Rep. Grijalva, San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Rambler Pen Op-Ed: “Oak Flat Mine Harms National Security, Sacred Tribal Land”

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Adelita S. Grijalva and San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler penned an op-ed in the Arizona Republic highlighting the Trump Administration's decision to transfer Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site in Arizona's Tonto National Forest, to a foreign-owned mining company with ties to the People's Republic of China.
In the op-ed, Chairman Rambler and Rep. Grijalva argue that the administration's claims that the transfer is necessary for national security ring hollow when the deal hands public land and copper to foreign corporations while threatening Indigenous religious practices, Arizona's water supply, and a sacred landscape that has been used by the Apache people since time immemorial.
The piece also highlights the need to protect land that is adjacent to the transferred land from mining infrastructure, which is what recently introduced legislation by Rep. Grijalva aims to do.
The full op-ed is copied below:
“For decades, tribes, faith leaders, and allies across the country have fought to protect Oak Flat, a sacred landscape in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest, also known as Chí’chil Biłdagoteel in Apache. But on March 13, under the pretense of securing minerals for our “national security,” the Trump administration gave away 2,422 acres of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a foreign-owned mining company with ties to the People’s Republic of China. The decision is as shameful as it is bewildering: after calling the tribes who have been fighting to protect this land “anti-American,” Trump handed our public lands — and the minerals beneath their surface — to foreign-owned corporations, with no guarantees to benefit the American people.
To be clear, Oak Flat is not simply real estate. Since time immemorial, the Apache people have prayed here, sought sanctuary and spiritual cleansing, and gathered traditional foods and medicine from this area. Coming of age ceremonies for young Apache women are still held here and religious leaders often visit to seek divine inspiration. It is a place of deep cultural and spiritual significance, formally listed as a Traditional Cultural Place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Despite this history, the transfer of Oak Flat was snuck last-minute behind closed doors into an unrelated defense spending bill in 2014 with no public input or oversight, continuing an ugly legacy of stealing Indigenous land.
With title in hand, Resolution Copper now plans to construct one of the largest underground copper mines in North America directly beneath Oak Flat using a method that will cause the surface to collapse into a crater nearly two miles wide and more than 1,000 feet deep. A sacred landscape that has sustained Native people for centuries will be destroyed for good. And despite this administration’s claims, the travesty of destroying Oak Flat will give the American people nothing – not even the copper itself.
The land transfer included no requirements that the copper be processed or sold in the United States. Resolution Copper is jointly owned by foreign mining corporations Rio Tinto and BHP. Rio Tinto’s largest shareholder is Chinalco, which is wholly owned by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Both corporations generate significant revenue by exporting minerals to China, and Rio Tinto has described China as “the most profitable destination” for copper. To add insult to injury, American taxpayers won’t receive a single cent in royalties—even though this copper is being extracted from what was once public land.
That is the contradiction at the heart of this deal: we are being told it’s necessary for American security, while it will actually benefit foreign interests more than our own communities. It reflects a broader pattern we have seen across the country and around the world: Indigenous communities being forced to bear the cost of extraction while others reap the benefits. The damage will not stop at the boundaries of the 2,422 acres that were given away. The Trump administration has greenlit roads, pipelines, power lines, and other industrial infrastructure that would permanently scar the rest of this sacred landscape. That is why we are introducing legislation that would permanently prohibit mining-related activities on adjacent public land also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Place. Although we cannot undo the shame of this giveaway, we still have the power, and the responsibility, to keep it from getting worse.
The mine will also generate an estimated 1.4 billion tons of toxic waste, squander more than 250 billion gallons of Arizona’s water, and potentially draw from the Colorado River which is at historically low levels. Taken together, the full picture of Resolution Copper’s mine is stark: We bear the risks. Foreign interests reap the rewards.
That’s why this fight must continue. The San Carlos Apache Tribe and other Oak Flat allies are seeking judicial review of the shameful giveaway of Oak Flat, but Congress must also act. This moment demands a broader reckoning. If the United States is serious about national security, it cannot keep handing public land to foreign-owned corporations with no accountability to the American people.
What happened at Oak Flat is not a national security strategy. It is an assault on the human rights of Indigenous peoples, a fraud against the American people, and proof that this administration will protect corporate interests, even foreign-owned ones, instead of the American people.
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