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Navaho Indians attempt to claim ownership of the Moon, delay Vulcan launch

The president of the Navaho Nation has asked NASA to delay the first launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket because it carries ashes from a number of people (none who were members of its tribe) that Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander will place on the Moon.

The remains are a payload purchased by the company Celestis, which offers this burial option to anyone who wishes it. On this flight that payload includes a wide range of ashes, including many actors and creators from the original Star Trek series.

Navaho President Buu Nygren claims that the “Moon is sacred to numerous Indigenous cultures and that depositing human remains on it is ‘tantamount to desecration.'”

Nygren highlighted this commitment in his letter, as well as a 2021 memo signed by the Biden administration that pledged to consult the tribe on matters that impact them. “This memorandum reinforced the commitment to Executive Order 13175 of November 6, 2000,” President Nygren wrote. “Additionally, the Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Interagency Coordination and Collaboration for the Protection of Indigenous Sacred Sites, which you and several other members of the Administration signed in November 2021, further underscores the requirement for such consultation.”

In other words, though the Navaho have no plans to ever go there, have done nothing to try to explore it, and have no remains of any tribal members on the flight, he wants to claim the Moon as controlled entirely and forever by the Indian tribes of North America because of a law designed solely to protect specific archeological sites on Earth, where Indian remains are discovered.

If this interpretation is accepted in any way by the Biden administration, it will give all American Indian tribes the legal power to claim as their own every single square inch of the entire United States, by simply claiming they worship the Earth itself.

This idiocy was created by the advent of critical race theory, which makes these so-called oppressed tribes “good,” with the right to do anything, and the European settlers who built this prosperous and free nation — from which these tribes now also benefit — “bad” and subject to any and all punishment the “good” wish to dole out.

Will NASA or the Biden administration accede to this absurd demand? Who knows? It is filled with people who buy into this madness, and has been trying to impose it throughout the government, including within NASA. It might just go along, in some manner, if only to pay off this blackmailer.

If it does, however, it will do much to harm the lives and businesses of innumerable Americans of all races. ULA needs to launch Vulcan to meet several big launch contracts. If it doesn’t the company will likely fail. Astrobotic needs to land Peregrine to meet several lander contracts. If it doesn’t the company will likely fail. Celestis has contracts with numerous mourners who have paid to have the remains of their loved ones placed on the Moon. If it doesn’t the company will likely fail. Amazon needs ULA to begin launching because it is relying heavily on ULA to place its Kuiper internet constellation in orbit. If it doesn’t it faces serious financial loss that could damage the company significantly.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has several launch contracts with ULA on Vulcan, and without that rocket it will be seriously hampered in the future.

The hubris of the Navaho request is utterly disgusting. Worse however is the possibility — which appears probable — that the Biden administration will treat it seriously.

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19 comments

  • David Eastman

    It seems to me that this is asking the government to grant them rights that the government itself, under either the Outer Space Treaty or Artemis accords cannot itself assert or allow to be asserted. That doesn’t mean that NASA might not cave to the request for a delay and compromise, but if this makes it to a court it should be smacked down hard.

  • Cluebat

    Khonsu has prior claim to that celestial body.
    It is well-documented.

  • Cotour

    It’s not just volcanic mountains with telescopes on them that is now offensive to the indigenous who apparently are the owners of everything.

    Now it’s the entire moon itself that no one is allowed to settle there because it is offensive or an invasion of a sacred sphere.

    Go big or go home, very ambitious.

    There is nothing too big for the “progressive” and those who are piling on in order that the retribution and reparations be paid by the white man colonizers and their vision of the future be gutted. (Roger, are you out there?)

    This is the envisioned city of the future, where “you will own nothing, and you will be happy”.

    Back to nature: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/typical-malgasy-village-african-hut-poverty-madagascar-49057917.jpg?w=992

  • John Fisher

    Will the Biden administration give into this madness? Of course they will. They probably facilitated it as they do with many other leftist lawfare efforts.

  • Dave Kocher

    Claiming the moon is driven by the same type of lunacy with which the gender totalitarians attempt to impose on us. Best to ignore both.

  • Edward

    From the linked article:

    Then-Navajo Nation President Albert Hale said the action was a gross insensitivity to the beliefs of many Native Americans. NASA later apologized and promised to consult with tribes before authorizing any similar missions in the future.

    From the Outer Space Treaty:

    ARTICLE I

    The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.

    Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies.

    There shall be freedom of scientific investigation in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and States shall facilitate and encourage international co-operation in such investigation.

    Isn’t preventing the rest of mankind from “the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development [as] the province of all mankind” just as grossly insensitive to the beliefs of all the rest of mankind? Isn’t it rather greedy on the part of the Navajo Nation to prevent the rest of us from enjoying the nature of the rest of the universe?

    Why is it always one sided? Some small subset of mankind demands that they are somehow privileged and should be exempt from the rules, regulations, and laws that the rest of us must follow.

    From the article:

    He added this explicitly recognizes that sacred sites can consist of “places that afford views of important areas of land, water, or of the sky and celestial bodies.”

    O. M. G! Now every highway vista point that affords views of important areas of land, water, or sky becomes off limits to the rest of us, too. Am I misreading that sentence that celestial bodies are just as sacred as the places that afford views?

    Oh, what greed these Indians have! We acquiesce to their desires, gave them an inch, and they now demand a mile. Greedy, greedy, greedy. Like three-year-old children, wanting everything for themselves, unwilling to share with others, shamelessly jealous of anything that they see anyone else enjoying or about to enjoy.

  • David Ross

    Expel them to Alaska.
    Seriously, they are settler-colonialists on indigenous Hopi clay. They have no right to New Mexico let alone the Moon.
    By their own book of rules, shall they be judged.

  • Michael

    I guess this pretty much puts paid to any Lunar aspirations the Chinese may have had.

  • Chris

    I am indigenous…. period

  • Charles Lurio

    “I hereby claim the entire celestial sphere! No one shall desecrate it with satellites let alone people.

    “The entire universe is ours. Our deity created it, it is ours to guard for all coming time, as we have for all eternity past. We shall stop all from entering it!”

  • wayne

    “Buu Nygren” — Just exactly WHO does this guy THINK, he IS?

    Can someone enlighten me as to how the Navaho Nation generates its income??
    (Gambling, alcohol, or natural resources??)

    Time to abrogate some Indian Treaties….

  • Cotour

    In the real world when you were conquered, you stayed conquered.

    Hamas, same.

    Now?

    Lawyers, Courts and Money.

  • The ONLY solution?

    Strong, benevolent, real Leadership, upper case *L*.

    Which is exactly 180 degrees from what we have today.

    Today our leadership, lower case *l*, is more interested in self-suicide in an attempt to appease those who feel we (America) has been too successful and in most cases too benevolent.

    This is a self-induced mental condition, possibly a double reverse Stockholm syndrome type of mental disorder? I will have to work on this definition.

    Stokholm syndrome: “Stockholm syndrome is a proposed condition or theory that tries to explain why hostages sometimes develop a psychological bond with their captors. It is supposed to result from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, and abusive relationships.”

    And what in the end is it that really drives these kinds of mental disorders? STRATEGY OVER MORALITY. It is the drive for the control of power and the willingness to do whatever is necessary to acquire and retain it. That is really what it’s all about.

    The enemies of America and its Constitution, both without and within, detect weakness in our lower case *l* leadership and are doing what any ambitious predator would do.

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/my-political-lens-strategy-over-morality

    Choose whose “Oppression” you want to live under: A true Socialist / Globalist “In the future you will own nothing, and you will be happy” authoritarian political power? Social suicide.

    OR, a Democrat Republic based authoritarian government based in a strong but benevolent Leadership constrained by an Objective Constitution that establishes what the government must never do regarding the peoples natural born Rights?

    This is what lower case self-suicide lower case *l* leadership is currently attempting to force on all concerned: https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/mocking-you-and-laughing-in-your-face

    Now, choose.

  • joe o

    this is the time im glad im not a government lawyersho has to deal with this and write a response to it while knowing im underpaid by 75% or so from the attorneys whi wrote it to start with…

  • Oldcogey

    Whoever approved human remains to be flown to the Moon is fired immediately. Whoever thought this was a good idea in the first place????? The Moon has to be thoroughly explored BEFORE it is exploited.. Celestis has to return all money and remains and its customers will have to satisfy their immemse egos somewhere else.

  • Oldcogey: I have two words that describe you: Control freak.

  • SamIam

    “Claiming the moon is driven by the same type of lunacy with which the gender totalitarians attempt to impose on us. Best to ignore both.”

    Nah, I’m in favor of a response involving extreme violence. Just fed up with it all.

  • pzatchok

    “He added this explicitly recognizes that sacred sites can consist of “places that afford views of important areas of land, water, or of the sky and celestial bodies.”

    This does not state the place you view is sacred but the place you view something from is sacred.

    So the moon is not sacred but the Earth is.

    The indigenous peoples around the world should take this to the UN and make it a worldwide law. Thus not letting any exploration of the moon possible.
    Would that include white people also?

  • BLSinSC

    IF it can harm the US TAXPAYERS then yes – it will be done!!

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