Apache Stronghold activists. (photo: Joseph Huff-Hannon)
23 July 15
On his Rebel Content Tour, Young's invited Native activists to speak out against a mining industry land grab
izhoni
Pike and her friends had the best seats in the house for the Neil Young
concert in Jersey last week – better than front row.
In fact, they've had an incredible vantage point at several of the shows on Young's Rebel Content Tour this summer.
"It's been pretty awesome to be up on stage and look out and see so many people supporting us, yelling for us," Pike tells Rolling Stone. "And we know some of his songs. We've been singing along!"
Pike is part of a cross-country caravan called the Apache Stronghold,
made up of dozens of activists and supporters of the Arizona San Carlos
Apache tribe who are calling out a mining industry land grab rammed
through Congress last December – and who have made an unconventional
opener for Young.
Starting at Red Rocks earlier this month, and in
venues across the country since, the Apache have been linking up with
Young on the road, sharing their stories and singing prayer songs to thousands of audience members.
The activists are trying to preserve a stretch of
canyon land in Tonto National Forest called Oak Flat, an hour east of
Phoenix, where young Apache women like Pike have celebrated
coming-of-age ceremonies for generations. "I became a woman at Oak Flat,
I had my sunrise dance there, so it's like my heart is there," she
says.
Business interests see treasure in those hills, too; a
company called Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the
Australian-British mining giant Rio Tinto, has long wanted to get at the
massive copper deposits buried under Oak Flat. Last December the
company got a step closer to its goal, when the two senators from
Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, slipped a last-minute rider into
the National Defense Authorization Act authorizing a land swap long
favored by the company. A recent New York Times op-ed
described how, "by doing this, Congress has handed over a sacred Native
American site to a foreign-owned company for what may be the first time
in our nation's history."
What would induce Congress to do such a thing? The
mining industry says thousands of jobs will be created by digging up Oak
Flat, and Sen. McCain touted the deal's value to national security,
saying in a statement,
"To maintain the strength of the most technologically-advanced military
in the world, America's armed forces need stable supplies of copper for
their equipment, ammunition, and electronics."
And then, of course, there's the money. Sen. Flake is a former lobbyist for the mining industry, who's received almost $200,000 from mining interests,
including Rio Tinto, since his election, and Sen. McCain is one of the
top Congressional recipients of campaign contributions from Rio Tinto,
according to OpenSecrets.org.
But the senators and their friends in the mining
industry may have underestimated their opposition, which is low on funds
but high on morale and tenacity. For months now, Apache activists have
been occupying Oak Flat campground, and more and more people across the
country and the world have gotten behind their cause. As of this
writing, more than 600,000 people have signed a petition at Avaaz
calling on Congress to repeal the rider, and to apologize to the Apache
for putting their cultural heritage up for sale. Rock climbers and
outdoor enthusiasts who don't want to see this corner of the West turned
into a moonscape have been raising a ruckus as well.
And then there's the very musical ruckus being raised by the Apache Stronghold caravan, of course. Rolling Stone
caught up with Pike and about two dozen other members of the caravan
last week at a drum circle in New York's Columbus Circle, the day after
they opened for Young in nearby Camden, New Jersey. For many in the
caravan, this marks their first visit to New York City. ("Not even a
single statue to honor the Native people who used to live here, but a
big old statue of Columbus," drummer and caravan member Rudy Red Dog
says. "Go figure.")
They walk down Broadway toward the theater district
and Times Square for a noon flash mob to raise awareness for their
campaign. There, in the middle of a scrum of curious tourists, flanked
by billboards for Coca-Cola and Broadway shows, teenage caravan member
Naelyn Pike dances around a circle of drummers, her fist full of arrows.
"If the government can do this to us, they can do it to everybody
else," she says. "This isn't just an Apache fight, or a Native American
fight, it's an American fight. This affects all of us."
The girl's grandfather, Wendsler Nosie Sr., a former
tribal chairman and one of the chief organizers of the caravan, explains
how the canyons of Oak Flat fit into the historical and spiritual life
of the Apache. "For the Apache, it's a sacred site, a holy site, the
identity of our people," he says. "What would Congress say if they
wanted to mine on Mount Sinai? For us it's the same."
This week the Apache Stronghold caravan makes its last stop, in Washington, D.C. They're planning a midday rally outside the Capitol
on July 22, and are meeting with members of the House and the Senate,
looking to recruit more Congressional allies to overturn the rider that
gave away their land. A drum circle outside Sen. McCain's office isn't
out of the question. They've also found an ally in Rep. Raúl Grijalva of
Arizona, a progressive champion in the House who's introduced the Save Oak Flat Act, for which he is rustling up co-sponsors.
"We've broken faith with Native American communities
time and time again. Giving away a sacred site of the First Americans to
a foreign-owned corporation strikes me as especially cruel," Rep.
Grijalva says in an email. "Oak Flat should be preserved on its own
merits – President Eisenhower was right to prohibit mining on these
lands – and also to show the respect we have always owed Indian Country
and too often failed to demonstrate."
It's a David and Goliath fight, but after weeks on the
road, meeting with other tribes, talking at churches and community
centers, and sharing the stage with one of the world's most iconic rebel
rockers, Wendsler Nosie Sr. is optimistic. "People are finally waking
up to this dirty deal," he says. "We believe there's conscience in
America, and we decided to take our fight on the road to reach out to
the power of this country. And the power's not Congress. It's the
people."
As for Neil Young, he tells Rolling Stone in
an email that he was motivated to get involved in the Apache fight
because he hopes that "by watching our Native American brothers and
sisters" – who have taken care of their own land "since time immemorial"
– "we can learn how to take better care of our precious gift."
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