We saw creative architecture, a magical nighttime art exhibit at a botanical garden, and viewed Phoenix lights from a popular lookout.
#MesaAZ #ScottsdaleAZ #McCormickStillmanRailroadPark #CosantiOriginals #MinersRockShop #PaoloSoleri #ArizonaFalls #PhoenixAZ #TontoNationalForest #TempeAZ #GreenNewAmerican #AmericanHorticulturalSociety #DesertBotanicalGarden #JapaneseFriendshipGarden #DobbinsLookout #LightBloom #Hybycozo #PedalHausBiergarten
We hung out in Mesa, marveled at the beauty of Tonto National Forest, relived an important part of my childhood. Click the link below ⬇️
#ArabianHorses #MesaAZ #PedalHausBiergarten #TontoNationalForest #CanyonLake #TortillaFlatsAZ #SuperstitionMountain #GoldfieldAZ
Trump to approve land swap for Rio Tinto copper mine opposed by Native Americans
By Ernest Scheyder
April 18, 2025
- Forest Service to republish environmental report within 60 days
- Publication needed to approve land swap for Resolution project
- Native groups oppose project on religious grounds
- Related case still pending at Supreme Court
"The #Trump administration said on Thursday it would approve a land swap needed for #RioTinto and #BHP to build one of the world's largest copper mines, despite concerns from Native Americans that it would destroy a site of religious value.
The move is likely to escalate tensions between Indigenous groups vocal about the need to preserve historical lands and Western governments eager to boost critical minerals production and offset China's sector dominance.
"The U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, said it will republish within 60 days an environmental report needed for the #ResolutionCopper project land swap to occur.
"Congress and then-President #BarackObama approved the mine in 2014 after it was added at the last minute to a must-pass military funding bill [#NDAA] with the condition that an environmental report be published.
"The underground mine - which President Donald Trump approved in his first term before successor Joe Biden reversed him - would supply more than a quarter of U.S. appetite for copper and be a key part of Trump's plan to boost U.S. mining.
"Copper is used in construction, transportation, electronics and many other industries. The United States imports roughly half of its copper needs each year.
"Yet the mine's construction would cause a crater that would swallow the Oak Flat site where Arizona's San Carlos Apache worship. That has fueled strong opposition from all but one of the state's 22 Native American tribes, as well as the National Congress of American Indians.
"Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group comprised of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and conservationists, asked the U.S. Supreme Court last September to block the land swap. The court has not yet decided whether to take that case.
Were the court to do so, however, the Forest Service said on Thursday it 'may reevaluate how to proceed' regarding the land swap.
" 'The U.S. government is rushing to give away our spiritual home before the courts can even rule, just like it's rushed to erase Native people for generations,' said #WendslerNosie, an #ApacheStronghold leader."
#Apaches #WesternApaches #NativeAmericans #SacredSite #ResolutionCopper #SaveOakFlat #ChichilBiłdagoteel #CorporateColonialism #ProtectOakFlat #ReaderSupportedNews #SCOTUS #DefendTheSacred #CopperMine
#WaterIsLife #CulturalGenocide #WesternApache #SacredSites #NoMiningWithoutConsent #RecycleCopper #TontoNationalForest
#Apaches ask lower court to stop government’s imminent transfer of #SacredSite
Becket Law, via #CensoredNews, April 25, 2025
There will be a Hearing May 7, 2025 @ 0930 @ Sandra Day O’Connor
U.S. Courthouse, 401 West Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85003
WASHINGTON – "A coalition of #WesternApaches, other #NativePeoples, and non-Native #allies asked a federal court late yesterday to stop the U.S. government from handing over their sacred site at Oak Flat to a multinational mining giant as early as June 16, 2025.
"In #ApacheStronghold v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year refused to stop the federal government from transferring #OakFlat to #ResolutionCopper, a Chinese-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever (Watch the short video linked below to learn more).
"The emergency appeal comes after the government announced last week it will forge ahead with the transfer even though the case is currently under consideration by the #USSupremeCourt."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/apaches-ask-lower-court-to-stop.html
Video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh68xOn0B_8
#SaveOakFlat #ChichilBiłdagoteel #CorporateColonialism #ProtectOakFlat #ReaderSupportedNews #SCOTUS #DefendTheSacred #CopperMine
#WaterIsLife #RioTinto #RecycleCopper #CulturalGenocide #NDAA #WesternApache #SacredSites #NoMiningWithoutConsent #RecycleCopper #TontoNationalForest
Breaking News! (via @bsnorrell.blogspot.com )
Feds Charge Ahead with Plan to Destroy #OakFlat
#SupremeCourt poised to consider #ApacheStronghold’s appeal
By Becket Law, Censored News, April 17, 2025
WASHINGTON – "The U.S. government today announced that it is forging ahead with plans to transfer a #NativeAmerican #SacredSite to a multinational mining giant in as few as 60 days, despite a
federal lawsuit challenging the action as illegal.
"In Apache Stronghold v. United States, Apache Stronghold—a coalition of #Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies—sued to stop the federal government from transferring Oak Flat to
Resolution Copper, a Chinese-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever.
"The government has announced it will now forge ahead with the transfer even though the case is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Since time immemorial, #WesternApaches and other Native peoples have gathered at Oak Flat, outside of present-day #SuperiorAZ, for sacred religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Known in Apache as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, Oak Flat is listed in the #NationalRegisterOfHistoricPlaces and has been protected from #mining and other harmful practices for decades.
These protections were targeted in December 2014 when a last-minute provision was slipped into a must-pass defense bill [#NDAA] authorizing the transfer of Oak Flat to the Resolution Copper company.
"#ResolutionCopper now plans to turn the sacred site into a two-mile-wide and 1,100-foot-deep crater.
"The majority owner of Resolution Copper, Rio Tinto, sparked international outrage when it deliberately destroyed 46,000-year-old Indigenous rock shelters at one of Australia’s most significant cultural sites.
" 'The feds are barreling ahead to give Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, even as the Supreme Court considers whether to hear the case,' said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. 'This makes the stakes crystal clear: if the Court doesn’t act now, Oak Flat could be transferred and destroyed before justice can be served.' "
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/feds-charge-ahead-with-plan-to-destroy.html
#SaveOakFlat #ChichilBiłdagoteel #CorporateColonialism #ProtectOakFlat #ReaderSupportedNews #SCOTUS #DefendTheSacred #CopperMine
#WaterIsLife #ResolutionCopper #RioTinto #RecycleCopper #CulturalGenocide #NoMiningWithoutConsent #RecycleCopper #TontoNationalForest
#ApacheStronghold: U.S. Give-Away would Destroy Spiritual Home of #Apache
By Wendsler Nosie, Apache Stronghold, March 13, 2025, via #CensoredNews
"In the heart of #TontoNationalForest in #Arizona lies a place that my people, the #WesternApache, 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 #USSupremeCourt. 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.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/apache-stronghold-us-give-away-would.html
#SaveOakFlat #ChichilBiłdagoteel #CorporateColonialism #ProtectOakFlat #ReaderSupportedNews #SCOTUS #DefendTheSacred #CopperMine
#WaterIsLife #ResolutionCopper #RioTinto #RecycleCopper #CulturalGenocide #NoMiningWithoutConsent #RecycleCopper
TBT Eight years ago, I stopped very early in the morning on the way back from an art festival in Scottsdale to spend a little time in the desert wilderness in Arizona.
#tbt #arizona #tontonationalforest #nature #march #saguaro #dawn #landscapephotography #landscape #artistinportugal #jonathankeeton
[Film] The #ApacheStronghold defending #sacred #OakFlat land from a #CopperMine
The Real News Network
May 21, 2024
"In the heart of the #Arizona high desert lies a battle for the soul of the land. The ancient, sacred grounds of #Apache #Native territory are under threat from a looming giant — a massive copper mine that promises riches for the locals, and a pathway to the so-called green transition. But, as is often the case, it comes at a cost.
"The #SanCarlosApache tribe calls it Chi’chil Bildagoteel; English speakers call it Oak Flat. It sits on a mountainous plateau within a 17.3-kilometer oasis in the #TontoNationalForest. #RioTinto and #BHP, two of the world’s biggest mining companies, have staked their claim here through a joint venture called #ResolutionCopper. For over 10 years they’ve been lobbying governments for the right to build a colossal mine that would cover roughly 7,000 acres of surface area, and extend more than a mile into the ground.
"The only thing that stands in their way is the #resistance of the Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit community organization of #Natives and non-Natives uniting to counter ongoing #colonization, defend holy sites and protect freedom of religion, which was created to protect Chi’chil Bildagoteel.
"A short film by #BrandiMorin and #GeordieDay for #RicochetMedia. Support for this journalism provided by #CulturalSurvival."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCIGlv0xu_U
#ChichilBildagoteel #RioTinto #CopperMine #SanCarlosApache #Arizona #ProtectOakFlat #protectthesacred #DefendTheSacred #IndigenousActivism #SCOTUS #SaveOakFlat
#WaterIsLife #SacredSite #CopperMining #RecycleCopper #MiningWithoutConsent
#ProtectTheSacred #CulturalGenocide #Ecocide #NativeAmericanNews
#IndigenousNews
#Greenwashing #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism
Watching firefighting planes dump pink foam onto a #ForestFire at the #TontoNationalForest. I hope that doesn't have #PFAS! Seems better to let a fire burn itself out (or better yet, do controlled burning every once in a while) rather than pollute the area. But maybe that's just me...
via #CensoredNews
New Film! #ApacheStronghold Protecting #OakFlat from #CopperMine
The #Apache stronghold standing in the way of a copper mine that would desecrate a #SacredSite
By Ricochet Media
Watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZucwkizByk
"In the heart of the #Arizona high desert lies a battle for the soul of the land. The ancient, sacred grounds of Apache Native territory are under threat from a looming giant — a massive copper mine that promises riches for the locals, and a pathway to the so-called green transition. But, as is often the case, it comes at a cost.
"The #SanCarlosApache tribe calls it Chi’chil Bildagoteel, English speakers call it Oak Flat. It sits on a mountainous plateau within a 17.3-kilometer oasis in the #TontoNationalForest. Rio Tinto and #BHP, two of the world’s biggest mining companies, have staked their claim here through a joint venture called #ResolutionCopper.
"For over 10 years they’ve been lobbying governments for the right to build a colossal #mine that would cover roughly 7,000 acres of surface area, and extend more than a mile into the ground. The only thing that stands in their way is the resistance of the Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit community organization of Natives and non-Natives uniting to counter ongoing colonization, defend holy sites and protect freedom of religion, which was created to protect Chi’chil Bildagoteel.
Read the full story on Ricochet Media. https://ricochet.media/indigenous/brandi-morin-the-apache-stronghold-standing-in-the- way-of-a-massive-copper-mine/
at May 14, 2024
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/05/new-film-apache-stronghold-protecting.html
#SaveOakFlat #RioTinto #ReaderSupportedNews #RichochetMedia #BrandiMorin #Cree #NativeAmericanNews #IndigenousNews #Greenwashing #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CopperMine
#Indigenous leaders: #PlanetaryHealth and #IndigenousHealth are interdependent
On day two of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the climate crisis that #IndigenousPeoples are overwhelmingly expected to bear was highlighted.
by Jenna Kunze April 19, 2023
"Indigenous peoples around the globe agree that their health and the health of the planet are interdependent and in jeopardy. On day two of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, this fact — that Indigenous people make up 5% of the world’s population but are responsible for 80% of its biodiversity — was repeated again and again by global Indigenous leaders.
"'As we are all aware, Indigenous peoples have least contributed to the problems of climate change nonetheless, due to their interdependence with their vital environment in their ecosystems, they suffer at its worst effects,' said Francisco Cali Tzay on Tuesday, a #Mayan #Cakchiquel from #Guatemala and the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples. The Special Rapporteur keeps tabs on Indigenous peoples globally and reports back to The United Nations Commission on Human Rights on best practices.
"This year’s theme: human health, planetary and territorial health, and climate change gave attendees an opportunity to talk about the shortcomings of governments and non-Indigenous leaders. Others called upon the Permanent Forum to take action.
"#SanCarlosApache Tribal Chairman, Terry Rambler, drew attention to a “major human rights violation” happening at #OakFlat, a sacred area within #Arizona’s #TontoNationalForest where #ResolutionCopper — a joint venture of two mining giants #BHPBilliton and #RioTinto — seeks to develop one of the largest #CopperMines in North America.
"'Apache people have lived, prayed and died at Oak Flat from time immemorial,'
Rambler said. 'Every person by virtue of being human has the right to practice their religion. By violating the rights of Apaches to practice our religion and maintain our spiritual health and wellbeing, the United States is failing to comply with international standards incumbent on them.'
"'By violating the rights of Apaches to practice our religion and maintain our spiritual health and wellbeing, the United States is failing to comply with international standards incumbent on them.'
"#Sámi youth from #Finland, #Sweden and #Norway called upon the Permanent Forum to urgently turn their attention to green transition projects in #Sápmi, the traditional territory of the Sámi, which stretches across the Nordic countries and into Russia.
"'In the name of saving the planet, the Nordic states are digging into our #mountains, drilling holes into our rocks, and making it impossible for Sámi to practice our #traditional livelihoods,' said Elle Rávdná Näkkäläjärvi, a spokesperson for the delegation. 'What is being shown to the world as a shift to sustainability is just #Nordic #colonialism hiding behind a new kind of mask.'
"In 2021, Norway’s Supreme Court stripped the operating license of the Fosen Vind project on Norway’s west coast after ruling it was built illegally and violated the Sámi’s human rights, and in January, a Swedish state-owned mining company found 'vast amounts of #RareEarthMinerals' it could mine to decrease dependency on #China. That mining, however, would 'devastate the local Sámi community,' the Sámi youth said.
"'We demand the Nordic states to immediately halt the ongoing human rights violations against the Sámi,' they said. 'We plead the global Indigenous community to notice this green colonialism.'
"The #GlobalIndigenousYouthCaucus — composed of Indigenous youth from all seven regions within the UN — also made waves on Tuesday, calling on the Permanent Forum and the General Assembly to assist in perpetuating ancestral knowledge by enforcing an intergenerational Indigenous advisory group for bodies of the United Nations. That advisory group could share and apply #TraditionaKnowledge and #IndigenousMethodologies within UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization.
"'Environmental destruction not only contributes to #ClimateChange , but also impedes on our ability to access to traditional knowledge, traditional medicines, sacred sites, and traditional practices,' The Global Indigenous Youth Caucus spokesperson said. 'As Indigenous youth, we are future bearers of knowledge, and we hold both the knowledge of our ancestors, and our descendants.'
"Indigenous Rights Governance partner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, Claire Charters, gave an intervention about the disproportionate risks #Māori people are facing in a changing landscape.
"'We must ensure that Māori are centered in the discussions on mitigation and adapting to climate change, and that Indigenous knowledge is more deliberately considered,' Charters, who is Māori, said. 'Climate change is accelerating the severity and frequency of major weather events. We must act with urgency to understand the risks and minimize the impact on our lands, territories, cultural infrastructures, and the overall well being of our Indigenous communities.'
"Climate will remain a central theme in the upcoming days of the UNPFII. Tomorrow, the Native Women’s Association of Canada will host a session on 'Indigenous Women’s Perspectives On the Burning Issues of Climate Change', and the International Indian Treaty Council will join with other Indigenous Peoples Organizations to discuss the contentious conservation goal of 30×30 and how it violates the rights of Indigenous Peoples."
#WaterIsLife #ClimateCatastrophe #LandBack #LandDefenders #Koyaanisqatsi #LifeOutOfBalance #SaveThackerPass #LandBack #IndigenousRights #ExtinctionRebellion #LastStand #TheStand
ICYMI - From 2021:
#Trump Administration Rushes to Trade Sacred #OakFlat to #RioTinto for Massive #Arizona #CopperMine
TUCSON, Ariz.— "The U.S. Forest Service has announced it will release a final version of its environmental analysis of the proposed #ResolutionCopper Project and Land Exchange on Jan. 15, a year ahead of schedule. The proposed #mine site is on #Apache sacred ground in the #TontoNationalForest in central Arizona.
"'Oak Flat is far too important to be sacrificed for corporate profit,' said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. 'We can’t let a corrupt president destroy this precious place on his way out the door. We’ll do everything possible to protect Oak Flat.'
"If the final environmental analysis is published, the federal government will have up to 60 days to transfer the land to international mining giant Rio Tinto, which plans to destroy it with a huge copper mine.
"The Oak Flat land exchange is one of several environmentally damaging projects around the United States that the Trump administration is rushing to approve before the president leaves office.
"Forest Service officials have admitted they are 'getting pressure from the highest levels' of the Trump administration to rush the final environmental impact statement to publication. Calendar records obtained by The New York Times show Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with Rio Tinto executives at least three times and made a site visit to Oak Flat in October that included a speech to promote the proposed mine. That trip came just a week after the Forest Service announced it was accelerating the timeline for publication of the final environmental analysis by a year.
"'This is the most corrupt presidential administration in modern U.S. history by any measure,' said Serraglio. 'The betrayal of Oak Flat and Native people is typical of the kleptocracy we’ve been watching for four years now. It’s sickening that the Trump administration would commit this kind of cultural genocide for the sake of private profit.”
Background
"Oak Flat has been used for centuries by Apache and other Native people for ceremony, sustenance and habitation, and ceremonies are still conducted there. Several tribes consider it sacred, including the nearby San Carlos Apache Tribe, which has opposed the proposed Resolution Mine for more than 15 years. Oak Flat is also a popular campground and recreation area in the Tonto National Forest with stunning scenery, world-renowned rock climbing, and important habitat for a diverse array of wildlife, including endangered plants, fish, snakes and birds."
#MAGA #ReligiousFreedom #Hypocrisy #SacredSite #SaveOakFlat #IndigenousRights #Apache #LandBack
via @arizonamirror
If #Hobbs is serious about protecting #groundwater, she must work to close the #mining loophole
by Russ McSpadden
February 12, 2024
"In her first State of the State address just over a year ago, Gov. #KatieHobbs was unequivocal about her commitment to tackling one of the state’s greatest challenges: our dwindling #water supply.
“Our groundwater should be used to support #Arizonans, not foreign business interests,” she said in that speech, referring to the Saudi Arabian conglomerate #Fondomonte. Over the past few years, Fondomonte has been pumping unlimited amounts of groundwater in La Paz County for alfalfa crops that it ships to feed cows on the other side of the earth.
"Though the Hobbs administration has already canceled one of Fondomonte’s four leases and says it won’t renew the others when they’re up this month, the problem doesn’t end with Saudi agriculture.
"It’s also mining companies that take advantage of loopholes in the state’s water laws to maximize profit at the expense of Arizonans — including mining giants #RioTinto and# BHP.
"Because of intense pressure from #lobbyists, when lawmakers adopted the much-heralded #ArizonaGroundwaterManagementAct in 1980 they exempted #mines from groundwater regulation, even when located in #ActiveManagement Areas — state-designated areas where groundwater pumping is controlled. That means that mines can pump unlimited amounts of water without paying the state a dime.
"This exemption was controversial in 1980. Today it’s existentially dangerous.
#ResolutionCopper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto and BHP, is a perfect example. Their proposed mine at #OakFlat — about 70 miles east of #Phoenix in the #TontoNationalForest and within the Phoenix Active Management Area — would pump 250 billion gallons of desert groundwater over the life of the project.
"That’s 17 million gallons of water every day for four decades.
"Under current water prices, that equates to $404 million worth of groundwater that Resolution Copper will get for free. Arizona won’t see a cent for it. And it’s more than likely that the copper ore from Oak Flat will be exported to China for smelting, again depriving local communities of economic benefit.
"This limitless pumping would happen even as the #megadrought that has plagued the #AmericanSouthwest for the past two decades is likely to worsen, straining the #ColoradoRiver and #Gila rivers even more and making us all more reliant on groundwater aquifers.
"If left intact, the mining loophole will facilitate construction of Resolution’s massive mine. The extreme water pumping from the #EastSaltRiverValley will lead to groundwater depletion and subsidence, threatening to deplete wells and damage infrastructure.
"The #CenterForBiologicalDiversity, where I work, has been fighting for decades to stop this mine, and Canadian mining company Hudbay’s disastrous plan to mine for copper in the #SantaRita Mountains south of #Tucson (in the Tucson Active Management Area).
"Both projects would devastate surrounding fragile #ecosystems, pushing endangered species like the #MexicanSpottedOwl closer to the brink of #extinction. They would also destroy sacred #TribalLands and gulp down massive amounts of water when other users are being asked to conserve.
"Handing mines unlimited access to Arizona’s precious desert groundwater would be an injustice to Arizona’s #Tribes and every resident of this state.
"Fortunately, Hobbs has the vision and courage to fight for a secure water future for Arizona. It is time for her to work with legislators to close the mining loophole in Arizona water law and subject mines to the same groundwater pumping limits that apply to other entities within the state’s Active Management Areas.
"We’re hopeful she will work to block #ResolutionCopperMine and other terrible mining projects like #Hudbay’s. At the very least, it’s time for mining giants to pay for the water they use just like the rest of us."
#WaterIsLife #HumanRightsViolations #CulturalGenocide #CopperMining #Mining #CorporateColonialism #EnvironmentalRacism #IndigenousNews #SaveOakFlat #IndigenousRights #Apache
Another reason NOT to mine in the American #Southwest! If we need "critical minerals," than RECLAIM THEM FROM CIRCUIT BOARDS AND BATTERIES!
Is the Southwest too dry for a mining boom?
Critical minerals for the #CleanEnergy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.
by Wyatt Myskow, Inside Climate News
Jan 28, 2024
"To understand mining in the U.S., you have to start with the #MiningLaw of 1872. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law as a way to continue the country’s development westward, allowing anyone to mine on federal lands for free. To do this, all one needs to do is plant four stakes into the ground where they think there are minerals and file a claim. Unlike other industries that make use of public lands—such as the oil and gas industry—no royalties are paid for the minerals extracted from the lands owned by American taxpayers.
"The #SanCarlosApache tribe has fought for years to stop #ResolutionCopper’s proposed mine. It would be built on top of #OakFlat, a #SacredSite to the Apache and other #Indigenous communities, and a habitat of rare species like the endangered Arizona #HedgehogCactus, which lives only in the #TontoNationalForest near the town of #Superior. The fate of the mine now rests with the #USDistrictCourt in Arizona after the grassroots group #ApacheStronghold filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing its development would violate #NativePeople’s religious rights.
"But for communities located near the mine and across the #PhoenixArizona metropolitan area, the water it would consume is just as big of an issue.
"Throughout the mine’s lifespan, Resolution estimates it would use 775,000 acre feet of water—enough for at least 1.5 million Arizona households over roughly 40 years. And experts say the mine would likely need far more.
"'By pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from the #EastSaltRiver alley, this project would make Arizona’s goal for #stewardship of its scarce #groundwater resources unreachable,' one report commissioned by the San Carlos Apache Tribe reads. In one hydrologist’s testimony to Congress, water consumption was estimated to be 50,000 acre feet a year—about 35,000 more than the company has proposed drawing from the aquifer.
"The Resolution #CopperMine isn’t the only water-intensive mining operation being proposed. Many of what the industry describes as 'critical minerals,' like #lithium and copper, are found throughout the Southwest, leading to a flurry of mining claims on the region’s federally managed public lands.
“Water is going to be scarcer in the Southwest but the mining industry is basically immune from all these issues,” said Roger Flynn, director and managing attorney at the #WesternMiningActionProject, which has represented tribes and environmental groups in mining-related lawsuits, including the case over Oak Flat."
Read more:
https://grist.org/drought/is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom/
#WaterIsLife #SaveOakFlat #Arizona #RioTinto #CopperMining #CorporateColonialism #ClimateChange #ExtremeDrought
ICYMI from 2023: #Biden Moves Forward With #Mining Project That Will Obliterate a Sacred #Apache Religious Site
In court, the feds said #OakFlat would be in the hands of mining giants #RioTinto and #BHP by early summer.
“This is a people matter. This is about the people and their freedom: freedom to be Apache, to be Indigenous, to be Americans.”
by Ryan Devereaux
March 22 2023
"Biden administration attorneys were in court this week to defend a mining project that will obliterate one of the most sacred Apache religious sites in the American Southwest.
"In oral arguments Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said it was nearing completion of an environmental impact study that will transfer land east of Phoenix to two of the world’s largest mining companies for the purpose of building one of the largest #copper mines on the planet. The massive project will hinge on the destruction of Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, a plateau otherwise known as Oak Flat, that is sacred to many Native American tribes, particularly the #SanCarlosApache, who consider the area among their most holy of sites.
"In a nearly two-hour hearing, an 11-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, peppered lawyers on both sides of the high-stakes legal fight with an array of complex case law questions raised by the project. Begun nearly two decades ago, the battle for Oak Flat sits at the intersection of Indigenous rights and dispossession, religious liberty, public lands and private sales, and a growing demand for so-called green energy solutions in an era of #ClimateCatastrophe.
"'As the court is aware, this case is not about an agency action. It’s about an act of Congress, in which Congress considered demands on a piece of property, balanced those interests, and made a decision,' said Joan Pepin, an attorney for the Forest Service, the agency that exchanged the land in a controversial deal nearly a decade ago. 'It decided that Oak Flat should be transferred to #ResolutionCopper so the third-largest copper ore deposit in the world can be mined.”
"The legislation in question — the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act — was the product of a proposal then-Arizona Sens. #JohnMcCain and #JeffFlake added to a must-pass defense authorization bill late one night in 2014. The addendum, known as a rider, incurred no congressional debate.
"Described by the San Carlos Apache as a 'midnight backroom deal,' the law transferred Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a British-Australian concern jointly owned by the extractive giants Rio Tinto and BHP, both of which had sought access to the wildly lucrative ore deposit for years.
"The project centers on a 2,200-acre area known as Oak Flat Campground, part of the #TontoNationalForest, that has served as a centerpiece of Apache #ReligiousCeremony and #cosmology since before settler expansion into the West. To access the ore underneath, Resolution Copper will use a technique known as block cave mining, which over several years will turn the sacred mountain into a two-mile-wide crater deep enough to hide a skyscraper.
"Initiation of construction hinges on the publication of an #EnvironmentalImpact study from the Forest Service, which, under the law passed in 2014, starts a 60-day countdown before the transfer of the land from the federal government to the mining company must happen.
"Luke Goodrich, the lead attorney for Apache Stronghold, an Arizona-based nonprofit that brought the lawsuit to stop the transfer, told the panel of judges that the destruction of Oak Flat was a direct and flagrant violation of the #ReligiousFreedomRestoratioAct. Violation of the statute requires the imposition of a “substantial burden” on a person or group’s ability to practice their faith.
"'A fine is a substantial burden, but here the government is doing something far worse,' Goodrich said, 'not just threatening fines, but authorizing the complete physical destruction of Oak Flat, barring the Apaches from ever accessing it again and ending their core religious exercises forever.'
"In January 2021, five days before leaving office, the administration of President Donald #Trump released a study supporting the creation of the #OakFlatMine. #ApacheStronghold had filed a federal lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the project.
"Unsuccessful in the attempt, the group filed an emergency appeal to the 9th Circuit the following month. Six hours before its deadline to respond passed, the Forest Service — by then, in March 2021, under the leadership of President Joe Biden — announced that it was withdrawing the environmental impact study and postponing the land transfer.
"A three-judge panel of 9th Circuit dismissed Apache Stronghold’s case in October 2021 but agreed to hear the case again before a full panel last winter. The unusual decision set the stage for Tuesday’s hearing.
"While the postponement of the project had given opponents of the mine a moment of respite in the long-running battle, the government’s testimony this week confirmed that the Biden administration is moving forward with a new environmental impact study and stands behind the controversial land swap."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2023/03/22/oak-flat-mine-arizona-biden/
#HumanRightsViolations #CulturalGenocide #CopperMining #Mining #CorporateColonialism #EnvironmentalRacism #IndigenousNews #SaveOakFlat
#NativeAmericanNews
Sacred #Apache land 'on death row' in standoff with foreign #mining titans
Tribal members in #Arizona are fighting to protect a piece of land they consider their "#MountSinai."
March 3, 2021
By Christine Romo, Cynthia McFadden, Kit Ramgopal and Rich Schapiro
SUPERIOR, Ariz. – "The rugged patch of land known as #OakFlat sits in the #TontoNationalForest. To the #SanCarlosApache Tribe, the 740-acre swath of oak groves and sheer cliffs is sacred ground, a place where they have gone for centuries to hold religious #ceremonies and communicate with the Creator.
"'No different than Mount Sinai,' said Wendsler Nosie Sr., former chairman of the San Carlos Apache.
"But Oak Flat is on a path to destruction.
"The land is scheduled to be transferred to #ResolutionCopper, a company controlled by two foreign mining giants, and turned into one of the largest copper mines in the country. The transfer was set in motion by an eleventh-hour provision slipped into a 2014 defense bill by Arizona's two Republican senators at the time.
"The poverty-stricken San Carlos Apache Tribe is fighting back in court, alleging the land belongs to the tribe and holds special religious significance. But even they worry the path to victory is slim. Resolution Copper has poured $2 billion into the project and has had the U.S. government on its side.
"The dispute has turned into a David-vs.-Goliath-style standoff, drawing in environmental groups and reviving centuries-old questions over land rights involving American Indians.
"'We're still trying to defend who we are,' said Nosie, who has been camped out at Oak Flat for more than a year as part of his mission to stop the mine.
"He sees the conflict as the latest skirmish in his tribe's long fight to maintain its ancient way of life.
"The San Carlos Apache reservation, about 130 miles east of Phoenix, is among the poorest in the country. Four of every 5 families with children live below the federal poverty line, and the unemployment rate is 30 percent, according to a University of Arizona study.
"The reservation is on the outskirts of Tonto National Forest, which is named for the Tonto band of Apaches who lived in the area until the U.S. Army cavalry forcibly removed them in the 1870s.
"Many Apaches became prisoners of war. An untold number refused to surrender and instead jumped to their deaths at a ridge now known as Apache Leap.
"The Oak Flat area has been considered a holy place for thousands of years, the home of spiritual beings known as Ga'an. Apaches go there to pray, to seek personal cleansing and to hold ceremonies that connect them to their ancestors. It is also a popular campground and hiking destination.
"But Oak Flat has long been prized by mining companies. Beneath its surface lies a fortune — one of the largest #copper deposits in the world.
"Oak Flat has been protected under federal law since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower decreed the area off-limits to mining. President Richard Nixon's Interior Department renewed the ban in 1971, but it added a loophole that allowed for the area to be mined if it was traded to private interests.
"A bill proposing to trade away the land had repeatedly failed to pass both houses of Congress since it was first introduced in 2005.
"But in December 2014, Sens. #JohnMcCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona slipped a last-minute rider into a must-pass defense spending bill. The move amounted to a bonanza for Resolution Copper, which is jointly owned by two mining titans — the #RioTinto Group of the U.K. and #BHPBillitonLtd. of #Australia.
"The bill transferred 2,400 acres of national forestland, including Oak Flat, to Resolution in exchange for 5,300 acres of private land owned by the mining company.
"Flake declined an interview request. McCain, who died in 2018, touted the project in a 2014 op-ed in The Arizona Republic, saying that the mine would generate jobs and boost the local economy and that the land would remain open to tribal members and others until the company breaks ground.
"The legislation stunned and saddened #NaelynPike, a San Carlos Apache tribal member who first testified before Congress in opposition to the arrangement when she was 13.
"'Our cultural identity is being stripped away from us,' said Pike, 21, who is Nosie's granddaughter.
"'No tree can live without its roots,' she said. 'And we're that tree.'"
#OakFlat #SaveOakFlat #IndigenousActivism #CulturalGenocide #EnvironmentalRacism #CorporateColonialism #CopperMining #Mining
#opcOnThisDay in 2017, I revisited the classic Fremont Saddle (aka Peralta) Trail in the Superstition Wilderness that I loved so much when I first started hiking in high school. ☀︎ #Arizona #Phoenix #hiking #Wilderness #TontoNationalForest
Protect #ChichilBildagoteel (#OakFlat)
"The #ApacheStronghold with #Indigenous allies and US and international supporters have tirelessly been working to stop a nearly 8-year-long process to exchange Oak Flat, a 2,200-acre site in #TontoNationalForest, to #ResolutionCopper, a subsidiary of #RioTinto and #BHP, which plans to construct one of the largest copper and ore #mining pits in the world."
#NativeAmericans #FirstNations #CopperMining #OpenPitMining #extractivism
Took the dog #hiking today on #nationalgoldenretrieverday
She LOVED!
Always a sweet treat to catch these falls after a bit of rain. Most of the times I've hiked this trail it's been dry. #waterfall #TontoNationalForest #hiking
