Apache religious symbols are posted at Oak Flat Campground, a sacred site for Native Americans in Miami, Ariz.
Apache religious symbols are posted at Oak Flat Campground, a sacred site for Native Americans located 70 miles east of Phoenix, on June 3, 2023, in Miami, Ariz. Oak Flat is a site for coming-of-age rituals for Apache women, healing sweat lodge ceremonies, and other big and small moments in the lives of Natives. Ty O’Neil, Associated Press
By Readers' Forum

I just learned that in 2015, our federal government gave Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site in Arizona, to Rio Tinto, a foreign-owned mining company with plans to create a crater nearly two miles wide and over 1,000 feet deep, swallowing this hallowed land that was placed under federal protection by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

This is a travesty, not just that such a sacred place will be totally erased, but that our government gave the land to a foreign-owned company. The destruction hasn’t yet started, and I hope the Forest Service doesn’t transfer control over this sacred site, which would allow the project to move forward.

Fred Ash

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Sandy

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