Apaches Take A Stand on Sacred Lands Against Claims by Resolution Copper

2 recent reports:

1 The Guardian on Nov 24 

This land is your land

Arizona

Revealed: Trump officials rush to mine desert haven native tribes consider holy

Administration seeks to transfer ownership of Arizona area to mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site

Revealed: Trump officials rush to mine desert haven native tribes consider holy

Annette McGivney

the Guardian | Tue 24 Nov 2020 04.23 EST Last modified on Thu 26 Nov 2020 13.09 EST

Since January, San Carlos Apache tribal member Wendsler Nosie Sr has been sleeping in a teepee at a campground insouth-eastern Arizona’s Oak Flat, a sprawling high desert oasis filled with groves of ancient oaks and towering rock spires.

It is a protest in defense of “holy ground” where the Apache have prayed and performed ceremonies for centuries.

A dozen south-western Native American tribes have strong cultural ties to Oak Flat. But the Trump administration, in its waning days, has embarked on a rushed effort to transfer ownership of the area to a mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site in Australia, the Guardian has learned.

“We were in the fourth quarter with two minutes left in the game. And then Trump cheated so now we only have one minute left,” said Nosie, who was a football quarterback in high school. “Everybody has to mobilize now to fight this.”

 

2 Vice News on

Trump Is About to Hand Over Sacred Apache Land to a Mining Company

Geoff Dembicki

vice.com |

Trump officials are rushing to hand over Oak Flat in Arizona to Resolution Copper by next month, a full year ahead of schedule—while they still can.

The desertous and otherworldly Oak Flat in Arizona has been a highly contested area for more than two decades. Photo courtesy of Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity

Tipping Point covers environmental justice stories about and, where possible, written by people in the communities experiencing the stark reality of our changing planet.

President Donald Trump’s administration has sped up a process that will hand over the rights to a sacred Apache Indigenous area outside of Phoenix, Arizona, to a mining company by next month—a full year ahead of schedule.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to release its official environmental impact statement that will give the go-ahead to transfer Oak Flat in the Tonto National Forest to the mining company Resolution Copper, a joint venture by mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP, a year before its planned December 2021 date. 

The announcement came just days after the Trump administration issued an executive order that declared the U.S. dependence on China for “critical minerals” a national emergency and vowed to “cut down on unnecessary delays in permitting actions.” 

Some see the expedited process to mine the Oak Flat as part of a final push to weaken environmental regulations and fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to bring back mining jobs from abroad.