Photo by Eileen Schuhmann.
Chíchʼil Bił Dagoteel or Oak Flat in English, is a sacred site for the San Carlos Apache and is under threat of destruction by Resolution Copper, a United States subsidiary of the Australian mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto.
Resolution Copper plans to use block cave mining techniques, which will cause Oak Flat to collapse into a crater approximately two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep. The mining operations will have major impacts on the water supply of the area, impacting water accessibility, causing contamination, and inevitably leading to worsening drought conditions.
The destruction of Oak Flat, which is about 100 miles north of Tucson, will also prevent the San Carlos Apache and other Indigenous peoples from worshiping at the sacred site in their traditional ways.
Oak Flat is just one of many mining projects planned for public lands in the U.S. where a mining boom is underway to supply the critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries and other technologies in the Green Economy.
We cannot allow the Green Economy to create sacrifice zones in much the same ways as the Fossil Fuel Economy, sacrificing the rights of our Indigenous siblings to clean water, air, land, culture and spirituality; and destroying the environment under the guise of saving us all from Climate Change.
Take Action Now! Let your Senators and Representatives know that you support and urge them to sponsor the Clean Energy and Mining Act of 2023 and the Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act today.
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