Construction equipment at the site of work in the San Pedro Valley for the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project is shown on Oct. 29. Alex Binford-Walsh of Archaeology Southwest
Breaking News: Federal Judge Denies Restraining Order Filed Against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 17, 2024
TUCSON -- A federal judge in Tucson denied a restraining order sought against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland by the Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations. Haaland is pushing another fake "green energy" project, and bulldozers are ripping through ancient sites, ceremonial places, and medicine gathering places, for transmission lines to take wind energy from New Mexico to California.
Federal Judge Jennifer Zipps denied an injunction to stop work on the SunZia transmission line. Zipps ruled on Tuesday that the tribes and others filing the lawsuit waited too long to file, and the Interior and BLM had fulfilled their obligations to prepare inventory and identify cultural resources.
The Tohono O'odham Nation said in a statement:
"The Tohono O’odham Nation is disappointed by Tuesday’s federal court order denying our request for a preliminary injunction to stop construction of the SunZia Transmission Line through the San Pedro River Valley but remains steadfastly focused on pursuing all legal and other strategies to protect our sacred land.
“Our goal is not only to protect our ancestorial cultural history and the San Pedro River Valley’s pristine environment, but to also ensure the federal government is held accountable for its actions in violation of laws designed specifically to protect sacred lands,” Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose said.
"The Nation, along with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and Archeology Southwest, filed the lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction on Jan. 30, 2024. In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer G. Zipps clearly states what’s at stake:
“San Pedro Valley is one of the most culturally intact landscapes in Southern Arizona. People have been living and traveling along the San Pedro River for the last 12,000 years and evidence of this past human activity remains to this day. Because of its human history, the San Pedro Valley is of great cultural significance to several Native American Tribes, including the Tohono O’odham Nation, San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, and the Pueblo of Zuni.”
“This is far too important of an issue to be deterred by this ruling,” Chairman Jose said. “The United States’ renewable energy policy that includes destroying sacred and undeveloped landscapes is fundamentally wrong and must stop.”