Apache Stronghold: U.S. Give-Away would Destroy Spiritual Home of Apache

Courtesy Apache Stronghold

Apache Stronghold: U.S. Give-Away would Destroy Spiritual Home of Apache

By Wendsler Nosie, Apache Stronghold, March 13, 2025

In the heart of Tonto National Forest in Arizona lies a place that my people, the Western Apache, still hold above all others. This place is Chi'chil Biłdagoteel, also known as Oak Flat. To us, it is more than a stretch of land; it is sacred and holy. It is where our ancestors walked, where we gather to pray, to carry out ceremonies passed down through generations, and to speak to our Creator. This land is part of who we are as a people, and its spirit is bound to our own.


Now, the federal government plans to give our sacred Oak Flat to a multinational mining corporation owned by the Chinese Communist Party. This will not just scar the land; it will destroy it, poisoning the environment and trampling on our tribal rights. But the deepest wound will be the loss of our spiritual home, a place our people cannot exist without. We are fighting this in the courts, all the way to the Supreme Court. But this is about more than law and policy—this is about survival of our way of life and the spirit of this sacred land.

Over a decade ago, several members of Congress, under the influence of corporate mining lobbyists, slipped an amendment into a must-pass defense bill. That bill authorized the transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a Chinese-owned mining giant with a sordid history of cultural and environmental demolition. Resolution Copper plans to carve a two-mile-wide crater at Oak Flat that will destroy it, ending our spiritual practices and severing Western Apache’s connection to the Creator forever.

Resolution Copper’s panel caving method would consume massive amounts of water during a drought and completely devastate the environment, reducing Oak Flat to ruins and leaving 1.37 billion tons of toxic waste where our sacred land once stood. According to the government’s own environmental impact statement, seepage from this waste will pollute the groundwater and downstream environment, causing immense damage to the local ecosystem and natural wildlife habitats.

This plan has prompted three different lawsuits. One suit was filed against the U.S. Forest Service by several environmental groups, led by the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, and the 21-member Inter Tribal Association of Arizona Indian tribes. They argue that Resolution Copper’s mine violates key environmental laws and will permanently destroy Oak Flat and the surrounding ecosystem.

But environmental destruction isn’t the only issue at stake. Oak Flat stands as a painful reminder of the long history of broken promises made to Native peoples. In 1852, the United States signed a treaty with the Apache, vowing to protect our lands, including Oak Flat, and uphold our way of life. Yet, like so many treaties before, this promise is now being discarded, the moment it becomes inconvenient for the government.

To right these centuries of wrongs, the week before the environmentalists and the Inter-Tribal Association of Arizona filed their lawsuit, the San Carlos Apache Tribe filed a separate lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service, challenging the land transfer as a violation of their treaty rights, the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and other federal laws. These laws require the government to consult with tribes before approving projects that threaten their land. But the Forest Service failed to fulfill that obligation when it came to Oak Flat. Instead, it rushed the transfer through, over the objections of all of the major Arizona tribes, and approved a project it acknowledged would cause permanent and irreparable damage.

The most fundamental issue at stake, however, is that the proposed mine will destroy the spiritual home of the Apache. Since time immemorial, my people have journeyed to Oak Flat to connect with our Creator, our families, and to perform religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Allowing the government to hand Oak Flat over to Resolution Copper will end those sacred traditions forever. It will also send a clear message that some religious beliefs—particularly those that are uncommon or unfamiliar—are undeserving of equal protection under the law.

This is the issue at the center of the first lawsuit, filed on January 12, 2021, Apache Stronghold vs. United States. With the help of the lawyers Cliff Levenson, Michael Nixon, and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a coalition of Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies—called Apache Stronghold—sued to stop the transfer of Oak Flat. We argue that the destruction of Oak Flat violates numerous laws protecting religious freedom, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Last year, a federal appeals court ruled 6-5 that the destruction of Oak Flat was not a “burden” on our religious freedom. But there is still a hope for justice—we have appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the land transfer and protect Oak Flat. The Justices have now considered our case eight times in their private conferences, showing they are carefully weighing the gravity of our legal arguments in this vital case.

The fight for Oak Flat raises critical issues about the environment and our nation’s commitment to Native rights and religious freedom. But at its heart, it is a battle for our sacred and holy land, the faith that has always been defined by it, and the right to have our religious traditions respected and protected. It is a battle over who we all are as human beings here in this life together on earth, and who America is as a nation. We ask all people of goodwill—regardless of belief—to join with us in praying for the
preservation of Oak Flat. Our holy place of worship shouldn’t need four walls and a steeple to be protected from destruction.



Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. is the founder of the nonprofit Apache Stronghold and former chairman and councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.