Imagine that a giant mining company announces plans to dig down deep beneath the Vatican to extract precious minerals, collapsing St. Peter’s Basilica into a cavernous pit. While this unlikely scenario would be met with near-universal outrage, it’s effectively what’s happening in southeastern Arizona, to almost no national scrutiny.
Since at least 2014, the global mining corporation Resolution Copper has been trying to mine a stretch of sacred Apache land called Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, or Oak Flat. This sacred site has served the San Carlos Apache as a place to participate in ceremony and prayer, gather medicines and honor past Apache relatives buried within its boundaries for time immemorial. For the Apache, the issue at stake is nothing less than religious freedom.
As an Indigenous woman who grew up on the Santa Ana Pueblo reservation, in neighboring New Mexico, I can’t understate the threat of the mining proposal. Like many in my community, I was raised with both Catholic and Indigenous religious beliefs. If the Vatican were destroyed, my Catholic faith would suffer the grief of losing one of our most holy sanctuaries, along with its rich history, art and culture.
