Apache tribe members and allies rally to save Oak Flat from Rio Tinto's copper mine
Video: highlights of the speakers 5 min 31 sec
On the 11th of March, members of the Apache nation and their allies rallied on Capitol Hill to support the Save Oak Flat Act. This bill would revoke the 2015 "stealth approval" of a land transfer to make possible the proposed Rio Tinto/Resolution Copper copper mine would would destroy Apache sacred land at Oak Flat.
In 2015, Senators Flake and McCain slippped an "Oak Flat land exchange" rider into the annual National Defense Authorization Act to transfer this sacred land to Australian-owned Rio Tinto's Resolution Copper subsidiary. Resolution Copper wants to replace Oak Flat with a crater 2 miles wide and 1,000 feet deep, and ship the copper ore to China for refining.
On the 12th of March, not a single Republican dared to show up at the subcommittee hearing for the Save Oak Flat Act. This was posted to Twitter by "Natural Resources Committee" @NRDems:
https://twitter.com/NRDems/status/1238180006217515009
"Generations of Native Americans have celebrated traditions at Oak Flat in central Arizona.
Now a copper mine threatens to destroy it.
We held a hearing today on what happens when corporate greed endangers sacred sites.
No Republicans showed up."
