By Leslie MacMillan | The New York Times
KAYENTA, Ariz. — The world’s largest coal company, Peabody Energy, is seeking federal approval to expand its mine on Navajo and Hopi land in northern Arizona, a move supported by tribal leaders. But many other tribe members say the expansion would destroy burial grounds and pre-Columbian ruins and are opposing it in court.
The dispute is the latest episode in a series of longstanding conflicts involving the treatment of Native American ancestral lands, mining companies and the federal government. Like the Dakota Access oil pipeline project, the Kayenta mine dispute pits the rights of tribes against powerful industry and federal interests.
