‘Protect Oak Flat’ Sign at Oak Flat campground
Many of us who are descendants of settlers struggle with how to meaningfully and appropriately participate in working for justice for Indigenous Peoples.
One way is to actively engage in solidarity through physical presence and accompaniment. Several members of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, as well as other nominees, attended a brief training presented by Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) staff in September of 2023 that sought to equip volunteers to accompany Apache Stronghold at Oak Flat.
Since then, members of the 2023 training, and those from a training in July of 2024, have formed the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Oak Flat Accompaniment (COFA) team.
Training for COFA is a process of mutual discernment. Current teammates describe it as an active, experiential learning opportunity. Training focuses on preparation for collaborative teamwork with cultural sensitivity and awareness of white supremacy, power and social structures, and preparation for presence that offers strong advocacy and protective accompaniment.
Training also includes an opportunity for learning about Oak Flat, its history and current status, learning from Apache siblings, and a visit to Oak Flat.
Background on Oak Flat
Oak Flat is a high mesa west of the San Carlos Apache Nation’s land and about an hour’s drive west from Phoenix. The Apache and a number of other tribes recognize Oak Flat as a holy place. It is an ancient burial ground and a site for religious ceremony.
In 1995, a massive copper-ore deposit nearby attracted the attention of multinational mining companies. In a dirty backroom deal in 2014, Congress promised Resolution Copper, jointly owned by BHP and Rio Tinto, the rights to the land. The planned copper mine would create a huge crater and wipe Oak Flat off the map—along with old-growth trees and ancient sacred petroglyph-covered rocks.
Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Apache and other native and non-native activists, is resisting the multinational mining corporation and their plan to profit through destruction of the sacred site. To protest the proposed mine, Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of the San Carlos Apache Nation and the COFA team have established a presence at Oak Flat, covering the land in prayer and also monitoring the mining company and their activities in adjacent land.
(See below for more resources)
Status of Court Case
On September 11, 2024 Apache Stronghold and their lawyers at Becket Law filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington D.C. The first round of amicus briefs in support of the Supreme Court taking this case were submitted in October, and we await the court’s decision on whether they will take this case. We expect a decision sometime in early December.
Court history:
To protect Oak Flat from the land transfer, Apache Stronghold sued the United States government in federal court. They argued that the destruction of sacred land violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the 1852 treaty that promised the U.S. would protect Apache land and “secure [their] permanent prosperity and happiness.”
However, the court declined to halt the land transfer. Becket Law (Apache Stronghold’s counsel) appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Feb 24, 2021), but the Ninth Circuit also declined to protect sacred land (June 24, 2022). In November 2022, the Ninth Circuit agreed to rehear the case “en banc”––meaning in front of a larger panel of eleven judges.
On March 1, 2024, the Ninth Circuit again sided against Apache Stronghold. Five judges dissented from the ruling, writing that the majority “tragically err[ed]” in allowing the government to “obliterat[e] Oak Flat” and prevent the “Western Apaches from ever again” engaging in their religious exercise” (Becketlaw.org).
When Apache Stronghold asked the full Ninth Circuit Court to rehear the case in April of 2024 the court denied this request. This led to filing an appeal before the United States Supreme Court on Sept 11th.
The following reflections and comments come from interviews with Kristi Zabriskie and Theo Kayser, who were trained for accompaniment in September of 2023. They have both since accompanied Apache leaders and the Land at Oak Flat.
Both interviewees are descendants of non-Indigenous settlers and are involved in religious organizations. Krisit is a Chaplain in Minneapolis, MN, and Theo is a Catholic Worker in St. Louis, MO.
What is the role of Oak Flat teammates? What does it mean to “accompany”?
Newly trained volunteers become part of theCOFA team working alongside either someone more fully trained by CPT or another volunteer already experienced in Oak Flat accompaniment.
In addition to participating in the Coalition’s organizing for protection of Oak Flat, the team’s main tasks include providing a protective presence for Dr. Wendsler Nosie, leader of Apache Stronghold. Theo said that in public they “kept an eye out—on the lookout so Wendsler could be more present to his tasks”.
Kristi offered that the role involved listening, offering security by being aware of surroundings and watching for suspicious behavior. Although she never felt in danger, she sometimes stood between Dr. Nosie and others or stood behind Dr. Nosie as an unexplained, anonymous protector.
The teammates accompanied the Land by spending time walking and praying at Oak Flat. Theo said, “It was perhaps quieter than I thought…there were some days of hanging out, being in prayer, walking…and building relationship with the land, observing the mining folks nearby where they were already removing ground water.”
He described the role as “maybe like being a lifeguard–quietly observing until something is needed.”
Daily tasks include taking prayer walks and talking with campers. Accompaniment volunteers are also asked to write and reflect during their time on team, and share these reflections on the Coalition to Dismantle blog or social media channels.
What was the experience of accompaniment like?
Theo said, “I think I’m smarter by being able to be around Apache Stronghold folks and seeing prayerful resistance…I left richer by being there, smarter and more empowered. Being with Apache Stronghold with their dedication to the land and the struggle, I felt very lucky to be in the room and have those conversations.”
In terms of Oak Flat itself, he said, “Oak Flat is very beautiful, it’s not difficult to feel the sacredness of the land there. It left an impression. Being there on the land…I have more connection to the place…l prayed, walked, heard coyote howling at night, saw how rocks glow, the beauty of sunrises and sunsets. The importance of saving these places hit my soul.”
Kristi offered some insights about what she learned and how she grew through the experience. Speaking of the need to watch for danger, she said “…it was very exhausting to be suspicious all the time. Let’s categorize that as white supremacy privilege. I’m understanding now how sheltered I’ve been as a white Christian woman. I’m more aware how threatened people of color feel. It’s disillusioning, disorienting; systems we feel we can trust are by no means to be trusted by Indigenous Peoples. The level of oppression by the US system is staggering.”
She also spoke of having new insights through the experience of being on the land. “Copper and lithium are believed to be essential to green energy, but that’s a lie. Camping brought home to me the realization that we like to have hot showers, but we don’t need them. What we need is our planet. If we keep decimating Mother Earth, there will be no planet for our great-grandchildren. We do not need to consume at the rate we are.”
What was your motivation? Why should others get involved and contribute?
Kristi said that the term “moral injury” fits with her experience of settler mentality. She feels moral injury from the narratives handed down to her about who Indigenous Peoples were and are. These narratives do not fit with her experiences and the inconsistency prompted in her a search.
“There’s so much lament when we find that the histories we were taught are wrong. I was in that space of lamenting for so long. And then to hear that Wendsler is inviting us to be present, to accompany him, I felt some relief. Finally there is someone who believes and is willing to try to trust us.”
She suggests that this is very different than when awkward midwestern people say “poor people…let us help you” or when non-Indigenous people want to fix things by moving too quickly to join with Indigenous Peoples and build relationships. Because of our traumatic shared history, “…it will take a long, long, long time to build trust.”
She receives the invitation from Dr. Wendsler Nosie and Apache Stronghold as a gift and an honor. “I felt honored to get to be in the role that I was. I was honored by the Coalition, by the Nosie family, to be able to be present. Honored to be welcomed and trusted.”
Theo noted that as the descendant of settlers, he laments about what happened historically when his settler ancestors stole land, when tribes experienced forced removal, and when Indian boarding schools sought to “rid the land of Indians”. But the current plans for confiscation of Indigenous Land are eerie echoes of those earlier attempts to destroy native peoples and places. The same types of things are happening now.
We’re living in a time when “we are called to make a choice, to be on the right side of history.” With the support of the government, corporations and multinational mining companies want to extract minerals from land occupied by tribes. In turn, this mining is predicted to ruin ground water for tribes as well as all peoples living in the area.
When Theo was accompanying the land, he said that “paired with a certain sense of awe and beauty, there’s a realization that there are people actively trying to destroy this”.
Resources for further understanding:
Apache Stronghold v. United States. The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, n.d. (see becketlaw.org)
Apache-Stronghold: Defending Holy Sites website (see apache-stronghold.com)
Resolution Copper’s Mine at Oak Flat: Myths vs. Facts. Apr. 8, 2024, HECHO.org
Ada Schmidt-Tieszen spent 35 years as a social work faculty member at Bethel College in North Newton,
Kansas. She has an undergraduate degree from Bethel College, an MSW from the University of Denver,
and a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Kansas. More recently, she has become involved in
the Indigenous Justice Task Group at Bethel College Mennonite Church and in the Story Sharing
Committee of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery.
Deborah Yoder is the Communications Manager for the Coalition. Last year (2023-2024) she served as the Coalition’s Communications Coordinator and Indigenous Solidarity Organizer through Mennonite Voluntary Service. Deborah currently lives on the traditional lands of the Peoria, Miami, Kickapoo, and Shawnee in Bluffton, Ohio. Deborah graduated from Bluffton University in May of 2023 with a degree in English.
Interested in being part of the COFA team?
Our upcoming COFA training dates: February 18-23, 2025 in Tucson, AZ. Travel days would be the 17th and 24th, please consider whether these dates would work for you and your schedule.
For more information and to receive an application email Deborah Yoder (deborah@dismantlediscovery.org).
Want to support the COFA team?
Even if you can’t volunteer as a COFA team member, you can support our work through prayer and donations. To support upcoming trainings, designate your donation for “Oak Flat Accompaniment Training.” To support COFA team members on the ground at Oak Flat, designate your donation to the “COFA Fund.”
Donation instructions
Paypal (debit/credit)
Please go to our Paypal donation page to give through our fiscal sponsor, Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference. Through PayPal’s drop-down menu, you will have the option of designating your donation for “Oak Flat Accompaniment Training” or “COFA Fund.”
Note: Although Paypal does not name Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition as a recipient in the donation process, all money given through this button (minus Paypal fees) will support our work.
Checks
Donations by check should be made out to Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference. Please mark “Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery” along with the name of the fund you would like to contribute to in the memo line.
Ex: “Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery – COFA Fund”
Mail checks to:
Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery
3258 Thompson Ave.
Alameda, CA 94501