Bernie Sanders Introduces Bill to Protect Oak Flat — Native American Place of Worship

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Tammy Baldwin introduced legislation this week to stop the transfer of federal land to a foreign-owned corporation, which plans to develop the largest copper mine in North America.

The land, known as Oak Flat, is located in the Tonto National Forest and has significant religious and cultural value to Apaches, Yavapais, and other Native Americans in the region.

The night before voting to approve the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Sen. John McCain slipped in a provision referred to as Section 3003 that approved the transfer of public lands, Oak Flat and nearby Tonto National Forest lands, to private corporations Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the corporations, intends to use the land to construct a block cave mine, which would destroy the sacred Oak Flat area and create a crater up to two miles long.

“Too many times our Native American brothers and sisters have seen the profits of huge corporations put ahead of their sovereign rights,” Sanders said. “It is wrong that a backroom deal in Washington could lead to the destruction of a sacred area that is so important to so many. We must defend the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are standing in opposition to this giveaway of our natural resources to foreign corporations.”