xtent south) ahead of the advancing line of Euro-American settlement. The result of this was that many peoples, such as the Cherokee, were removed from highly productive land to the fragile and (for humans) unproductive lands of the arid desert Southwest).
However, the United States government has in recent years begun trying to make sincere attempts to treat Native American claims to land and other resources more fairly. One example of these new policies (which were brought about through regulations initiated by the Clinton Administration) is the current attempt to resolve land claims made by the small California Quechan tribe against gold-mining interests in the Imperial Valley (Perry, 1998, p. A3).
The dispute marks the first significant test of an executive order issued by Clinton in 1996 that requires federal agencies that oversee the government's vast land holdings to show greater sensitivity to sites held sacred by Native Americans. The Quechan case is seen as having the potential to set a precedent for how Native American requests are handled in the future.
The proposed mining would substantially degrade the physical environment of the area. The U.S
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