Will We See Another Land Rush to Steal Indian Land for Solar Gold?

Custer's Last Stand came after some gold fever, Oklahoma was supposed to be the "refuge" of Native Americans kicked out of homelands in North Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Ohio - until "we" decided we wanted it to. Who will the Sooners be this time? A suddenly "green" BP or Shell?

clipped from inthesetimes.com Rethinking Green Jobs on the Rez By Kari Lydersen At the Indigenous Uranium Forum in Acoma, New Mexico Oct. 22-24, tribal members sounded a cautionary note about the optimism over renewable energy on Native land. The forum focused on the heavy and ongoing health toll – countless cases of cancer and kidney disease – wrought by decades of mining uranium on Native land, often by Native American miners. If tribes aren’t vigilant and proactive, they worry, large-scale corporate renewable energy generation on their land could leave them feeling used and exploited and suffering health or environmental effects just like fossil fuels and uranium have in the past. “Just like in Saudi Arabia, companies will want that power,” said Indigenous Environmental Network organizer Jihan Gearon. “They can still exploit us for wind and solar. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. We need to rethink the whole concept of a green economy and who benefits.”