‘It’s who we are’: Apache people take fight for sacred site to federal court
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Indianz.Com
The Biden administration is facing a major test of its commitment to sacred sites as citizens of the San Carlos Apache Tribe head to court in a long-running battle to protect one of their most important places.
Tribal citizens have been going to Oak Flat since time immemorial to pray, hold ceremonies, gather food and engage in other religious activities. The site, known as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel in the Apache language, plays a central role in the health and well-being of the San Carlos people.
“We Apache — it’s who we are,” San Carlos citizen Vanessa Nosie said on Tuesday in explaining the importance of protecting the land. “Our religion, our identity. It makes us who we are.”
But Oak Flat, which is located on federal forest land east of Phoenix, will be destroyed — permanently, Apache people point out — by a huge copper mine. Nosie said the proposed development is slated to be so large that it will leave a crater 7,000 feet below the surface of the place where her daughters took part in coming-of-age ceremonies.
“You can stick the Eiffel Tower inside the crater,” Nosie told students at a religious school in California.


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House committee markup on Save Oak Flat Act and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Land Transfer Act (April 28, 2021)
Legislative Hearing on H.R.1884, the Save Oak Flat Act (April 13, 2021)
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