Oak Flat

So I actually start the book, the first chapter, in Butte and talk about the legacy of this, this leftover, you know, relic of capitalism's past that's still plaguing Montana today, and connecting that to what's happening all over now, uh, for critical minerals all over the world.

Um, but here in the United States right now, we're opening up Oak Flat, which is outside of Phoenix.

It's a, a sacred pla- a sacred site for the Apache.

It's gonna be a huge open-pit mine.

And of course, it's not just a Republican issue.

[laughs] This is...

The Oak Flat, for example, was land that was literally sto- p- our land was stolen and given to private interests under the Obama administration.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And I s- I told Val- Valerie Taliman, who's another really dear friend who was one of my editors, and said, "Okay, I, I can, you know, kit myself out and get out to Standing Rock." And she said, "No." She says, "We have tons of reporters out there." She says, she says, "But Oak Flat needs some, some coverage."

Yeah.

It was 60 miles [laughs] with an hour and-

... why you were even out there

...

so Oak Flat or, and I'm not even gonna try to pronounce the Apache name.

Mm-hmm.

But it's certainly not standing for a land base.

It's certainly not saying indigenous peoples have that, that if there's going to be, let's oak flat where the, copper mine is going to be, or Thacker Pass, where the lithium mine is being proposed.

If that's Apache land, which it supposedly is, and if the other is Paiute and Western Shoshone land, it's up to them to decide whether or not there's going to be a mine here.

But instead, this doctrine of discovery and so forth in Christian supremacy, the U.S. simply passes a law and says Oak Flat no longer belongs to, it's not even that it ever belonged, of course, but it's no longer part of Apache territory.

and now belongs to this gigantic mining corporation.

And Thacker Pass belongs to Lithium America.

And much like the fracking boom that began in two thousand eight, which was an attempt to wean the United States off of what it considered conflict oil from countries that it was in disagreement with, the United States is again trying to develop its own strategic mineral reserve for green technology rather than questioning the mass consumption of energy in the first place.

[audience clapping] And we can see that indigenous peoples again are on the chopping block, whether it is Resolution Copper in the sacred site of Oak Flat to build one of the world's largest copper mines to fill the needs of the so-called green energy revolution, or whether the massive open-pit lithium mine that they're trying to build in Nevada, Thacker Pass, on sacred Northern Paiute lands.

We understand that this relationship is still fundamentally colonial, and we need an alternative.

And so that's why we're saying we need a people's agreement not only amongst human nations and relations, but we need a people's agreement with the Earth itself, and that we draw inspiration from, from Vivir Bueno or the idea that living and development in correct relations doesn't mean overconsumption, doesn't mean that we measure our successes on material consumption.

Well, after a lengthy legal challenge, a massive copper mining project is poised to begin at a sacred Apache site in the Tonto National Forest.

This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the latest pleas to save the area known as Oak Flat, but not without pointed remarks from dissenting judges.

Gabriel Pietrarazio has details.

In March, the U.S. Forest Service transferred 2,400 acres to Resolution Copper following a two to one ruling by the Ninth Circuit that cleared the way for the deal.

So copper, like thinking about Butte, it's like I said, it's an omen because we, right now, just in the United States, uh, you- you've got these huge copper mines that are being planned.

Um, a couple of them, or one of them I write about in Oak Flat, which is outside of Phoenix.

Uh, Oak Flat is, is a, uh, a, a spiritual area for the Apache.

In fact, it's, that's probably underes- underestimating what it actually means to them.

It's like their spiritual Eden.

But this isn't just the Trump administration.

I mean, this has been going on throughout all of these l- recent administrations.

The, the, the, the mine that I mentioned at Oak Flat, that was actually public land that the Obama administration allowed to be transferred to a, a, a multinational foreign corporation, quite seriously.

So I feel like the Lorax right there just rapping about it.

But also I wrote three songs about the Oak Flat that they're trying to destroy, not just the trees, but a whole crater mine in Arizona.

and like I was saying how the seasons make me happy nature makes me happy and seeing these trees and the emery oaks are from the oak flat and it's an apache sacred garden an oasis full of oak trees which is like a staple protein for native peoples around the whole world full of manzanita it's full of cholla, barrel cactus, nopales.

It's an edible food garden.

And the people were forced to remove from this oasis.

And yeah, I want to rap about my life and my emotions and my experiences, but some of the biggest experiences I have are out in nature.

And know that these places may never be experienced by anyone in the future if they get destroyed.

And when I showed up to the Oak Flat, I need to talk about this.