around pub­lic safe­ty, bud­get­ing, juris­dic­tion, and land man­age­ment issues that were not addressed with­in the MOU sub­mit­ted by Pangea. Coun­cil clear­ly declared that all points must be met before Pangea’s MOU could be brought back before the coun­cil. Addi­tion­al­ly, the mis­lead­ing Save the Moun­tain ini­tia­tive was held to stan­dard GRIC Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil Secretary’s Office (CCSO) pro­ce­dure regard­ing sig­na­tures ver­i­fi­ca­tion. The PLA sub­mit­ted their Pangea-backed ini­tia­tive to the GRIC Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil Secretary’s Office (CCSO) on Sep­tem­ber 27 with the back­ing of 1,527 landown­er sig­na­tures. Trib­al coun­cil declared that each sig­na­ture must be ver­i­fied first before coun­cil would con­sid­er the ini­tia­tive. As with the per capi­ta ini­tia­tive, a pre­vi­ous people’s ini­tia­tive in Gila Riv­er, the sig­na­tures could take the CCSO four to six months to ver­i­fy, espe­cial­ly with reports of miss­ing trib­al enroll­ment num­bers with the sig­na­tures sub­mit­ted, as report­ed by Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil Sec­re­tary Lin­da Andrews at the coun­cil meet­ing. The Save the Moun­tain ini­tia­tive, which Pangea and PLA deemed” first ever Peo­ples Ini­tia­tive through the People’s rights under the GRIC Trib­al Con­sti­tu­tion”, does not save the moun­tain because it calls for the reject­ed free­way to be con­struct­ed on trib­al lands along the foothills of Muhadag Do’ag (South Moun­tain).

Despite the steps that are legal­ly required to approve a vot­er ini­tia­tive, a Pangea rep­re­sen­ta­tive pres­sured coun­cil to move for­ward and approve the pro-free­way ini­tia­tive. GRIC mem­ber Joey Perez of Pangea attempt­ed to have coun­cil set a much short­er time frame for approval, by cit­ing the 14th amend­ment of the GRIC con­sti­tu­tion, which declares coun­cil has 60 days to make a deci­sion on any ini­tia­tive bought forth to them. The Pangea corporation’s inter­pre­ta­tion, as stat­ed by Perez, was that the 60 days start­ed on Sep­tem­ber 27, when the sig­na­tures were sub­mit­ted, which would force coun­cil to pos­si­bly recon­sid­er anoth­er Loop 202 vote by the end of the year. But Perez, Pangea and the PLA were soon con­front­ed with stan­dard GRIC pro­ce­dures regard­ing ini­tia­tives: sig­na­tures must be ver­i­fied before the ini­tia­tive can be con­sid­ered by the coun­cil.

The rea­son why the Pangea cor­po­ra­tion and pro-build sup­port­ers dis­re­gard the No Build vic­to­ry and are attempt­ing to rush the trib­al coun­cil to sched­ule anoth­er vote on the pro­posed free­way is because in 2013 fed­er­al land leas­ing reg­u­la­tions for trib­al allot­ted lands become much more restric­tive. Changes to Title 25 of the BIA’s Code of Fed­er­al Reg­u­la­tions will require 100 per­cent of landown­er con­sents before the BIA will approve any new leas­es per­tain­ing to the use of trib­al allot­ted lands for busi­ness­es. This would make the Pangea City Con­cept, which is cen­tered around the con­struc­tion of the Loop 202, sub­ject to height­ened fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions.

The deci­sion by Coun­cil to hold Pangea and the PLA trans­par­ent and account­able to the process was a long over­due first step in revers­ing its nine months of inac­tion regard­ing the No Build vote. Pangea and the PLA were expect­ing to walk out of the trib­al coun­cil meet­ing with anoth­er Loop 202 vote sched­uled, and their land devel­op­ment plans to be unop­posed. But Pangea and the PLA left the Octo­ber trib­al coun­cil ses­sion in defeat when con­front­ed with the gap­ing holes of their fraud­u­lent cam­paign to bull­doze over 5500 acres for a Pangea city, and by the faces of the young peo­ple whose future health depends on the preser­va­tion and pro­tec­tion of Muhadag Do’ag, and their lands.

“It was a won­der­ful day, a small vic­to­ry once again,” said Lori Thomas, of Gila Riv­er Alliance for a Clean Envi­ron­ment. “The youth who were present were awe­some. It was good to see them engage in the issue. A small bat­tle was won but the fight still rages on.”

For the youth who attend­ed this round of the big­ger fight to com­plete­ly stop the Loop 202, it showed that their involve­ment will be cru­cial for the future of the com­mu­ni­ty, and that a new form of expres­sion is need­ed so that their voic­es can be heard by the Pangea cor­po­ra­tion, the PLA, as well as by the GRIC trib­al coun­cil and Gov­er­nor Men­doza.

“We made an impact by rep­re­sent­ing all the No Build sup­port­ers who can’t be here, to go to these meet­ings and be heard,” said Ana Mor­a­go, 18 years old, of Sto­ton­ic. “We aren’t bused in, like the way Pangea brings in their peo­ple. And even though we didn’t speak, our actions and how we pre­sent­ed our­selves spoke loud­er”.

For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing the strug­gle against the Loop 202, please con­tact us at: gricagainst202(at)gmail.com or at our Face­book page: Gila Riv­er Against the Loop 202