The Esto’k Gna Fight to Protect #SacredLands from #SpaceX Expansion

Oct 14, 2025

Key takeaways:

- Tribal nation challenges #SpaceX expansion: The Esto’k Gna, or #CarrizoComecrudo Tribe of #Texas, oppose SpaceX’s ongoing expansion at Boca Chica, saying the project desecrates sacred lands and harms protected ecosystems.
- #EnvironmentalDamage documented: Tribal leaders and #conservationists report that rocket launches have caused #fires, #debris fallout, and #HabitatLoss in an area home to #EndangeredSpecies.
- Lack of consultation and oversight: The Esto’k Gna say they were never properly consulted by federal or state agencies, despite legal obligations to consider Indigenous rights and cultural heritage in environmental reviews.
- Broader fight for recognition: The Tribe’s concerns highlight ongoing struggles for federal acknowledgment and protection of #IndigenousSovereignty in the face of high-tech industrial expansion.

Excerpt: "On the southernmost edge of Texas, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf, the Esto’k Gna Tribal Nation — also known as the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas — still hopes to protect what remains of its ancestral lands from Elon Musk’s expanding SpaceX base.

The tribe says the company’s operations at Boca Chica — rebranded 'Starbase' — have devastated fragile #ecosystems, desecrated #SacredSites, and cut off traditional access to the coastline that forms the heart of their creation story. What SpaceX hails as a gateway to Mars, tribal leaders call a continuation of the centuries-long #erasure of Indigenous peoples in the name of progress. As Tribal Chairman #JuanMancias recently told Decatur Metro, 'They dream of reaching Mars. We’re just trying to stay on Earth.' "

Read more:
https://icmagazine.org/the-estok-gna-fight-to-protect-sacred-lands-from-spacex-expansion/

Watch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPcDYLEKc0c

#CulturalGenocide #EstokGna #IntercontinentalCry #ReaderSupportedNews #SacredLand #BocaChicaBeach #RocketLaunch #Pollution #CarrizoComecrudoTribe #ProtectTheSacred #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism #OccupySpaceX #TwoHeartedPeople #GarciaPasture #EndangeredSpecies #AncestralLand #ElonSucks #StarbaseCity

2023: #Environmentalists and #NativeAmerican tribe rebuke #SpaceX ahead of historic rocket launch

Opponents of the project say owner #ElonMusk’s space travel aspirations are not worth the risk of a catastrophic explosion.

by Cameron Langford / April 19, 2023

"SpaceX launched a rocket with 33 engines, the most powerful ever built, Thursday morning from its South #Texas port and hailed the test flight as a success, though the rocket and an attached space capsule exploded just four minutes after liftoff.

"The company said in a best-case scenario it would be a 90-minute maiden voyage into space and its first-stage #SuperHeavy rocket would separate from its second-stage #Starship spacecraft about three minutes into the flight, and do a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico. And Starship would travel around the globe and land off the coast of Hawaii.

"But with SpaceX livestreaming the event the components failed to separate and the vehicle flipped over before exploding.

"Musk, who also owns Twitter, praised his employees’ work on the project in a Twitter post: 'Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.'

"Environmental and #CivilRights groups condemned SpaceX’s endeavor in statements Wednesday afternoon, saying they feared an explosion would destroy #EndangeredSpecies’ habitat in a nearby wildlife refuge and that rocket shrapnel could injure area residents.

"But there were no immediate reports of environmental damage or injuries Thursday morning after the explosion.

"Since Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, it has become the world’s premier commercial space business, launching its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets more than 220 times, making history as the first private firm to send astronauts to the International Space Station and delivering cargo to the International Space Station more than 20 times with its Dragon spacecraft.

Aborted launches and explosions are commonplace for the company as it refines its technology, including a 2019 test flight from its '#Spaceport' in #BocaChica — an unincorporated and sparsely populated village in Cameron County outside #BrownsvilleTX — that started a 100-acre brush fire in the Lower #RioGrandeValley #NationalWildlifeRefuge."

Read more:
https://www.courthousenews.com/environmentalists-and-native-american-tribe-rebuke-spacex-ahead-of-historic-rocket-launch/

#ElonSucks #EnvironmentalRacism #RioGrandeDelta #SacredSites #WildlifeRefuge #ProtectTheSacred #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism
#OccupySpaceX #TwoHeartedPeople #USPol #NativeAmericans #CarrizoComecrudo #AncestralLand #ProtectTheSacred #Pollution #ExplodingRockets

Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta

An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.

by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024

"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.

" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'

"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.

"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.

"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.

"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.

"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.

"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).

"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.

" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "

Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/

#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies

Another reason that #ElonSucks! [Spoiler alert -- #Starbase city is expanding!]

From 2022: Defending #NativeAmerican #SacredSites From #ElonMusk and #SpaceX

By Frank Hopper
Dec 21, 2022

"The #CarrizoComecrudo Tribe of Texas is suing to protect the tribe’s #AncestralLand.

"From an observation deck near the top of his South Texas rocket launch tower, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and self-proclaimed proponent of free speech, looks northward to South Padre Island, home to many ancient village sites of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas.

"In a video published last May to the YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, Musk is seen looking over the tower’s railing and down at a 'farm' of huge rocket fuel storage tanks filled with liquid oxygen and methane gas. These will service weekly launches of SpaceX’s massive #SuperHeavy and #Starship orbital launch vehicles in 2023.

"Musk surveys the land from the gleaming metal launch tower, looking down on an #ecosystem filled with #EndangeredSpecies, such as #Ocelots and Kemp’s #RidleySeaTurtles. To the east, he sees the waves of the Gulf of Mexico crashing on #BocaChicaBeach, the site of the Carrizo Comecrudo creation story. To the northwest just a few miles away is #GarciaPasture, an #ArchaeologicalSite containing the remains of a #PreColumbian village nearly a thousand years old.

"Musk wears a black T-shirt with 'Occupy Mars' emblazoned across the front, as if his #corporate conquest and #colonization of space were some sort of righteous protest. As he stands atop his multibillion-dollar mountain of #ToxicMachinery, he cannot see the Indigenous people below who have come to offer tobacco to their ancestors.

"Musk doesn’t see them because, according to the Carrizo Comecrudo, he is blind to the concerns of the #IndigenousPeople who fought and died for the land he now occupies."

Read more:
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2022/12/21/sacred-site-spacex

#ProtectTheSacred #ElonMusk #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism #OccupySpaceX #TwoHeartedPeople

Feral pigs are running wild

"Destruction wrought by pig-borne disease is thining the canopy of bunya pine forests. Australian landscapes didn’t evolve for hard-hoofed animals and aggressive foragers with the mass of a feral pig … we are seeing severe ecological imbalances starting to occur.” >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/30/feral-pigs-queensland-rainforests-rivers-sacred-sites
#InvasiveSpecies #pigs #ungulates #bunya #SacredSites #harm

#NativeAmericaCalling: Protecting #SacredSites in urban areas

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

"Protecting sacred sites in urban areas
Sacred sites sometimes get lost in urban settings as cities prioritize the needs of non-Native residents and commercial interests over the historical and spiritual value for Native Americans.

"But tribes and Native organizations are having some success connecting with city officials to see that sacred spaces are protected and accessible. After years of restoration work, what were known as the #IndianMounds in #SaintPaulMN, have a whole new look, a new #Dakota name — #Wicaḣapi — and an educational #CulturalCenter.

"Over in St. Louis, Missouri, the city just solidified a transfer of property that signifies its first-ever recognition of #TribalSovereignty. The sacred #SugarloafMound is being returned to the care of the #OsageNation, whose people were removed from the land.

"Tune into Native America Calling to talk about the difficult work to recognize and preserve sacred places in population centers."

Listen: https://indianz.com/News/2025/10/07/native-america-calling-protecting-sacred-sites-in-urban-areas/

#ProtectTheSacred #NativeAmericans #IndigenousPeoples #IndigenousPeoplesDay #CulturalPreservation #CulturalHeritage #PreservingHistory

take a 1 min break to listen to the spirit of the forest, whispered by the stone row, with soft echo from a canopy of pine trees. an incredible acoustic feast with saxophone improvisation

https://soundcloud.com/herveperez/stonerow

#deeplistening #improvisation #sacredsites #newmusic #meditation

via @indybay

Tribes, enviros speak out against trailer bills to fast-track #DeltaTunnel project

“Delta tribes deserve a responsible and equitable approach to water management in the state that does not require jamming a tunnel through the Delta, destroying our ancestral homelands and waterways, or desecrating sacred sites and ancestral remains,” said Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair with the #ShingleSpringsBand of #MiwokIndians.

by Dan Bacher
Mon, Aug 11, 2025 4:19PM

Sacramento, CA – "On an unusually mild summer day, Tribal leaders and environmental justice advocates met with legislators at the State Capitol on July 16 for the 2025 Day of Action for #WaterJustice.

"They urged the legislators to reject Governor Newsom’s proposed trailer bills that they say would fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project (#DCP) and bypass critical #EnvironmentalProtections at a time when the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in unprecedented ecological crisis — and a number of fish species are on the edge of #extinction.

"The day-long event started with meetings between Tribal members, environmental advocates and legislators to urge support for 'equitable, science-based water solutions' that protect the #BayDelta and to reject the financially reckless Delta Conveyance Project that threatens ecosystems, Tribal sovereignty, and public health, according to a statement from #RestoreTheDelta.

[...]

"At the press conference on the Capitol steps, advocates called on lawmakers to reject trailer bills that would provide CEQA exemptions for the #DeltaConveyanceProject, circumventing existing law, court rulings and public opinion.

"Specifically, the coalition called on lawmakers to:

- Vote NO on SB 72 that undermines the #DeltaReformAct and sets arbitrary water supply targets;

- Vote YES on AB 362 that protects tribal beneficial uses of water and to;

- Vote YES on AB 263, extending emergency protections currently in place for the #ScottRiver and #ShastaRiver, a high priority for the recovery of #CohoSalmon.

"Speakers at the press conference included representatives from the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the #WinnememWintu Tribe, as well as elected leaders and representatives from Restore the Delta, #SierraClub California, #FriendsOfTheRiver, #DefendersOfWildlife, #SanFranciscoBaykeeper and the #DeltaCountiesCoalition.

"Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, began the press conference emphasizing the harm that the Delta Tunnel would cause to Tribes and #disadvantaged communities.

" 'Delta tribes deserve a responsible and equitable approach to water management in the state that does not require jamming a tunnel through the Delta, destroying our #AncestralHomelands and waterways, or desecrating #SacredSites and ancestral remains,' said Tayaba. 'Our culture and identities are intrinsically tied to the Delta. There is no price tag worth paying that would ever justify the harm done to us or the unquantifiable costs that Tribes and disadvantaged communities would ultimately bear.'

"Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, followed Tayaba by stating, “There is nothing about the Delta Tunnel Project that significantly benefits anyone except #BigAg and south of the Delta water agencies, while putting #EndangeredSpecies, tribal cultural resources, and disadvantaged communities and the viability of the S.F Bay-Delta itself at risk. #CEQA exemptions continue to attempt to erase Tribes from #WaterGovernance.”

[...]

" 'Instead of wasting ratepayer money to keep pushing this expensive environmental justice debacle, we need to sees investments in local water supply like #RecycledWater, and the Freshwater Pathways program that would improve Delta levees to keep communities safe and improve State Water Project reliability in an emergency. We urge a commitment to vote NO on the return the Delta Conveyance Project and Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan bills,' Wagner said."

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/08/11/18878845.php

#WaterIsLife #TribalGovernance #CulturalPreservation #CulturalErasure #BigAgriculture #BigWater #GavinNewsome #CaliforniaPol #Graywater