The Southwestern part of the United States can be characterized as a high desert landscape bounded by mountains, vibrant mesas, intersecting rivers and their tributaries. The life-giving water of this unique region flows above and below ground, but the damage inflicted by the mining companies and extractive industries is indiscriminate. These industries have destroyed land and contaminated water contributing to climate chaos and violating communities’ rights to health, justice, and self determination.
The routes of extractive industries wind like tangled streams from points of extraction, along transport roads, to processing plants. While the points of the extraction chain link the communities of the region through boom and bust economic cycles, along with social and cultural impacts that tear at their very fabric, they have responded with tenacious resistance.
