Apache Stronghold's Wendsler Nosie Targeted: Propane Line Cut

Wendsler Nosie. Video screenshot Censored News

Apache Stronghold's Wendsler Nosie Targeted: Propane Line Cut

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Dec. 12, 2025

Watch video: https://www.facebook.com/reel/897452339276212

OAK FLAT -- Apache Stronghold's Wendsler Nosie's propane line was cut to his camper, where he usually sleeps at Oak Flat, protecting the Apache Ceremonial Place from a planned copper mine. 

"I've never bothered anybody," Wendsler said, pointing out that his efforts have been to show what mining is going to do to the environment, our land, our religion, and environmental policies. "It's ugly."

Apache Stronghold Asks Supreme Court to Save Oak Flat

Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Apache Stronghold, at Supreme Court.

Apache Stronghold Asks Supreme Court to Save Oak Flat

By Becket Law, Censored News, Sept. 11, 2024

WASHINGTON – A coalition of Western Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies asked the Supreme Court today to protect their sacred site at Oak Flat from destruction by a multinational mining giant. In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stop the federal government from transferring Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a foreign-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever (Watch this short video to learn more). The Apaches and their allies hosted a day of prayer outside the Court as they asked the Justices to save the spiritual lifeblood of their people.

Apache Stronghold at U.S. Supreme Court to Protect Oak Flat

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Now at U.S. Supreme Court. Photo courtesy Gary McKinney, Shoshone Paiute

Speaking now at the rally outside the Supreme Court, Gary McKinney, Shoshone Paiute, said, "Within your communities, activate your communities, your peers, your relatives, bring them to the circle, normalize this," McKinney said, urging action by local governments. "Put them to work, please."

"Take these necessary steps to ensure that our Seven Generations have a chance at clean air and clean water, and to learn our culture and traditions and to keep those alive and well." Standing with a banner of "Life Over Lithium," and standing with the struggle against the lithium mining now ongoing at the Paiute Massacre Site, Peehee Mu'huh, in northern Nevada, McKinney urged staying in prayer today and throughout our lives. "We are with you in solidarity, there are many more like us all around the world, no matter what religion, religious denomination, you belong to, this is our thought for Mother Earth, and those things that help us, those medicines, the sage, the cedar, the water, the land." -- Censored News

Apache Stronghold plans to file case to protect Oak Flat from a devastating copper mine, today, at the U.S. Supreme Court

By Apache Stronghold, Censored News, Sept. 11, 2024

WASHINGTON -- The Apache Stronghold has arrived in Washington, DC after two months following in the footsteps of the Spirit from the West on this Journey of Prayer to deliver their appeal to the Supreme Court to protect their religion, their sacred land, but also to protect all of humanity’s spirituality and the earth that is Mother to us all whether we recognize it or not. Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr. once told me that to really know how to fight for justice you must go to the places that are suffering to listen and learn. Mother Earth is crying everywhere, not just at Oak Flat, if you have ears to listen and eyes to see. And these cries of Mother Earth are at the same connected to the cries of the oppressed.

Divided Ninth Circuit Appeals Court leads Apache Stronghold to Supreme Court

Divided Ninth Circuit Appeals Court leads Apache Stronghold to Supreme Court

By Apache Stronghold

Censored News

Friday, June 24, 2022

Updated June 25, 2020

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=7179

SAN CARLOS, Arizona – Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision ruled that the request for a preliminary injunction to halt the land exchange of Oak Flat be denied. Apache Stronghold—a coalition of Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies, which is represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—has vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court immediately.

 

The Preliminary Injunction would have stopped Resolution Copper, a foreign owned mining company, from gaining control over Oak Flat through a land exchange, until the court case, Apache Stronghold vs. the U.S. was decided. The court ruled that Apache Stronghold's case against the United States had no likelihood of winning.