By Olka Forster
On Saturday, April 16, nearly 200 native people and their allies gathered in the quiet town of Eagle Pass, Texas. They came drumming, singing, and praying in defense of the land. For almost nine miles, young and old marched from the international bridge on the Rio Grande River to the Dos Republicas coal mine.
Dos Republicas is an open-pit coal strip mine which extracts the dirtiest form of coal, lignite, and is built on sacred ancestral land. Once it is scraped from the earth, the coal is loaded onto freight cars and sent to Mexico, where it is burned in the dirtiest coal plant in the hemisphere. As it stands, the mine is threatening to destroy hundreds of archeological sites, contaminate the Rio Grande River (a water source to millions of people), and, because pollution knows no borders, compromise the air in Texas and Mexico.
The opposition to the mine is overwhelming. More than 8,000 residents of Eagle Pass and Maverick County have signed a petition against the project — more people than voted in the last gubernatorial election.* The coalition of native groups, including Pacuache-Coahuiltecan, Carrizo-Comecrudo, Lipan Apache, Cherokee, Mexica/Nahua, Kickapoo, and Comanche, is a historic unification of Texas tribes fighting the degradation of their lands—and it goes to show that the only people benefiting from the mine is those lining their pockets.
The native groups have pointed out that the mine would not even be operational had the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers followed proper procedure. In this case, consultation of the groups was required by the National Historic Preservation Act and yet was completely circumvented— the USACE claims to have reached out to native groups but there is no record of such outreach.
The feeling during the march, besides sore feet, is an oft-repeated tale - the most vulnerable of our nation, tired of being ignored and erased, standing up for life, land, and the right to be healthy —joining together to say “no more.” Despite the long road and the hot sun, as long as we walk together it is inevitable that we continue to fight and believe that we will win.