SAN CARLOS APACHE — The San Carlos Apache Tribe has petitioned the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) to call upon the United States government to withhold the transfer of sacred Oak Flat for the proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona.
The Tribe’s 15-page petition details the “imminent” threat to “Apache religion, culture, and spiritual well-being” from the proposed mine that would destroy Oak Flat, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. Oak Flat is known in Apache as Chí’chil Biłdagoteel, which means “a broad flat of Emory oak trees.”