Wyoming to fight U.S. over Indian reservation land grant

[okaawhatever]

(Reuters) - Wyoming will challenge a U.S. government ruling that more than one million acres of the western state's land still legally belongs to two Native American tribes, Governor Matt Mead said on Friday.

In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week, Mead said he has directed the Wyoming attorney general to take aggressive action to overturn the agency's decision, which he said would adversely affect the state.

The land ruling was in response to an application from two sovereign native American tribes living on the Wind River Indian Reservation to the EPA seeking the same status afforded to U.S. states in order to implement provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act.

SNIP

A subsequent U.S. study found that the tribes should have access to the land, which includes the city of Riverton, that had been opened to non-tribal members under a 1905 act of Congress.
The governor told reporters on Friday that the Wyoming Supreme Court "has directly dealt with that issue and said clearly Riverton is not within the boundaries of the reservation.

Continued at Link

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/21/us-usa-wyoming-land-idUSBRE9BK0C920131221

[okaawhatever]

1. The article has a few more paragraphs but I think it's important because this may turn political. An

attorney handling the case for the Native Americans said alarmist statements by the governor and others are fueling unneeded fears. Apparently the governor is implying the n.a.'s might be trying to take over the town. The na's are claiming it's to have more say into pollution and water quality that affect their neighboring lands.

"What the decision does show is a willingness on the EPA's part - and perhaps by the Obama administration more broadly - to take the side of the tribes in a dispute of this magnitude, knowing it would almost certainly be challenged," said William Wood, a visiting professor at Southwestern Law School and specialist in Indian law and policy."

So basically the EPA has given the native americans what they deserve and is the best interest of the environment anyway. There is no land changing hands, no change of ownership or anything like that. However, since the EPA issued the ruling and Obama is backing it the right wing propaganda machines will have headlines reading "Obama uses EPA to take land away from hard working Americans and giving it to Native Americans" in 3...2....1

[Feral Child]

2. So, Wyoming wants to continue

violating treaties and stealing Native American land?

Biggest bummer of the day.

Rec.

[cinnabonbon]

3. k and r