Oaks Arizona Apartments. -With eagle feathers and prayer, Western Apache runners set out on the road this month on about 80 miles of journey, trying to save their sacred lands so they are not quickly traced back to the copper mine by President Trump. This national battle of concern is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court on religious freedom.

The prayer run was to defend a 6-square-mile piece of land in the rural area outside Phoenix, Arizona, called Chi'chil Biłdagoteel or Oak Flat, where the tribe held rituals for centuries. The U.S. Forest Service, which owns the website, plans to trade a portion of it to a foreign-owned mining company, i.e., settle copper in exchange for other environmentally sensitive properties.

The battle of oak flats goes back 30 years when prospectors discovered large quantities of copper deposits underground. The proposed land swap approved by Congress in 2014 has been plagued by three lawsuits.

But on April 17, the Trump administration pushed the project forward without waiting for the court. The Forest Service announced that it will issue an environmental review on June 16, which will pave the way for land transfers. Mr. Trump issued an executive order to speed up the resolution on copper mine projects, part of a broader drive to open up more public land for drilling and mining.

The company predicts that copper mines will be the largest in North America, generating up to a quarter of our copper demand. But this will also destroy most oak apartments, leaving behind nearly 2 miles wide sewage puddles as deep as the Eiffel Tower.

Apache Enterhold, a nonprofit that aims to protect sacred lands including Oak Flat, won a May 9 probation. The High Court is expected to decide whether to proceed in early July.

Wendsler Nosie Sr., founder of the Apache stronghold, “We are grateful that the judge stopped the land on its tracks so that the Supreme Court has time to protect the Oak Apartments from destruction.”

The temporary victory at the Apache stronghold comes after a four-day trip from Oak Flat to the Federal Courthouse in Phoenix before the ban hearing. The prayer run attracted 60 runners to run separately. Eighty-five faith groups and 44 tribal states are supporting the Supreme Court appeal of the Apachi stronghold.

The Oak Flat fight gives a glimpse of the environment, public health and religious struggles, which could be exacerbated as Mr. Trump prioritizes the use of key elements of minerals such as copper, such as copper and renewable energy projects. The case could also set a legal precedent for whether religious freedom grants tribes the right to pray on the land of ancestors outside the reserved .

The Oak Flat case highlights some of the health problems of the federally owned Native American lands, from mining openings, from causing physical illnesses (due to water and air pollution) to psychological, mental and survival troubles.

During running roadside prayers and gatherings, members of the tribes provide an inner narrative of the damage suffered after the divine land was excavated with minerals, fossil fuels and heavy metals. They describe attacks on health, identity, religion and culture, which many call genocide.

At Oak Flat Camp, supporters of the Apache stronghold gathered the ceremony before the prayers began. Runners are lucky enough to have ashes to protect them on a route that will cross cacti, narrow hillsides, and even two combative drivers on city streets.

Among those who wear running shoes is Nizhoni Pike, 24, who is one of Nosie's granddaughters. Pike has a deep connection with Oak Flat, and her family held ceremonies and collected medicinal plants and food. For Parker, her pain was intrinsic, instant.

"This battle is of great significance," she said.

Oak Plat is a sunrise ceremony held by Pike when he was 13 years old, a kind of adulthood ceremony. During the ceremony, she built her own Wickiup, a traditional Apache Dome-shaped residence made of wood and thatch. Her body is painted with white clay, embodying a white painted woman with respected cultural figures. At the end of the four-day ceremony, involving dancing from morning to night, Pike walked into spring, washed the clay and returned it to the land. She recalled that the butterflies were filled with air. Her family named Nizhoni's Butterfly Canyon the area.

The sunrise ceremony created a rope that women are forever connected to their adult land, she said. The tribal elder told her that if the rope was cut off, the woman might get sick.

"I'm really worried about me and other girls who have sunrise dances," she said.

She said she was already feeling anxious and that things were getting worse due to the destruction and crisis of oak flats. When she returned to Butterfly Canyon a few years after the sunrise ceremony, spring was dry and a dead tortoise floated in a nearby swimming pool. She said she had seen big cracks on the earth there and the old oaks began to die.

“I’ve never had so much pain before,” she said.

She and other Apache members attribute dryness to resolution copper, which has been pumping water from a 7,000-foot-deep mining shaft on its adjacent properties for years.

Company spokesman Tyson Nansel denied in a statement that extracting water at that depth would affect surface water. He said the company would treat the removed water and then send it to farmers to grow crops so they can "pull out fresh groundwater by themselves." He said the company has made significant changes to the proposed mine to “reduce the potential impact on tribal, social and cultural interests.”

Running along, supporters gathered blessings from leaders of various faiths, some of whom sprinkled them with holy water.

They first stopped in the nearby town of Superior, part of the copper triangle, which has a long history. The mayor there supports the new mine, which the company said will create 1,500 jobs over its expected 60-year life span. However, Superior opponents warn that mining has made the area highly cancer incidence, toxic dumps and ghost towns.

In Mesa, runners stop at the forefathers of the people of Odham from where two local leaders support them.

Su: K Chu: Vak Fulwilder, a member of the Indian community of Salt River Pima-Maricopa, said the loss of land and identity is losing her people. Fuweid said her tribe suffered high suicide rates and her own son took his life in 2022.

"These sacred lands are disturbed - our spirits are painful and angry," she said.

During the prolonged drought, other proponents raised concerns about water volume and quality. According to the Federal Environmental Impact Statement and Hydrology Report, the plan for solution copper to perform block mining will require nearly 250 billion gallons of water, while natural water systems will "change forever and in many cases permanently destroyed."

Henry Muñoz, 69, who has worked at the mine for nearly 24 years and is now chairman of Superior's alliance of citizens and retired miners, noted that the mine will need scarce water to eliminate toxic waste and copper concentrate. The toxic slurry will be sent to tailings sites, where it needs more water so that the dust is full of arsenic and sulfur will not blow away. He noted that the solution copper is owned by foreign mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, so a lot of profits will go abroad.

Muniz added that with cuts from the Environmental Protection Agency and mine and workers’ safety agencies, “the company will have the freedom to control the environment and the public will have no recourse.”

The prayer ended in the heart of Phoenix City and incorporated into the parade to the court.

Cadence Hardy, 16, said she grew up in Black Mesa, Arizona, where coal mines deplete the aquifer and its springs, having a profound impact on the Hopi Island and Dinny communities. She said her great-grandfather worked in the coal mine there and suffered from lung disease and cancer.

She said she was inspired to support the Apache stronghold: “What stopped my family from happening to their family.”

At a federal court hearing on May 7, the resolution copper president Victoria's Peace Party faced a court filled with supporters of the Apache stronghold and testified that the oak plane began to sink for at least 16 years.

Nizhoni Pike later said she felt overwhelmed. Sixteen years are a short time and the consequences will be huge, she said. “My ancestors’ history can actually be erased.”

Parker said her eyes looked calm in court.

"Look at me," Parker recalled. "If you destroy the oak, you will destroy me."

If you or someone you know may experience a mental health crisis, contact 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting “988”.

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