Ramon Aquino shows solidarity during a rally at the Oak Flat Campground in the Tonto National Forest near Superior, Arizona May 30, 2015.
Members of the San Carlos Apache tribe, as well as other members of the Apache nation and Native American groups, have
exposed a national travesty on the part of Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans. At the very last minute, the two senators attached a policy rider to a must-pass spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. That rider ended 60 years of federal protection of Oak Flat, an ancient Apache holy place located within the Tonto National Forest, and handed the land over to a private, Australian-British mining concern. It's now a proposed site for a massive copper mining project. Members of the Apache tribe spoke with Think Progress about
their efforts to have this law repealed.
"It's our sacred land—it's where we come to pray," Carrie Sage Curley, an Apache woman, told ThinkProgress. […]
"I have a great-grandmother who is buried at Oak Flat, we want to respect her, let her rest in peace," said Sandra Rambler, an Apache woman from San Carlos, Arizona, told ThinkProgress. "My granddaughter had a [religious] dance there last year, and I’m hoping that my future grandchildren will dance there as well."
The religious connections to Oak Flat are so powerful that mining the land could constitute a violation of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. That law, which was passed in 1978, stipulates that the federal government has an obligation to protect the religious liberty of Native Americans—including guaranteeing access to sites they hold sacred.
"It's the same thing as a church," Curley said. "We protect these temples, why can't we do the same for our sacred land?"
They're getting some help from their elected representatives. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the "Save Oak Flat Act" last month to protect the land from further mining operations. While it has
24 bipartisan cosponsors, the chances of it getting onto the floor and to the Senate seem slim unless there is a massive public backlash. To that end, activists converged on D.C. this week in a series of protest actions, including a prayer service in front of the White House and a rally on the West Lawn in front of the U.S. Capitol. "'We have a freedom of religion,' Wendsler Nosie Sr., an Apache elder and former tribal chairman, told the crowd. 'Congress shouldn't ignore rights of people ... It's not right. Congress should repeal the law.'"