⚠️URGENT: Sacred lands in Arizona to be destroyed

 

Decades of profit-first policy have privileged corporate interests over Indigenous rights — and it could happen again.

Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District of Arizona, a high desert oasis sacred to multiple Indigenous tribes and commonly known as “Oak Flat,” is under extreme threat. Rio Tinto, a UK-Australian mining company — notorious for polluting Papua New Guinea, causing an environmental disaster in Brazil that left 19 dead, and blowing up Juukan Gorge, a treasured 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site in Australia — would destroy the area by carving out a 1,115-foot deep, 1.8 mile-wide crater for strip mining.

A coalition of Western Apache tribes and their allies is taking their case to the Supreme Court after the Ninth Circuit narrowly ruled against them earlier this year. It’s the necessary next step in this fight. Still, we’ve seen the Court fail to protect Native rights and the environment before — that’s why we need to work every possible angle to #SaveOakFlat.

As the litigation continues, we’re piling the pressure on Congress to pass Rep. Raúl Grijalva's Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act. This bill would reverse the land transfer and permanently protect the area — and building enough support to pass it in the House is one more way to ensure Oak Flat remains sacred and pristine for generations to come.

Can you take two seconds to act to uphold tribal sovereignty and permanently protect this sacred space? Urge your Rep. to support and pass this legislation now.

ACT NOW

You might be asking: Why is Win Without War working on this issue? What’s the connection to national security? That’d also be a good question for Senator John McCain. He inserted a midnight rider on the land swap in a 2015 must-pass defense funding bill — the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That provision upended a prohibition on mining in the region that President Eisenhower put in place decades earlier.

Using “defense” bills to shoehorn in policies that make our communities and our planet less safe is, unfortunately, a well-worn tradition. House Republicans used the same playbook again just last month, inserting MAGA provisions on everything from abortion access to building Confederate monuments in this year’s NDAA.

These attempts to undermine human rights and social justice in the name of “national security” remind us how intertwined our collective fights are. Whether it’s reproductive health, racial justice, voting rights, environmental protection, accountability, peace, or Indigenous rights, the fights to protect our shared humanity are one and the same.

That’s why Win Without War joined the fight to save Oak Flat, starting in 2020, when Trump fast-tracked the land transfer that would turn thousands of acres of land over to a mining conglomerate with a devastating track record. But others have been fighting this fight, and others just like it, for centuries.

For too long, U.S. foreign policy has exploited Indigenous people and their lands. It happened when the United States waged an all-out war on Native peoples across the country. It happened when the government instigated coups against Indigenous leaders in Latin America. It’s still happening. Can you help build our power to change this broken status quo?

Time is running out. Contact your Representative today and demand they pass the Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act now.

So far, the pressure of tens of thousands of activists (that’s YOU) and local Indigenous partners has kept Rio Tinto’s mining project on pause. We’ve gained precious time to deepen our work to ensure that Oak Flat remains sacred and pristine for future generations.

With the clock ticking, it’s time to work even harder. Please sign our petition and send your Representative an urgent message today.

Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team

 

 

 

---

Donate

A U.S. foreign policy rooted in human rights and justice won’t happen overnight. If you’re with us for the long haul, consider a monthly donation.

Win Without War is a 501(c)4 organization and donations are not tax deductible. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please visit the Win Without War Education Fund here.

© Win Without War 2021
1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 656-4999 | info@winwithoutwar.org