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- By Levi Rickert
Opinion. With a deadline looming for the ownership transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week granted an emergency injunction that temporarily halted the transfer.
Within 24 hours, President Donald Trump weighed in on the debate with inflammatory, ill-informed rhetoric on social media. He called the appeals court a “Radical Left Court” for issuing the emergency injunction blocking the transfer of Oak Flat to foreign-owned mining interests.
In his post, Trump wrote “our country, quite simply, needs copper–and NOW.”
He went further, labeling those who oppose the mine as “anti-American,” suggesting they’re working against the interests of the United States.
Trump’s claim hinges on job creation and the importance of domestic copper production. But here’s the truth: Resolution Copper, the company poised to benefit from this land transfer, is not American-owned. It’s a joint venture between two of the world’s largest mining conglomerates — Rio Tinto of Australia and BHP of the United Kingdom.
Another fact you should know: The Chinese state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China, or Chinalco, is the largest single shareholder in Rio Tinto, with a 14.99% stake. Adding to the irony, China is also the world’s largest customer for copper, meaning this U.S. land transfer could ultimately enrich a Chinese state-owned firm and feed China’s supply chains.
Oak Flat, known as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel to the Apache, is far more than a piece of land sitting on copper deposits. It is sacred land—a place of prayer and ceremony. For generations, Apache people and other tribal people have visited Oak Flat to perform ceremonies tied to their faith and culture.
For Native Americans, it can be compared to what Jerusalem is to Christians or Mecca to Muslims.
The area, about 40 miles east of Phoenix, is a sacred ceremonial site for the Apache and listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property.
Resolution Copper plans to eventually turn Oak Flat into a massive mining crater roughly two miles wide and over 1,000 feet deep.
Resolution Copper’s proposed mine isn’t your average hole in the ground. The mining technique they plan to use — called block caving — would create a massive crater that would obliterate Oak Flat’s ancient oak groves, ceremonial grounds and natural springs. The site would be destroyed permanently.
This kind of irreversible ecological devastation cannot be justified by vague promises of economic prosperity. The people of Arizona, including many tribal and rural communities, know that the history of boom-and-bust mining economies leaves behind more ghost towns and polluted aquifers than long-term economic resilience.
Trump frames this as a jobs issue, but he fails to acknowledge that many of these mining jobs are temporary. What is permanent, however, is the destruction of the Apache people’s holy site.
The land swap was authorized by a last-minute addition to the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, pushed through by former U.S. senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans who represented the state of Arizona.
Since then, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Apache Stronghold and environmental organizations have spent years in court battling to protect Chi’chil Bildagoteel. The legal fight has seen wins and losses in their efforts to preserve the Oak Flat.
After last week’s injunction was announced, San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler weighed in on the situation. He said as first Americans, his tribe agrees on the importance of protecting America’s interest.
“Unfortunately, the president’s comments mirror misinformation that has been repeated by foreign mining interests that want to extract American copper,” Rambler said. “They will dig up $160 billion in copper and, under current law, pay almost no royalties. This proposed mine is a rip-off, will destroy a sacred area, decimate our environment, threaten our water rights and is bad for America.”
Rambler said he welcomes an opportunity to sit down with the Trump administration and provide factual information to protect American interests.
Trump is defending the transfer of sacred Native land to foreign companies — not for the good of the American people, but for the benefit of corporate shareholders overseas. And yet, he dares to call the Apache Tribe, Apache Stronghold and other Native defenders of Oak Flat “anti-American.” The hypocrisy is staggering.
When Trump dismisses the efforts to protect this sacred site as an obstacle to “American progress,” he fails to grasp the fundamental values on which this country was founded. Religious freedom is not a partisan ideal; it is a constitutional right. Yet when it comes to Native peoples, it is all too often treated as a footnote — something to be sacrificed in the name of resource extraction.
If Trump is so concerned about American copper supply, why support a plan where much of the mined copper could well be exported to China? That’s not just poor policy — it’s deeply dishonest politics.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.
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