LONG-DISTANCE RUNNING has long been part of Apache traditional lifeways. For Wendsler Nosie Sr., it is a core expression of prayer and communion with the Earth.
In October 1990, the then 31-year-old tribal representative of the San Carlos Apache Reservation ran more than 60 miles in two days as prayerful resistance to the destruction of sacred sites at Mount Graham in Arizona. Two years earlier, Sen. John McCain had turned over Mount Graham to the University of Arizona to install telescopes. Nosie’s prayer run was part of a wider Apache and environmentalist movement to stop destruction of the mountain for the observatory project.
Nosie also was promoting a revival of his traditional Apache spirituality. The prayer run helped him “realize so much about our identity, where we originated and the sacredness of what makes us who we are.” Nosie went on to establish Apaches for Cultural Preservation and the Spirit of Mountain Runners, hosting twice-yearly community prayer runs. Grounded in ceremony, these runs begin at the site of the prison camp where the U.S. Army held Nosie’s ancestors in the 1890s. The destination of the summer run is Mount Graham; in winter, it is Oak Flat, another sacred site.
Oak Flat (Chi’chil Biłdagoteel) is a high desert valley in the mountains east of Phoenix, roughly 2,400 acres of federal land in Tonto National Forest that is sacred to Native Americans. Its fresh springs nurture oaks, making it a traditional acorn-gathering site for the Apache, and its canyons are lush with medicinal plants. The Apache have held ceremonies here for centuries. Nosie speaks reverently about Oak Flat as a place where his people have conversations with angels.
A quarter century after Nosie’s inaugural run to protect Mount Graham, Oak Flat was targeted. In 2014, Senators McCain and Jeff Flake snuck a midnight rider into a must-pass defense bill authorizing a land-swap that transfers Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a joint venture of global mining corporations Rio Tinto and the BHP Group. British-Australian-owned Rio Tinto has a 150-year history of environmental destruction and human rights abuses in 35 countries. Australia-based BHP is the largest mining company in the world. Though the land transfer is not complete, Resolution Copper has begun digging shafts adjacent to Oak Flat and draining the groundwater. The intended copper mine, likely using autonomous robots due to dangerous extraction conditions, will leave a 2-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep crater in this Apache sacred site.
Nosie started the nonprofit Apache Stronghold to work against colonial patterns of Indigenous dispossession and to recover traditional spirituality rooted in relationship with plants, animals, and ancestral land. It is pursuing a legal case against the U.S. government to overturn the land transfer.
For Nosie, running is prayer and prayer is resistance. Apache Stronghold argues that the destruction of Oak Flat violates freedom of religion under the Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits the federal government from substantially “burden[ing] a person’s exercise of religion.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hand down a decision soon.
On Nov. 4, Apache Stronghold will host a national day of prayer at Oak Flat and invites the solidarity of non-Indigenous people of faith and justice — especially Christians. For several years, the Poor People’s Campaign and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery have worked in solidarity with Apache Stronghold. Community Peacemaker Teams, an organization focused on spiritually centered peacemaking, nonviolent direct action, and human rights protection, has deployed trained peacekeepers to accompany Apache Stronghold members.
This is a key movement of and for decolonization. If Apache Stronghold can protect Oak Flat, then other Indigenous sacred sites also benefit. If we join in solidarity, we may find healing and resources for engaging the bigger “powers and principalities” of the climate crisis. If transnational mining corporations prevail, then it will demonstrate that the extractive economy reigns and that freedom of religion has become an entitlement primarily for conservative Christian groups. “We call on all Americans to join us to protect the land, water, and religion against this foreign invasion,” Nosie said regarding the Apache Stronghold legal case.
This is about more than stopping a mine that targets Apache spirituality, stresses Nosie. Because the Apache were among the last Indigenous peoples in the continental U.S. to be imprisoned and forcibly moved off their lands, their memory of freedom and wholeness is fresher, their traditional practices less atrophied. “The stories must be told, and the teachings continue so that our children and those yet to come will understand and never be derailed from their purpose,” Nosie maintains. “The past holds our identity, and the blessed gift that God gave people to ensure that creation has no end.”
Oct. 12, 2023, 12:19 p.m. Correction: An earlier version of this article identified Wendsler Nosie as "tribal chair of the San Carlos Apache Reservation" in 1990. He was "tribal representative" at that time. This article has been updated.
Tim Nafziger is a member of Community Peacemaker Teams and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. For more on the November 2023 events, visit dismantlediscovery.org/novfour.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!
