Apache Stronghold joins Poor People's Campaign in Washington, Dec. 4, 2017

APACHE STRONGHOLD joins POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN

in WASHINGTON DC on DECEMBER 4, 2017

WHAT: Press Conference & Mass Meeting, goo.gl/8dM2W4

DATE: Monday, December 4, 2017

TIME: 10:00am

WHERE: United Methodist Building (Conference Rm 1),

100 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC

Washington, D.C.: On Monday, December 4, 2017, Apache Stronghold, an Arizona-based nonprofit of Western Apache families and other Indigenous peoples, will make the journey to Washington, DC, to join and support the "Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival."

Please attend the press conference and mass meeting, learn about how to get involved, and find a way to support work of Apache Stronghold and join the Poor People's Campaign for our times.

In recent battles to protect their sacred and ecologically unique lands, groundwater resources, riparian habitats, and endangered species against both U.S. legislators and multinational mining companies, the San Carlos Apache Tribe has come up short. In 2014, as part of a must-pass $500 billion omnibus military funding bill, Arizona politicians sneaked in a rider to give away 2,422 acres of public lands to a $72.9 billion company, Rio Tinto—despite the fact that unemployment on the San Carlos Apache reservation is at 67 percent. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie, "This is where we say, 'Enough is enough. No more.'"

Apache Stronghold will add volume to the collective voice of the new Poor People's Campaign for, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in 1963,

Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. 

Apache Stronghold is a grassroots Indigenous organization committed to protecting sacred Chí'chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat) and Dził Nchaa Si'An (Mount Graham), fighting for clean air, water, and food, and battling continued colonization. Apache Stronghold supports the Poor People's Campaign's call for education, housing, jobs, and social mobility, just as Dr. King proposed in his still unfinished revolution 50 years ago.

To learn about Apache Stronghold and its efforts to preserve Western Apache culture and religious freedom, and to defend Western Apache sacred places such as Dził Nchaa Si'An and Chí'chil Biłdagoteel, visit:

• "What's at Stake in Oak Flat?" goo.gl/G2gX9r
• "Apaches Fight Mining Company Over Land" (video), goo.gl/SV48Sy

To learn more about the Poor People's Campaign, visit: poorpeoplescampaign.org

Press Contact:

Wendsler Nosie, founder, Apache Stronghold

Phone: 928-200-7762; Email: Apaches4ss@yahoo.com

P.O. Box 766, San Carlos, Arizona 85550; http://www.apache-stronghold.com