Will the Supreme Court Save an Apache Sacred Site?

Tribal members perform a variety of rituals in Oak Flat that cannot be performed anywhere else, such as prayer rituals, healing ceremonies, and rites of passage. “One example is the Sunrise Ceremony, a multi-day celebration marking an Apache girl’s entry into womanhood,” they told the justices. “To prepare, the girl gathers plants from Oak Flat that contain ‘the spirit of Chi’chil Biłdagoteel.’ As she gathers, she speaks to the spirit of Oak Flat, expressing gratitude for its resources.”

Lying beneath Oak Flat is a resource that is of particular interest to multinational corporations: copper. Geological engineers estimated that the deposit, which was first discovered in 1995, could amount to roughly two billion tons of the metal. Rio Tinto and BHP, two Australian mining companies, formed a joint venture named Resolution Copper shortly after the discovery to acquire the land and extract the copper from it.

After years of wrangling between federal lawmakers and Resolution Copper, Congress approved a land swap in 2014 that would transfer roughly 2,400 acres in and around Oak Flat to the company in exchange for other lands elsewhere. While the law required the mining company to work with the tribes on various access and protection measures, it ultimately envisions the site’s destruction. Extensive excavations will eventually cause Oak Flat’s surface to distort and sink until it forms a “large surface crater,” according to Congress.