Ron Gibson's letter in response to Oregon Governor Kulongoski letter to ban mining in Southern Oregon
Note: Ron's letter was signed and sent to the below addressees on November 23rd and hand delivered to the Josephine County Commissioners (along with the congressional record of 2000) at their Tuesday (24th) morning meeting. Media Link:
http://kdrv.com/news/local/150575 November 23, 2009
RE: Reminder of Fiduciary Duty to Congressionally Established and Vested Trust Property
Ken Salazar,
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
Secretary Salazar,
As representative and Vice President of the members of the South Western Oregon Mining Association and by our members their independent Mining Districts and on behalf of the 1000's of other congressional grantees, every American, that may be unaware of the threat against them and our property entrusted by Congress into your fiduciary care, we have become aware of a letter request, including its prevarications, dated October 15, 2009 of State of Oregon Governor Kulongoski, The Request, to withdraw the mineral lands of the Siskiyou National Forest, or the fabricated “Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area”, pursuant to a 2001 Clinton Administration mineral withdrawal proposal. We find this request of great concern, very harmful, and constituting an unlawful takings if actually acted upon by anyone, ever. We feel, despite it's high- sounding motivation, the threat The, ill-advised, Request poses is compelling and in conflict with the laws of the United States and perpetual Congressional duty.
Secretary Salazar, as the trustee of the mineral lands and appurtenant Property Congress disposed of and placed into constructive trust by the Legislative Grant approved July 26, 1866, (H. R. 365) granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands in the States of California, Oregon, and Nevada and for other purposes, We are writing you today to remind you of your solemn duty. As well as to consider other uses adversely affected in an economically depressed county. Uses miners maintain right to depend upon. By The Request together with the recent and decades long abuses of the privilege of withdrawal, intended only as a tool to agency management necessities, we are compelled to remind the Secretary of his fiduciary duty to the Congressional disposal of the minerals lands, that no further encroachment be made under any excuse.
To bring to your attention again to the ill-advised and unlawful nature The Request is, we ask the simple question, Can a grantor lawfully executing and memorializing a free grant of property return at some future time to "amend", condition, control, diminish, regulate, retake or otherwise encroach, or trespass upon the Property subject of the grant, dispossessing the grantee?
In answering the simple question posed, Our Finding is that neither grantor nor agency, Secretary Salazar, may come at some future time to steal back or encroach in any way the property subject of a grant.
In researching for the answer we Find the courts long recognizing the Act of July 26, 1866, and May 10, 1872 as amended, "present grant" "revolutionizing the whole land policy of the government, abdicating in the name of the nation its authority and jurisdiction over the richest mineral possession on the face of God's earth,”A1 conveyed the mineral estate of the United States completely, an absolute gift of all the mineral wealth without condition and without limitation to all citizens.A2
We also Find, it has long-since been settled that the federal system treats the mineral estate as a proprietor holding paramount title B1 to its public domain and not as an attribute of sovereignty. B2,C1 Standing in no different relation to the sovereignty of the state than that of any other property which is subject to barter and sale, B2 [t]he minerals do not differ from the great mass of property, the ownership of which may be in the United States or in individuals, without affecting in any respect the political jurisdiction of the stated it has as well been settled with that fixed and definite legislative policy granting its mineral lands the Proprietor, Congress, in the name of the United States, forever abandoned the idea of exacting royalties, instead giving free license to all citizens, " the notion of royalty in the product of the mines was forever relinquished.B3
Moreover, the only reservation with the granting of the mineral estate was the mode, the regulation by which a claimant would formalize his intention and to perfect purchase or by patent. Being this reservation expressed in the praesentio grantD1 of July 26, 1866, and May 10, 1872 as amended was regulation only for the purpose of administration the formal location and purchase of the public domain, that the Act did not purport to be a mining code and its object was not to regulate mining as such, A1 in that, [t]he system does not seek to regulate or control mines or mining within the lands held in private ownership, except such only as are acquired directly from the government under the mining laws, and then only forming a muniment of the locator's or purchaser's title, that the grant gave the locator the right to get a patent for his "mine," we believe this otherwise unconditional grant foreclosed the grantor's continuing disposition of the property itself, either in access to, exploration, development, or right of acquisition of the grantee's mineral property. We can find no authority providing a grantor or its agent, Secretary Salazar, may come at some future time to steal back the property subject of a grant whether or not in tangible possession of a grantee. We fully appreciate the immense implication of such a Finding long-since lost to memory, today requiring resurrection and enforcement against all mineral withdrawals.
We believe, as a matter of law, The Request is without lawful authority in the first instance. As a matter of law, these Findings and by 144 years of precedent Authority show the divestment of the Congress of the United States, the grantor of the proprietary mineral holding, of any authority to "amend", condition, control, diminish, regulate, retake or otherwise encroach, or trespass upon the mineral
A1) The Encyclopedia Americana, 1919, Volume M Mining Laws of the United States, Page 184.
A2) Page 185.
B1) Handbook of America Mining Law, Geo. P Costigan, Jr., 1908. Pg. 11.
B2) Page 10, Moore v. Smaw 17 Cal. 199 79 Am. Dec. 123
B3) Page 15, Ivanhoe Mining Co. v. Consolidated Min. Co., 102 U.S. 167. 173, 26 L.Ed. 126,
B4) Page 19, Section 3
C I ) American Law Relating To Mines And Mineral Land within the Public Land States and Territories and Governing The
Acquisition and Enjoyment of Mining Rights in Lands of the Public Domain, Curtis H. Lindley, of the San Francisco Bar
Volume I, l897, Section 80.
C2) Section 5S, Page 62.
C3) Section 8l, Page 84.
D1) Missouri, K. & T.R. Co. v. Kansas Pac. R. Co. 97 U.S. 491 (1878).
estate, long-since, residing in the intention of a grantee. Despite the question upon the lawfulness of the Request, because we do not know that you have renounced it, we vigorously oppose your acting upon the Request by any means, primarily, though not singularly, for the Findings thus far stated.
So that we might act in accord, though the proper lawful course for The Request be one of Ejectment, we are writing this day to inquire if you intend to fulfill The Request and the trespass it commits? And if you intend aiding its violation, by Claim of Right and the Law of Possession, the authority vested by the Act of February 27, 1865, R.S. 930, to the Grantee for meaningful consultation and Coordination, we ask what your position is concerning The Request and the response, if any, you plan to make to it?
Sincerely,
Ron Gibson
Vice President of the South Western Oregon Mining Association.
Phone-541-621-5548
Email-dritecrg@hotmail.com
CC: Secretary of Agriculture , Tom Vilsack
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250
Oregon Congressional Delegation
Greg Walden
United States House of Representatives
2352 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3702
Jeff Merkley
United States Senate
SR-107 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3704
Earl Blumenauer
United States House of Representatives
2267 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3703
Peter DeFazio
United States House of Representatives
2134 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3704
Kurt Schrader
United States House of Representatives
1419 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3705
Ron Wyden
United States Senate
SD-223 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-370