By DANA HEDGPETH | The Washington Post | Published: April 12, 2021 OAK FLAT, Ariz. Just as his Apache ancestors have done for centuries, Wendsler Nosie the former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe led a traditional ceremony on a mountaintop at Oak Flat, about 60 miles east of Phoenix, overlooking a landscape of basins covered in tall grasses, boulders and jagged cliffs. The tradition, called a sunrise ceremony, is a rite of passage for a teenage girl in which she goes through a series of rituals to recognize her transition to womanhood. The girl had collected plants from Oak Flat that have the spirit of Chic chil Bildagoteel, the name of the sacred spot in the Apache language. Plants from anywhere else cannot be used they don t have the spirit that resonates from Oak Flat. And the girl spoke to the spirit of Oak Flat, giving thanks for providing acorns, yucca, cedar and saguaro cactus that the tribe uses.
Native Americans desperately want to protect Oak Flat, a sacred site near Phoenix, from a mining operation. On Tuesday, a House Natural Resources subcommittee will hold a hearing on the future of the land, which sits on one of the largest untapped copper deposits in North America.
Massive copper mine land trade near Superior paused paysonroundup.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from paysonroundup.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Waya Brown, who is Apache and Pomo, dances in a circle at Oak Flat campground on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021, near Superior, Arizona. (RNS/Alejandra Molina)
Waya Brown, barefoot and clad in a flicker-feather headdress and red-tailed hawk cape, waved a handful of feathers toward the ground.
Brown, who is Apache and Pomo, twirled in a circle as he blew a double cane whistle.
His father rattled a bamboo stick and sang in the Pomo language, while his aunt pounded on a deerskin drum. His sister and cousins danced in place as they all blessed the ground and those surrounding the circle.
Center for Biological Diversity: TUCSON, Ariz. U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) introduced the Save Oak Flat Act today to protect the Indigenous sacred site in central Arizona from being destroyed by a massive copper mine.