The San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman appeared before the United Nations on Tuesday, urging the United States to protect sacred Indigenous sites, including Oak Flat, from impending destruction.
“I request the United Nations Permanent Forum call on all (member) States to affirmatively protect Indigenous Peoples’ sacred sites under the mandate of culture, environment, health, and human rights,” said Chairman Terry Rambler.
Apache Stronghold, a group composed of San Carlos Apache members and others, wants to halt the land swap while the case plays out in court.
The panel of 11 judges on the appeals court is expected to issue a decision in the next few months.
Apache Stronghold sued the U.S. government under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to protect the land known as Chi’chil Bildagoteel, an area of ancient oaks and traditional plants the San Carlos Apaches consider important for their ceremonies at Oak Flat in the Tonto National Forest about 70 miles (110 kilometers) east of Phoenix.
Native American tribal members fighting plans for an enormous copper mine on land they consider sacred say they are increasingly worried U.S. officials will publish an environmental review paving the way for the project even as they await a federal appeals court ruling in the case.
In 2014, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment in a massive defense-spending bill that will give Oak Flat to Resolution Copper upon completion of environmental studies regardless of the cultural and environmental damage the mine will inflict.
In response, the U.S. Justice Department says it expects to issue an environmental report that would give the land to Resolution later this summer.
“Oak Flat is a holy site, an area of irreplaceable beauty akin to a church, no different than the Wailing Wall, Temple Mount, Australia’s Juukan Gorge, or Mecca’s Kaaba,” Chairman Rambler said. “Apache people have lived, prayed, and died at Oak Flat from time immemorial.”
Oak Flat is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property, it is where Apaches go to pray, collect traditional food, hold traditional ceremonies, and obtain peace and cleansing among other traditions.
