Oak Flat
Defiling the place where the spiritual beings revered by the Western Apache live
“On April 17, 2025, the U.S. government announced its intent to fast-track the transfer of Oak Flat, a federally protected site within the Tonto National Forest, to Resolution Copper—a multinational mining company jointly owned by Rio Tinto and BHP. The company plans to extract copper using a method called block caving, which will cause the surface to collapse, forming a sinkhole approximately two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep, permanently obliterating the Oak Flat area.”
-Eileen Schuhmann, PCUSA Newsletter
“Fast-Tracked Destruction, Slow Justice: What’s Happening at Oak Flat”
The year I was born a good man, a war hero named Dwight, was our President. People claimed to like “Ike” back in 1955. And folks like seeing Burt Lancaster in brownface in the movie “Apache” just the year before. Way back in 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower, was smart enough to fling the borders of the Tonto National Forest out east to lasso and protect a beautiful patch of ground that the Apache revered as a sacred space called Chi'chil Bildagoteel.
Whites gave the place the inelegant name “Oak Flat”.
The Public Land Order, 1229, Ike signed declared Oak Flat off limits for mining due to cultural and natural value. Case closed. Promises made. End of story. If this were a nation of laws and honor.
Chi'chil Bildagoteel is their religious gathering site for coming-of-age ceremonies. Like your Temple for Bar Mitzvahs or your Cathedral for Confirmations. This oak forested site is their St.Peter’s Basilica.
In the seventies, Burt Lancaster starred in “Ulzana’s Raid”. In the action film the Chirichauhua Apaches were depicted as merciless and brutal. With nihilistic calvary forces in pursuit the film was an allegory for Vietnam.
At that time, under President Dick Nixon, the Department of the Interior renewed the mining ban at Oak Flat but opened a tricky loophole in the law. Get this diabolical betrayal. The land could not be mined if it’s under federal ownership, right? But with Tricky Dick’s magic loophole the land could be swapped to private concerns who wouldn’t be subject to any restrictions.
The rattlesnakes were inching closer.
Nearby is Ga'an Canyon. Ga'an Canyon is a place “where the spiritual beings that represent healing live”. Such beings may flee the injury that will be wrought agianst their land. An injury so grievous there will be no healing. The coming wound, a vast crater of slag and toxins will take epochs to heal.
About the same time the satirical masterpiece, “Little Big Man”, came out. It featured Dustin Hoffman and starred Chief Dan George, who won an Oscar nomination for his role as Old Lodge Skins. Here in the script he speaks of the differences between the whites and the native peoples, who he calls “human beings”.
“…human beings, my son, they believe everything is alive. Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone. And also the things from them... like that hair. The man from whom this hair came, he's bald on the other side, because I now own his scalp! That is the way things are. But the white man, they believe EVERYTHING is dead. Stone, earth, animals. And people! Even their own people! If things keep trying to live, white man will rub them out. That is the difference.”
The Apaches asked us to respect their religion. What were they expecting?We stole their land. We ran them down. We forced them to relocate. We forced them to relocate to unfamiliar land. And when they dared to retaliate we killed any Apache we crossed. We sent their children to boarding schools and hacked off their hair in schools that were reeducation camps.
In 2014 Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act that had some riders added on by Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake swapping Oak Flat with private land owned by Mining companies.
Both whores were serving mammon. Senator McCain took fat campaign contributions from the mining companies and Senator Flake was a shameless lobbyist for the mining company, off the grid, in little old Namibia.
And now with President Trump’s nudge, the Court of all Courts is granting Resolution Copper permission to transform Oak Flat into a mammoth hole. They will raze this Apache Mecca. They will flatten this Apache Temple of the Mount. They will obliterate the Angkor Wat of the Apache people.
Home to medicinal plants, rare goshawks, rare horned lizards and the occasional ocelot this spot is so beautiful one can understand upon seeing it why the Apache worship, revere and honor its beauty. And why its loss will be mourned.
That’s what we do. We exploit. We buy. We betray. We extract. We excuse. We leave behind holes. Holes in the earth and holes in our collective national conscience. Holes in the earth that fill with literal liquid poison and holes in our souls that fill with nihilism.
Only profit is sacred.
In a related story, Donald Trump citing Oak Flat, sold the American Section of the Normandy Cemetery to Resolution Copper to begin exploratory digging. The President says the remains of the American dead “are just bones. There may be gold jewelry among the bones.”
In a related story, citing Oak Flat, Donald Trump has ordered the Catholic Church to swap Mission San Xavier del Bac for an acre of Federal Land in Topanga so that Resolution Copper may begin exploratory digging under the altar section of the mission. Demolition of the mission is set , “to begin yesterday. Tear it down. The old church is a dump! There may be silver coins under there.”
In a related story, citing Oak Flat, Donald Trump offered the Lincoln Memorial to Resolution Copper to begin exploratory digging. The President says demolition is set to begin “yesterday. Abe was always so overrated. The resulting mile deep crater will be a monument to my genius. And to the great heart and the generous soul of the American people.”
REFERENCES:
https://environmentamerica.org/arizona/articles/save-arizonas-oak-flat-from-mining/
https://conservationalliance.com/grants/apache-stronghold/
https://www.indian-affairs.org/protectoakflat.html
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18042025/oak-flat-western-apache-resolution-copper-mine/
Mark Kelly: (520) 475-4177 or (202) 224-2235
Ruben Gallego: (520) 777-0400 or (202) 224-4521
CiscoMAGA: (520) 881-3588 or (202) 225-2542
I suggest you tell them: "Sell the American Section of the Normandy Cemetery to Resolution Copper to begin exploratory digging. Swap Mission San Xavier del Bac for an acre of Federal Land in Topanga so that Resolution Copper may begin exploratory digging under the altar section of the mission. Offer the Lincoln Memorial to Resolution Copper to begin exploratory digging. BECAUSE THEY ARE JUST AS SACRED AS OAK FLAT."
"Only profit is sacred." Well put, David. Sadly, the Supreme Court concurred when it ruled that profit was the sole function of corporations.
We have digressed from the Founding Fathers who feared corporations as much if not more than they feared kings. They were conservative. Today's power brokers are more akin to fascism by siding with corporations and depending on corporate money. The lesson Jesus tried to teach about money changers is yet to be learned.
Thanks for writing a really good piece, David.