Thread by @ministter

If we are going to remember the Indigenous People on this Thanksgiving (Thankstaking), let’s honor also those confronting oppression TODAY. I am in solidarity with @RevDrBarber as he joins Wendsler Nosie & the Apache Stronghold.

- M

#OakFlat #Indigenous

news.azpm.org/p/news-article…

Apache Leader prepares to die in order to protect Sacred Land: in San Carlos, Arizona.

San Carlos, AZ – Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II A national human rights leader and Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign as well as other religious leaders will be joining Apache Leader

Wendsler Nosie Sr as he begins the journey from the reservation to his ancestral homeland of #OakFlat. He will not allow the land to be desecrated by Resolution Cooper which seeks to create a two mile crater a thousand feet deep in order to extract minerals from the earth.

Rev. Dr. Barber will be joined by Rev. Dr. John Mendez, former leader within the National Progressive Baptist Convention, as well as Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner, a Unitarian Universalist minister, among others.

Who: Wendsler Nosie, former chair of the San Carlos Apache Nation, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, Rev. Dr. John Mendez, Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner, Apache leaders and other religious leaders

What: Nosie will return to Apache holy site at Oak Flats and will not leave, even if it means he has to die, if Resolution Copper is given rights to destroy the place.

When: Thursday, November 28th Press availability

Where: San Carlos, Arizona

Background:

After years of unsuccessful negotiations and a corruption scandal that landed one Arizona Congressman in prison, Senator John McCain added a last-minute rider to the 2014 defense spending bill, giving Resolution Copper rights to dig beneath Oak Flat and mine

copper ore located thousands of feet below the surface. Resolution’s parent company, Rio Tinto, has invested more than a billion dollars in the project, which aims to extract ore from the bowels of the earth, where temperatures are estimated to be 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

The proposed extraction process would use as much water as a small city—6.5 billion gallons annually, which would be polluted with sulfuric acid to process the ore. In the end, Resolution acknowledges, a crater two miles wide and a thousand feet deep would replace the holy ground

where Nosie’s ancestors have come to pray for thousands of years.

To Nosie, water is life—and the waters at Oak Flat are the source of all life. The only thing standing between Resolution Copper and the mining rights they have already been granted is an

Environmental Impact Statement, which must be certified by the federal government before private companies can begin mining public lands. During the required public comment period this fall, Wendsler Nosie argued that, while the environmental impact of this proposed project would

be devastating, the bigger issue is in fact religious liberty. “The Oak Flat Draft Environmental Impact Statement does not address the current religious significance and the value given to Oak Flat by the Apache people, Yavapai people, Aravaipa and many others," Nosie and the

current San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler wrote in a joint statement. "Native American Religion has been excluded from the areas of concern and value.”

“As Christian ministers who are committed to the freedom of religion for all people, we call on all people of faith to

stand with Wendsler Nosie and the Apache Stronghold before it is too late. To preach the resurrection of Jesus is to proclaim that no one and no one’s tradition must be crucified for the greater good. We can protect the waters, protect Oak Flat, and still have enough resources

for every family in this land to flourish. The history of terrible violence this nation has committed against indigenous people from the Trail of Tears to Standing Rock is a reminder that the apocalypse Nosie goes home to face is a real possibility. But it is not a necessity.

We pray Americans will act to show genuine gratitude for the original stewards of this land and their religious freedom. We join our brother, Wendsler Nosie, in the call to save Oak Flat and in his journey as he goes home to Oak Flat,”

wrote @RevDrBarber & @liztheo.