Apache Stronghold returns to court to halt destruction of Oak Flat

Apache Stronghold Spirit Walk Run 2026. Photo courtesy Apache Stronghold

Apache Stronghold returns to court to halt destruction of Oak Flat

Coalition demands federal court reverse illegal transfer of sacred site to Chinese-owned mining giant


By Becket Fund, Censored News, April 22, 2026

Media Contact Ryan Colby media@becketfund.org


WASHINGTON – A coalition of Western Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies filed an updated lawsuit in federal district court today seeking to halt the planned destruction of Oak Flat, an invaluable Native American sacred site, by a Chinese-owned mining giant.

In Apache Stronghold v. United States, Apache Stronghold is challenging the government’s recent decision to give Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a Chinese-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive two-mile-wide, 1,100-foot-deep crater that would end essential Apache religious practices forever. (Watch this short video to learn more.)

“We will never stop fighting,” said Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold. “This is a struggle for the soul of our people. Oak Flat is where generations of Native peoples have come to connect with the Creator and Mother Earth. We pray the court reverses this illegal land grab so we can continue those time-honored traditions.”

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York 2026

Mapuche in Chile tell the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York this afternoon that Mapuche women lack a voice to halt the impacts of heavy metals destroying the peoples health, and fires destroying their biodiversity.

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York

Indigenous in Vietnam tell the U.N. Permanent Forum that their lands and people are being harmed by climate change, and Indigenous here are among the world's most vulnerable, during today's afternoon session. https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1y/k1yc42pdok

Winnemem Wintu Hereditary Chief Caleen Sisk tells the U.N. Permanent Forum this afternoon that her people in California are being denied recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The afternoon session is now online. Watch video

https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1y/k1yc42pdok

Ute Protest Energy Fuels' Uranium Mines and Dump

 Ute Protest Energy Fuels' Uranium Mines and Dump

Indigenous Youths Reclaiming Waters and Rivers: Bioneers Photos by Robert Free 2026

Robert Free, Gary Farmer and Peter Coyote at Bioneers 2026

'Revolution from the Heart of Nature'

Bioneers Photos by Robert Free 

Photos by Robert Free, Censored News, April 3, 2026

Gary Farmer, actor and musician, tells Bioneers, “American society has never been able to overcome the paternal view that leads the nation. I often wonder in my senior years what kind of world we could have lived in if the national builders of the American empire had accepted Indigenous people as equals.”

Farmer describes how the Haudenosaunee shared their foods and methodologies of the natural world to survive -- instead of manipulating the mineral resources for profit.

Today, Robert Free shares his photos from "Revolution from the Heart of Nature," Bioneers 2026. Robert was on the Trail of Broken Treaties, at the takeover of the BIA building in Washington, and at the Occupation of Wounded Knee. At the Occupation of Alcatraz, Robert's teepee was a monument to the struggle. Robert said, "In the early days the Sierra Club and environmental organizations didn't want input from Indigenous Peoples, in regards to national parks and monuments." Today, this is changing.

During Bioneers annual conference in Berkeley, Indigenous youths shared their struggles, from the Eastern Cherokee to the Klamath on the west coast, to Hawaii, as Native youths reclaim their waters and rivers, and rise to defend the natural world.