Fellowship Southwest and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas were among the Baptist groups who endorsed an interfaith appeal to President Joe Biden, asking him to intervene in an Arizona land-swap based on religious liberty arguments.
A coalition of about 60 faith groups sent a letter to Biden insisting the Oak Flat site in Arizona is a “sacred sanctuary” to multiple Native American tribes in the Southwest, and allowing mining on the land would “be a loss for religious freedom.”
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty brought together the interfaith group, urging the Biden administration to protect land in the Tonto National Forest considered sacred by the San Carlos Apache tribe and others.
“Oak Flat is part of the ancestral homelands of not only the Apache, but also the Yavapai, Hopi, Zuni, and many other tribes in the Southwest,” the letter from the coalition states. “It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property because for centuries it has been the site of religious and cultural ceremonies, a burial ground, and a place for tribal members to find medicinal plants, food, and water.”
Oak Flat is considered sacred to the Apache tribe, because they believe it is “one place where prayers can go directly to the Creator who gave life to all things.”
It also is considered profitable to multinational mining interests, because it is situated on top of a large copper deposit.
Impact on environment and religious freedom
Resolution Copper has tried more than 15 years to gain access to the mineral ore. A rider attached to the National Defense Authorization Act in 2015 granted Oak Flat to Resolution Cooper in exchange for other parcels of land. The land-swap would occur within 60 days of the Forest Service filing an environmental impact statement.
The Trump administration released the environmental impact statement on Jan. 15, but the Biden administration withdrew it March 1, resetting the 60-day transfer clock. However, it could be submitted again later this year.
Resolution Copper asserts it is “committed to preserving Native American cultural heritage while developing partnerships and bringing lasting benefits to the entire region,” according to a statement on the company’s website.
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The interfaith coalition asserted the withdrawn environmental impact statement revealed an underground mine would create a 1,000-foot-deep crater nearly two miles across.
The letter to Biden quotes from the environmental impact statement, saying: “Oak Flat is a sacred place to the Western Apache, Yavapai, O’odham, Hopi, and Zuni. It is a place where rituals are performed, and resources are gathered; its loss would be an indescribable hardship to those peoples.”
In addition to Fellowship Southwest, CBF Texas and the BJC, other Baptist groups that endorsed the letter to the president include national CBF, the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Home Mission Societies, Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Baptist World Alliance, CBF Kentucky and CBF West.
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