(HECHO Online) Some experiences and places can be transformative and change our perspective. Oak Flat, or Chi'chil BiĆdagoteel, is a sacred land in southeastern Arizona.
It is the kind of place that stays with one way after a visit, just like the people of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, who have lived in and cared for this beautiful high desert since time immemorial.
That was the experience that members of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and HECHO teams had during a recent visit to Oak Flat, 60 miles east of Phoenix.
Articulate it to a judge; make them understand
They saw firsthand the extraordinary beauty of this area now at risk and listened to the eye-opening testimonies of members of the Apache Stronghold.
Listen to Naelyn Pike, member of the Apache Stronghold.
#SaveOakFlat
At one time we were all about protecting the water. We were water protectors at Standing Rock. Now we're called on to protect sacred land -- public lands in a National Forest being sold off for copper extraction -- Native American spirituality, and the holy water at Oak Flat. Protect it from who? There's a corporation (RSC) lined up and lobbying to destroy it all for profit. Either we show up for the land and Apache Stronghold, or we turn over the ground and our ways to anyone who files in court and pays off the politicians to grease the wheels of American-style capitalism. - Wisdom Quarterly
The Apache tribe of San Carlos, Arizona, is calling on all people [in Los Angeles] to take action and join in prayer to support the Apache
Stronghold in the struggle to protect the sacred land of Oak Flat, Arizona.
In June the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Pasadena ruled 2-1 in support of the U.S. against the Apache Stronghold’s
request for a preliminary injunction to halt the transfer of sacred lands to a
foreign mining corporation called Resolution Copper.
Its mine proposes to swallow the sacred site in
a 2-mile-wide and 1,100-foot-deep crater — rendering longstanding spiritual practices
impossible, devastating the Apache way of life.
The court’s ruling concluded that
the U.S. has no “substantial burden” to protect Apache religion, spirituality, or their sacred lands
held in trust when there is copper to be mined for corporate profit and national
interests.
One dissenting judge, Marsha Berson, called the decision “absurd,”
“illogical,” and “disingenuous.”
“Oak Flat is like Mount Sinai to us — our most sacred site where we connect with our Creator,
our faith, our families, and our land. It is a place of healing that has been sacred to us since
long before Europeans arrived on this continent. My children, grandchildren, and the
generations after them deserve to practice our traditions at Oak Flat.”
- Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr. of Apache Stronghold
The Apache Stronghold plans to appeal this decision with the Supreme Court in
September. But just last week a remarkable and unusual opportunity arose when
the Ninth Circuit announced that it will hold a vote on whether to reconsider Apache
Stronghold’s appeal to save Oak Flat.
This means the Apache Stronghold may get a
second chance to win protection for Oak Flat in the Ninth Circuit before the case goes
to the Supreme Court. More
Hahamongna Watershed Park, spiritual ceremony and gathering with totem pole in U.S. convoy journey, Sunday, March 19, 9:00 am
Art Build and Sweat Lodge, Monday, March 20th (Spring Equinox 2023), about 9:00 am-3:00 pm, gather at Self-Help Graphics (selfhelpgraphics.com), 1300 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90033. Call: (323) 881-6444.
Freddie Lane (YouTube, 3/19/23); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
At Minute 18:00, a Navajo father comes to the mic with his two sons -- all spirit runners along with the Apaches of San Carlos, Arizona. He gives a moving account of his acceptance by Apache Tribal Chairman Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. and his extended family. Almost crying, he shares his gratitude for being allowed and encouraged to run, eat, and feel at home as a guest on sacred land in Arizona.
This was a spiritual gathering with Nigos'dzan ("Mother Earth") among the oak trees of the Great Gathering Place, Hahamongna (Pasadegna, now Pasadena), in the foothills of tribal Los Angeles next to the glimmering Mars Ground Control that is JPL or NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (original Jack Parsons's Lab, a Satanic figure and good friend of Scientology's L. Ron Hubbard) at the headwaters of the Los Angeles River (formerly El Rio Porciuncula).
This week Pasadena Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will vote on whether or not to grant the Apache Stronghold a restraining order on a corporate mining interest, Resolution Copper (RSC), that is seeking to acquire public land now part of the Tinto National Forest in Arizona to create a crater where a mountain now stands using "blockade" mining, which are controlled earthquakes meant to destroy, pulverize, and transport the land to a processing center to extract copper.
Apache Nation asks federal court to halt proposed copper mine at Oak Flat
(DemocracyNow.org, 10/25/21 edited by Wisdom Quarterly)
With a totem pole on the bed of a truck, Apache Stronghold is on a Spiritual Convoy
.
Indigenous advocates fighting to protect Oak Flat -- a historic site in eastern Arizona sacred to the San Carlos Apache Nation and other Native American communities -- argued their case against a proposed copper mine in federal court Friday. The legal efforts at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena are being led by the grassroots group, Apache Stronghold.
Native communities have long warned the massive copper mine would destroy Oak Flat, depriving them of their religious rights and other freedoms.
Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr., founder of Apache Stronghold and former chair of the San Carlos Apache Nation, says: “We heard it loud and clear in Indian Country that anything on federal land is not safe. Nothing is holy, and nothing is sacred to them. That was clearly spoken. The [emotions] that run through us is the fact that it answers the question that we are still prisoners of war in this country.”
The copper mine is being run by Resolution Copper (RSC), a [foreign] joint venture of multi-national mining corporations BHP and Rio Tinto.
The Oak Flat case is being decided on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 9:00 am in Pasadena, CA.
What is Oak Flat, Arizona?
Oak Flat is sacred land that features groves of Emory oaks, canyons, and springs protected by the San Carlos Apache tribe. Resolution Copper (a subsidiary of Rio Tinto) lobbied politicians to turn over National Forest land so they could blockade it or mining by earthquake (Elias Butler).
This federally-protected area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and features a National Forest Service public campground.
The landscape includes Apache Leap cliff, the mesa of Oak Flat, and Devil's Canyon (which Apaches refer to as Ga'an or "Angels Canyon"), all of which are popular with hikers, birders, climbers, off-roaders, hunters, and members of the area's indigenous tribes.
Oak Flat has been subject to attempts by the federal government to sell it to corporate mining interests since 2002, against the will of the San Carlos Apache tribe. More
The Act cleared the way for the land swap in which Resolution Copper would receive 2,422 acres of National Forest land in exchange for deeding to the federal government 5,344 acres of private land [13].
Apache's Leap near Oak Flat, Tonto National Forest, Arizona (wiki)
.
I have no idea why people keep asking me!!!
A proposal or rider in Section 3003 of the Act, titled "Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act," makes it possible for RCM to develop and operate an underground copper mine 7,000-feet deep (approximately five Empire State buildings) in the publicly owned Tonto National Forest near Superior, Arizona.
The land contains more than 2,400 acres of the Oak Flat Campground, an area dotted with petroglyphs and historic and prehistoric sites [14].
Former San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Wendsler Nosie Sr. said of the Act's attached rider: "This is Congressional politics at its [worst], a hidden agenda that destroys human rights and religious rights." More
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It is the kind of place that stays with one way after a visit, just like the people of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, who have lived in and cared for this beautiful high desert since time immemorial.
