Apache Tribe Fights To Save Its Centuries-Old Holy Place | NBC News

[Music] what you're watching is part of a sunrise ceremony a four-day event when an apache girl becomes a woman the celebration here dates back centuries and is a core part of the apache faith but the ground it takes place on is at risk of being lost forever this is where it started for us in the beginning to return back to that place is very important to all of us we're still trying to defend who we are and also the holy sacred site that makes us who we are [Music] since the beginning of time this is where we are rooted to what is religion to what is the earth and how we came to be within our way of describing the religion it's our identity it makes us who we are this is oak flat it's towering rocks spires and oak groves nestled within arizona's tonto national forest just outside phoenix to the san carlos apache tribe this land is sacred a centuries-old holy ground for religious ceremonies and a place where generations like wenzler nosey his daughter vanessa and granddaughter naylan have come to connect with their ancestors and their creator it goes back to reminding everybody before any structures you know where were deities all around the world deities were in the area like this until someone made it comfortable convenient and put them in the church the deities i talk about is no different than any of the angels that everybody else talks about it's just that here we still live it we still recognize it we still hold it and it still exists the deities wenzler's speaking about are in danger oak flat is on a path to destruction why because beneath the earth lies one of the world's largest copper deposits a last-minute provision to a 2014 defense bill approved for the federally owned land to be transferred to resolution copper a mining company owned by two foreign powerhouses rio tinto and bhp resolution copper estimates that over 40 years it can extract 40 billion pounds of copper supplying up to 25 percent of u.s demand over that period and creating more than a thousand jobs the company's mining techniques will eventually cause the landscape to collapse creating a sinkhole nearly two miles wide and a thousand feet deep [Music] even though i may be here it'll feel like i'm gone because where do i touch where do i go for that sacred that holiness that conversation that we have as individuals to our creator protecting this land is in wenzler's blood his great-grandfather was an apache chief the fight to save oak flat has taken him across the country and for over the last year he's been camping out right on site willing to lay down his own life if that's what it takes we describe this as a murder a killing that's going to take place and i said if the same thing happens you know to us then so be it it's sad but sometimes it even takes death for people to understand what's wrong in this world but we cannot be afraid resolution copper has already poured two billion dollars into the plans they say they're working with tribal members to mitigate the mind's potential impact on places of importance we've avoided many many many sacred sites in sacred areas and not just that but we've looked at everything that sits within the landscape every plant every animal water feature has a story and has information and so when working with the tribal members we've really learned a lot about the data that can be gathered from all of those areas and it's really helped shape our mining plans the byte administration temporarily halted the land transfer days before it was set to take place in march saying it wanted to conduct a thorough review of the project but there's an ongoing lawsuit over the land transfer that accuses the federal government of violating the apaches religious freedom protections arguing that if oak flat is destroyed it will cut off the apache from their holy place in our way you can't separate the environment from our religion because we use our ceremonial items that are provided from mother earth here at oak flat you're able to be born here and you're able to die here so that means you can live your life out through here if it's gone we lose our religion we lose our identity what we're trying to fight is for humanity what we're trying to do is fight so that we all have a future that our children have a future that's what our ancestors did for us they died for us to be here they died for us to know what it is to be apache and so that's what we're trying to do no tree can live without its roots and we're that tree historically courts rarely rule in favor of indigenous or tribal groups in religious freedom cases in the case of oak flat u.s district judge stephen logan acknowledged the mind's critical impact on the apache people but still denied an emergency request to block the land transfer the apache stronghold group an organization created specifically to fight the land transfer is appealing the decision it's now before the ninth circuit generally under our federal religious freedom laws a claimant is able to bring a case if they can argue that the government has done something that essentially interferes with their ability to voluntarily practice their religion but in the context of indigenous sacred sites courts have come up with a different rule they have said we can only show a burden in these cases if government has done something like fine indigenous people or deny government benefits but if the government came and literally blew that site up such that they couldn't even physically visit it anymore courts have said no nothing to see there and as i hope is evident that sort of logic gets it exactly backwards his whole life he's been fighting for sacred sites and i remember him telling me what better way to go ness when you're doing creators work and i had to accept that because he is right but the human part of me do i want to lose my dad no but will i stand behind him beside him with him yes and if it takes us it takes us because that's what our ancestors did they were murdered so that we could exist and if that has to continue in this day and age then i know my dad is willing to give his life we all are hey nbc news viewers thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

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Keywords: Digital Original Video, Digital Docs, In Focus, Latest Stories, NBC News, Arizona, Native americans, native american tribes, Native american tribe, San Carlos Apache Tribe, San Carlos, Apache, Apache Tribe, NBC Exclusive, Oak Flat, native americans today, native americans, indigenous studies, native americans history, native americans of the southwest, US News

Id: TD2eToj86c0

Length: 8min 14sec (494 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021