Stopping the Destruction of a Religious Site #nosie, #mount #sinai #mountains #americanindian #AmericanIndianMovement

 

WENDSLER NOSIE: “I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”

“It is no different from Mount Sinai.” That is an immensely powerful statement to make! Mount Sinai, also called the Mountain of Moses or Mount Hareh is the place in the Biblical book of Exodus where Moses stayed for 40 days and 40 nights, met God face to face and received the Ten Commandments.

Wendsler Nosie Sr., former chairman of the San Carlos Apache said this to reporters from ABC News as he spoke about “Oak Flat” a rugged patch of land in the Tonto National Forest, USA.

“It is sacred ground where the San Carlos Apache Tribe have gone for hundreds of years to hold religious ceremonies and communicate with the Creator.”

Oak Flat is a 740-acre area of oak groves and sheer cliffs. It is, however, on a path to destruction according to the article published March 3, 2021.

“The land, which holds special religious significance is scheduled to be transferred to Resolution Copper, a company controlled by two foreign mining giants, and turned into one of the largest copper mines in the country.”

The area of Oak Flat has been considered a holy place for thousands of years.  It is an Apache holy site. Spiritual beings known as Ga’an live there. “Apaches go there to pray, to seek personal cleansing and hold ceremonies that connect them to their ancestors.”

In 2020 I watched a program on Al Jazeera that exposed the Rio Tinto (one of Resolution Copper’s parent companies) destruction of sacred aboriginal caves at Juukan Gorge, an ancient aboriginal heritage site in Australia. It was part of an exploration for iron ore in the area. The 46,000 year old Juukan Gorge caves were blown up in May as a part of an iron ore exploration project.”

Here we go again.

“Oak Flat is on a path to destruction. The land is scheduled to be transferred to Resolution Copper, a company controlled by two foreign mining giants, and turned into one of the largest copper mines in the country.”

The San Carlos Apache Tribe is fighting back. But they are poor, and they are concerned that the “path to victory is slim.” Resolution Copper is a company controlled by two large foreign companies and has the US government “on its side.”

Can the “poverty-stricken San Carlos Tribe” win against the powerful wealthy mining company?

Seems impossible doesn’t it?  But “We’re still trying to defend who we are,” Nosie told Christine Romo of NBC News. He has been living at Oak Flat “for more than a year as part of his mission to stop the mine.”

Nosie’s granddaughter Naelyn Pike, a San Carlos Apache tribal member testified before congress in opposition to the arrangement. She was just 13 years old at that time.

She is now 21 and bemoans the fact that the cultural identity of her people is being destroyed. “No tree can live without its roots and we’re that tree,” she said.

Meanwhile Wendsler Nosie, speaking from his spot at Oak Flat (where he has been for more than a year) told ABC News that he is willing to die to protect “the land his people hold sacred.”

Like the saints of old.

Now I understand the reference to Mt. Sinai.

Yes, indeed.

Nosie is not going anywhere.

#nosie, #mount #sinai #mountain