About Us
Apache Stronghold, San Carlos, Arizona, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit community organization of individuals who come together in unity to battle continued colonization, defend Holy sites and freedom of religion, and are dedicated to building a better community through neighborhood programs and civic engagement. We work from San Carlos, Arizona connecting Apaches and other Native and non-Native allies from all over the world. Chi’chil Biłdagoteel (also known as Oak Flat) is a sacred site for our Apache people and many other Native Americans. This is a place that has special significance— a place where we pray, collect water and medicinal plants for ceremonies, gather acorns and other foods, and honor those that are buried here. We have never lost our relationship to Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, though the U.S. Government, at times in our history, has imprisoned us on our Reservations and not allowed us to come here. We have established an encampment to protect the Holy Ground at Chi’chil Biłdagoteel with its four crosses, representing the entire surrounding sacred area, including its water, animals, oak trees, and other plants central to our tribal identity. The four crosses are now part of the body of Chi’chil Biłdagoteel.
Once Again, The Fight for Religious Freedom in America Begins
Background on Oak Flat
Oak Flat is an area about an hour east of Phoenix that is a sacred site known to Apaches as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel. Home to a diverse desert ecosystem, it’s also currently federal land within the Tonto National Forest. In December 2014, in the 11th hour, Arizona Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake attached a land-exchange rider to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act Bill. The bill included the Oak Flat land exchange which gave multinational mining company Resolution Copper this area, located in Tonto National Forest, to build one of the world’s largest copper mines, the largest in North America. The mine is slated to permanently decimate Oak Flat and surrounding desert features. Apache and mining-reform activists had been successfully fighting the proposal for nearly a decade before this “backroom deal” was made in Congress. Currently the Forest Service is undertaking an environmental impact statement, a legally mandated assessment that must be completed before the land exchange is finalized. We are fighting to repeal this land exchange.
“They declared war on our religion. We must stand in unity and fight to the very end, for this is a holy war.” -Wendsler Nosie Sr., long time opponent of the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and former Chairman and Councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
Learn more: http://apache-stronghold.com/save-oak-flat-act.html
Make No Bones About It 