Arizona Stands Petition to the US Army Corps of Engineers

South Mountain 202 Freeway Project

In attendance at the Public Hearing of May 9, 2017 regarding the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway Project, where the entire body of participating members of the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) voiced their opposition to the South Mountain 202 Freeway Project, including a direct request from Governor Stephen R. Lewis for the US Army Corps of Engineers to deny the permit for the project as it affects the Sacred WorldWaterWays of the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples of the O'odham Jeved Territories and is a violation of the Public Trust of the constituencies under the purview of protection of the Corps of Engineers, we stand in solidarity with the Gila River Indian Community and call on the Project Manager Jessie Rice to recognize and respect the fact that the project as presented is in violation of the Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (Article 32 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), and therefore must not be approved without a full and competent review, in the Spirit of Truth and Justice, of the violations of the Civil Rights, Environmental Justice Rights, Human Rights, and Rights as Indigenous Peoples affected by the South Mountain 202 Freeway Project to be realized with guarantees of full disclosure, transparency, and due process under the principle of equality under the Rule of Law.

It was our sad experience at the Public Hearing on May 9th to become informed that the US Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager had not read nor was familiar with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) adopted by the UN on September 13, 2007, in spite of the fact that the US Government in presentations before the UN continues to falsely proclaim in forked tongue fashion that the UNDRIP is being honored and implemented across the country as a minimum standard for Friendly Relations among the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples and the federal agencies of the US government.

This message is not being submitted in hostility but in honesty. Shall the historical patterns of colonization, institutionalized racism, discrimination, and marginalization continue to define our relationship as settler states and Original Nations, or… as we have been praying all along for millennia at the Sacred Site of Moadoak, shall we finally and for the first time discover our way, our Himdak, as brothers and sisters of a common humanity of Mother Earth, as "Peoples, equal to all other peoples...." ?

We Deny Consent to the South Mountain Loop 202 Freeway Project and call for the US Army Corps of Engineers to DENY THE PERMIT APPLICATION.