Watch a KJZZ panel discussion discussing Oak Flat — an area sacred to generations of Apaches that may soon be home to one of the largest copper mines in the world.
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Moderator KJZZ tribal natural resources reporter Gabriel Pietrorazio delves into the history of Oak Flat, the varying perspectives on economic, environmental and cultural priorities, and the decadeslong legal battle to decide the fate of the land.
Panelists
Mila Besich was first elected town mayor of Superior in 2016, and previously served on the town council since 2013. A lifelong resident, Besich has devoted herself to advancing education, community and economic development in Superior and the rest of the Copper Corridor region of Arizona.
Besich is an entrepreneur, founding Miracle Executive Services, offering project management, administration, event planning and marketing expertise for more than a dozen Arizona small businesses, nonprofits and governmental entities. She also serves as a reporter and advertising director for the Copper Area News Publishers — a portfolio of local publications — including the “Copper Basin News,” “Superior Sun,” “Pinal Nugget” and “San Manuel Miner.”
Besich sits as vice chair for the National League of Cities Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee and is among 20 members of the U.S. EPA Small Communities Local Governance Advisory Committee.
Marcus Macktima is a historian and member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona. He’s an assistant professor in American Indian history at Northern Arizona University and helps his tribal community as an instructor teaching Apache history at the San Carlos Apache College.
Macktima completed his doctoral studies at the University of Oklahoma in the spring of 2022, writing a dissertation titled, “Deconstructing the Apache Identity: A History of the San Carlos Apachean Peoples.” His work centers around bringing the history of the San Carlos Apachean peoples into the 20th and 21st centuries and moving the people beyond the stereotypes of the “Apache Wars” in the 19th century.
His first published work is an essay in the anthology series, “The North American West in the Twenty-First Century,” where Macktima analyzes the issues between traditional and colonial forms of Apachean identity and its underlying consequences in contemporary land disputes at both Dzil Nchaa Si’ann (Mount Graham) and Chi’chil Bildagoteel (Oak Flat).
A chapter from his dissertation entitled, “A Manufactured Identity: Cattle-Raising, the Coolidge Dam, and the Creation of the San Carlos Apachean Peoples,” was also published in the summer of 2023 “all indigenous” issue of the Journal of Arizona History where he analyzed the creation of the “San Carlos” Apache identity.
Russ McSpadden is the Southwest Conservation Advocate at the Tucson-headquartered Center for Biological Diversity where he has worked since 2012.
He leads campaigns to protect public lands — and the wildlife who call them home — in Arizona and the Southwest.
McSpadden holds a master’s degree in environmental history from Florida Atlantic University and serves as board president of La Tierra Del Jaguar, a nonprofit regenerative agriculture and education site in Sonora, Mexico.
Henry C. Muñoz Sr. was born and raised in Superior, Arizona, and comes from a family of underground miners spanning five generations.
Muñoz has more than 24 years of underground mining experience, including the Magma Copper Co. in Superior and Magma Copper-BHP in San Manuel.
A lifelong community and labor union activist, Muñoz is a member of the Hispanic Conservation Leadership Council and former three-term Superior town councilman, serving from 1989 to 1999.
Muñoz is now chairman of the grassroots Concerned Citizens and Retired Miners Coalition.
Terry Rambler is the four-term chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, first-elected in 2010, then winning reelection in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Prior to that, he served as a councilman representing the Bylas District between 2004 and 2010.
Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland tapped Rambler to sit on the inaugural Tribal Advisory Committee and represent the West. He also currently serves as vice president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona.
A former chairman and vice chairman of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association, Rambler has also served as vice president, secretary and treasurer for the Apache Alliance, a nonprofit coalition made up of nine Apache tribes across Indian Country.
His administration is credited with opening the San Carlos Apache College and Apache Sky Casino in Winkelman in 2017. Rambler also sat on the Fort Thomas Unified School District Board between 2004 and 2012.
A fluent Apache language speaker — Rambler has a strong faith and believes in the power of prayer — having raised three children as a single parent.
Curt Shannon is currently the interim director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition. He is one of the founding members of the Concerned Climbers of Arizona, which has worked to protect Oak Flat and other rock climbing areas threatened by mining activity or other forms of land use since 2004.
His professional background is in electrical engineering, materials science and product management; having spent most of his career working with gallium arsenide and other III-V compound semiconductors. For the last ten years, Shannon has worked primarily on energy consulting — with an emphasis on solar energy — for a number of Indian tribes and solar development companies in Arizona.
LeRoy Shingoitewa is a member of the Hopi Tribe, hailing from the village of Munqapi (Moenkopi), Arizona near Tuba City. He is the tribal monitor program lead and project manager for WestLand Engineering & Environmental Services, which has offices in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff as well as Utah, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.
Shingoitewa has been with WestLand’s cultural resources department since 2018, where he discovered that his background in biology and use of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge has helped with the process of fostering tribal engagement and conducting baseline cultural and environmental surveys throughout the West.
Curtis Thomas, general manager of communities and social performance, cultural heritage and permitting at Resolution Copper.
