Oak Flat, known as Chich’il Bildagoteel in the Apache language, is a beautiful place, where the Pinal Mountains rise out of the Sonoran Desert to the west, a plateau of oak forest, spring water, and shallow canyons guarded by standing boulders. For hundreds of years the local Apache would gather acorns and other food and water and hold ceremonies and social events here, and it has been a campground as part of Tonto National Forest from the 20th century.
As you may have heard, this land was recently sold to a Resolution Copper/Rio Tinto, a multinational mining company, by the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange, which was slipped into a defense bill in late 2014 by Senator John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake, both from Arizona. It is said that one of the largest copper ore deposits in North America lies below Oak Flat, and so Resolution has proposed a giant block-cave mine which would put a crater from Apache Leap to the west to Ga’an Canyon to the east (called “Devil’s Canyon” by the white colonizers) and also put a tailings pond west of the town of Superior, polluting an area miles wide at least. Now quite a bit of mining has already happened around this part of Arizona. Several open-pit copper mines exist to the south and east, all owned by multinational corporations such as ASARCO (the Ray Mine) and Freeport McRoran (Miami). Nearby towns like Hayden exist now as only a shell of what they were, before pollution, and mainly hold employees of the mines with little hope for future growth. Most of the money made from this mining seems to be going elsewhere than to the tribes and local non-natives.
Ga’an Canyon in fall
Emery Oak trees (Chich’il) have the acorns which are ready to eat when harvested, and have helped sustain the Apache who have come here for generations.
one of the rock houses in the shallow canyon, close to the spring and petroglyphs
There is much indigenous history here at Oak Flat. In one of the shallow canyons are petroglyphs that have been dated at 800 years old. Above are the deer and stylised mountain lion, some of the more clear markings. During the US military attacks on the Apache in 1870 when the land was being taken as part of “Arizona Territory” partly for mining and resource extraction, 80 Apache jumped off the cliffs to the west to their deaths rather than suffer under captivity. The cliffs are now known as “Apache Leap.”
Apache Stronghold year anniversary march, February 25-27, 2016
The march started at Old San Carlos on the San Carlos Apache reservation and would go for over 50 miles through the mining towns of Globe and Miami up to Oak Flat
I camped at Oak Flat and joined on the 27th for the section from Globe along US-60. Along the way, I met Apache elder Marvin Anderson, and helped him as he walked with his cane and told me he used to carry acorns back to San Carlos, many times, along this same road. Twice, the group stopped for drumming and dancing, with wise words from tribal leader and chairman Wendsler Nosie and praise for the runners who would go between Miami and Oak Flat. We all marched together into Oak Flat following a call from Marvin, and it was all very powerful.
marching with the group, wearing our Oak Flat shirts, photo credit Natalie B. Nguyen
Here are some photos from different visits to Oak Flat and hikes to Ga’an Canyon and the petroglyphs and rock houses, all part of the land that would be destroyed in the block cave mining operation.
Current Magma Mine small mining operations look like this:
If the mine is built, it would be a mile-deep hole, centered under the Queen Creek spring and petroglyphs. It would destroy the water supply and look similar to this – the ASARCO/Ray open pit mine about 15 miles to the south:
visit http://www.apache-stronghold.com/ for more information and photos!
There are many more in-depth articles and pages about Oak Flat from tribal, environmental, and political perspectives. Here are links to a few of them:
https://survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com/apache-resistance-to-copper-mining-in-arizona/
http://tucson.com/news/local/superior-mine-opponents-say-they-will-continue-to-protest/article_edc84b51-dfab-5932-b4f7-8525df9518fc.html
https://www.facebook.com/Saving-OAK-FLAT-Campground-202998493114242/
(facebook page run by locals, often updated)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/03/photos-apaches-march-to-oak-flat-2016.html
Currently there are efforts to repeal the SE Arizona Land Exchange by way of the “Save Oak Flat Act” in congress and also to designate Oak Flat as the Chich’il Bildagoteel Historic Area which hopefully will stay active and keep the area from being destroyed.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2811
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/03/03/video-nps-comment-period-oak-flat-historic-designation-ends-march-4-163603
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29428-the-apache-way-the-march-to-oak-flat
This more personal article, from March 2015, talks about the initial march and “all nations gathering” a year ago and features central figures of the Apache Stronghold: San Carlos Apache chairman Wendsler Nosie, sr; Vansler “Standing Fox” Nosie, medicine man Tony Logan “Rolling Fox” who leads the drum and songs, and Naelyn Pike, Wendsler’s teenage daughter. I am proud to say I have met all of these folks except for Naelyn, and they are wonderful people.
So…I am suggesting you, readers, go visit the Oak Flats if you are in the Phoenix or Tucson areas or are visiting the southwest. While camping there, I met a couple traveling from Provence, France, who thought it was a pretty place to camp off US-60 and had no idea about the proposed mine. Another time, the Dine’ Relief Initiative group brought a truckload of food and water as donation to the camp from Albuquerque, a 7 hour drive.
It’s free to camp, and big enough to find solitude or community, which ever you may prefer.
And if you enjoy it there, as I do, pass the word on to make sure our beautiful natural lands and cultural sites are taken no more and sold in the name of greed.
Here is a song I created about Oak Flat using a scrap metal percussion instrument and referencing some of the protest chants like “water is life” and “keep calm, medicine 2 strong.”
Tranquility in the moonlight….
“We must all decolonize from the intent on how America was founded to enable us to call America home.”
-Wendsler Nosie, sr.
arianna's creative travels 