The San Carlos Apache Tribe filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Oct. 15 supporting the nonprofit activist group Apache Stronghold’s request for a hearing of its lawsuit seeking to protect sacred Oak Flat from being destroyed by the proposed Resolution Copper Mine.
“We stand in solidarity with Apache Stronghold in fighting for the right of Apache and all Native Americans to freely practice their religious beliefs and request the Supreme Court to hear this case and rule in favor of protecting sacred Oak Flat from destruction,” said San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler.
“Oak Flat lies within the Tribe’s ancestral territory and is central to traditional Apache religion as the home of Apache deities and the only place where Apache can practice unique ceremonies,” the Tribe’s amicus brief states.
“Oak Flat’s destruction will forever end important religious ceremonies, sever Tribal member’s ties to Oak Flat’s deities, and substantially burden traditional Apache religion by irreversibly stripping Tribal members of the right to freely practice their religion,” the brief states.
The Tribe’s filing notes that many Native religious rituals are exclusively associated with individual sacred places that cannot be transferred to another location. Oak Flat is located within the federally owned Tonto National Forest about 70 miles east of Phoenix.
Resolution Copper, which is owned by Anglo-Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP, plans to construct an underground mine a mile beneath the surface that will cause Oak Flat to collapse into a 1,000-foot-deep crater approximately two miles in diameter. The mine will obliterate many sacred sites including springs that hold deep meaning in Apache traditional religion.
Apache Stronghold filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 11 asking it to overturn a 6-5 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear Stronghold’s appeal.
The Ninth Circuit appeals court ruled the destruction of Oak Flat does not create a “substantial burden” on the exercise of religious freedom because the ordinary meaning of “substantial burden” does apply in cases involving the “government’s management of its own land and internal affairs.”
“We strongly believe that the destruction of Oak Flat clearly creates a substantial burden on Apache people to freely practice their traditional religion, regardless of whether the federal government owns the property,” Chairman Rambler said. “The federal government has a trust responsibility to protect Native American sacred places. It is now time for the Supreme Court to enforce that responsibility in this case. Furthermore, as we note in our brief, a threat to one religion is a threat to all religions.”
Numerous other religious organizations and secular groups including four states have also filed amicus briefs supporting Apache Stronghold’s petition.
A federal law passed in December 2014 requires Oak Flat to be traded to Resolution Copper within 60 days of publishing final environmental studies on the impact of what would be one of the largest copper mines in the world. The Trump Administration published the Final Environmental Impact Statement during its last week in office in January 2021.
The Biden Administration subsequently rescinded the FEIS on March 1, 2021. The Biden Administration states it took this action “to provide time for the Forest Service to fully understand concerns raised by Tribes and the public and the project’s impact to these important resources.”