Oak Flat has been racing through the mind of San Carlos Apache elder Joann Reede Williams for decades – though she’s never stepped foot there – because she’s been guided by an Apache voice to follow him in her dreams to where ancestors are buried.
Fellow elder Sandra Rambler helps interpret her vivid vision.
“It’s sanctified, and it’s legitimate and that it’s justified,” said Rambler. “And no reason to believe otherwise that Oak Flat is holy and sacred.”
Apache Stronghold has been crusading to save it from Resolution Copper, which plans to use block-cave mining to unearth a 1.4 billion metric ton ore body almost 7,000 feet underground. This mineral-extracting technique would leave Oak Flat “directly and permanently damaged,” resulting in a nearly 2-mile wide crater.
“This is a war on all religious ways if you believe in God,” said Wendsler Nosie Sr., founder of the nonprofit Apache Stronghold. “Native ways, non-Native ways, if you believe, it’s a war.”
Under a starry, windy February night, Nosie speaks to about 80 runners by fireside before they begin their 50-mile spiritual trek from the Old San Carlos Memorial near the tribe’s namesake lake – through Globe and Miami – to Oak Flat.
Apache Stronghold has argued its case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Following a recent, split 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and months-long national prayer journey, its religious freedom legal battle now rests in the hands of nine justices in the nation’s capital. At least four of them must agree to hear any case, hence the “Rule of Four.”
There’s been no word since December.
The highest court in the land only hears oral arguments for roughly 1% of all petitions filed annually. On Friday, the justices are meeting in conference once again, and an answer may arrive as soon as Monday.
“They approve, deny. Approve, deny,” added Nosie, a former San Carlos Apache chairman. “But for us, they reschedule, reschedule, reschedule, reschedule, reschedule. Pray tonight, pray tomorrow. Now, we just wait.”
“This is where our prayers are needed the most at this time,” said Vanessa Nosie, daughter of the nonprofit’s founder. “Oak Flat is on death row, and right now the Supreme Court justices are the jury and they’re having to come together – whether to kill it or save it.”
In a statement, Resolution Copper told KJZZ the nonprofit’s petition “does not present any question worthy of Supreme Court review,” adding “this case is about the government’s right to pursue national interests with its own land.”
San Carlos Apache Tribe Attorney General Alex Ritchie disagrees.
“There are burial sites, there are archaeological sites and, admittedly in the study, religious sites. This is akin to a mine that is underneath St. Peter’s Basilica or the Wailing Wall or Angkor Wat,” he elaborated. “Tribes from around the world have contacted San Carlos, from Africa, from Australia, from South America, all saying the same thing: ’These same mining companies came in, they took our water, they took our sites.’”
Although Apache Stronghold does not represent the governing tribal body, San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler told KJZZ that the multinational mining company’s plan “is an atrocious project across the board” and “would desecrate sacred Native American land that cannot be replaced or mitigated.”
“Our religion is attacked by corporations. We’re fighting the oldest evil in this world, and that is greed, that is capitalization, that is colonialization,” said Naelyn Pike, a Chiricahua Apache and granddaughter of Wendsler Nosie Sr. “Our ancestors have fought for us to be here to this day, shed their blood, been in prison, were raped, tortured, forced in prison camps.”
After the run, Pike paused, telling Stronghold supporters: “Don’t forget this moment.”
“I always like to hear the kids running around and climbing the Emory oak trees, and they’re happy. They hear us again,” she shared. “This place missed us, our people, because we were prisoners of war. So when they feel the children’s hands on these trees, they know that we still survive. They know that we are still fighting.”
“The genocide is still occurring,” Pike added. “The last thing that they have yet to take is our sacred places, this beautiful place that we are surrounded [by], the trees, the plants, the water, us together as a family, will be gone because of Resolution Copper.”
That’s why the nonprofit has been forging powerful relationships with religious allies.
Under the shade of Emory oak trees, students from Gonzaga College High School in D.C. chant their fight song at Oak Flat after the days-long prayer run. Jesuit educator Cooper Davis at Phoenix’s Brophy College Preparatory has been bringing Gonzaga, Xavier and Brophy high schoolers for the last five years.
“And that all really came as a result of the grace of God,” Davis said. “It’s been the greatest blessing and honor of my life, and our tradition has been at odds with how the Apache people have been treated by the Catholic Church.”
That’s slowly changing though.
Apache Stronghold is teaming up with the Fighting Irish at the University of Notre Dame’s Religious Liberty Clinic. At least another 85 religious groups – from the Knights of Columbus to Mennonite Church – are backing them.
“We’re very optimistic,” said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel for Becket. “You see not only Native American voices. You see Catholic, Protestant, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, many people of faith realizing that this sort of decision could harm everybody.”
Better known as Becket Fund, the D.C.-based nonprofit law firm focuses on religious liberty issues. They represent Apache Stronghold and have won eight Supreme Court cases – five by unanimous decision – between 2012 and 2022.
The 9th Circuit ruling – a rare 6-5 decision – against Apache Stronghold last March set a precedent, says Goodrich, which has been used by the National Park Service to oust Catholics from national cemeteries.
Prior to that, the Knights of Columbus have been coming to Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Virginia for Memorial Day masses since the 1960s – until the Biden administration began denying permits and kicking them out. So the scope of Apache Stronghold’s case is broad, stretching far beyond Indian Country.
“The lower court’s opinion here threatens not just Western Apaches, not just all Native Americans and sacred sites, but the court is talking about all religious exercise on all federal land,” Goodrich explained. “The Supreme Court has a long and consistent track record of supporting religious freedom for people of all faiths, and that’s really what this case is about.”
Goodrich says the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act – a federal law barring any agency, department or official from substantially burdening a person’s right to exercise religion – is Stronghold’s best legal argument.
“The first question for the Supreme Court is,” said Goodrich, “does physically destroying Oak Flat, swallowing it in a massive crater so that Apaches can never engage in their religious practices again – does that substantially burden their religious exercise? And just on its face, the obvious answer to that is yes.”
San Carlos Apache Brenda Astor, Resolution Copper’s principal advisor of Native American affairs, says otherwise.
“We have our own ceremonial grounds on our reservation,” she stressed. “There’s more than 10, and that our culture does not center at Oak Flat, and many people believe that it is not a sacred site.”
“Many adamantly oppose Apache Stronghold stating that they represent all Apache people, because they don’t. They hear of them, they know the family,” added Astor. “You have much bigger problems on a daily basis to deal with, then trying to figure out if Oak Flat is sacred.”
Goodrich pushed back, emphasizing that Oak Flat is a site of “ongoing religious exercise by living, breathing Apaches, right in Arizona today.”
“I would dispute the premise,” he insisted, “and say there’s a minority of voices, some of whom are on the payroll of Resolution Copper, who say, ‘Hey, I don’t think it’s that sacred.’ Should that make a difference? Of course not.”
For now, the fate of Oak Flat remains in limbo.
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Resolution Copper is betting on gaining access to a large and lucrative copper ore east of Phoenix. A lot of money has already been invested in the project – over $2 billion – and opponents say some of it has been used to buy influence. -
Resolution Copper wants to dig up a massive amount of copper ore beneath Oak Flat inside the Tonto National Forest. And by doing so, a site that some Apaches consider sacred may be destroyed. -
While Resolution Copper is taking a proactive approach to meet its tremendous water needs, their actions may still have a lasting and severe impact on the local hydrological landscape around Oak Flat. -
While they’re not mining yet, Resolution Copper is slowly digging its way toward the lucrative ore. In fact, the site is already home to the deepest single-lift mine shaft in North America, and KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio goes thousands of feet underground to see it for himself. -
Discovered in Arizona’s Copper Triangle, Oak Flat is home to one of the richest copper deposits in the world. But the battle to mine there — about 60 miles east of Phoenix — has been bogged down by decades of politics. -
Oak Flat — an area east of the Valley — may soon be home to a massive copper mine. It holds cultural and spiritual significance to many Apaches, whose ancestors were forced off the land by the U.S. military. -
Watch a KJZZ panel discussion about Oak Flat — an area sacred to generations of Apaches that may soon be home to one of the largest copper mines in the world.
