Trump screws Apaches. [View all]
Supreme Court declines to stop transfer of Native American site for mining
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/27/supreme-court-oak-flat-western-apaches-copper-mine/
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the federal government to transfer thousands of acres of national forestland containing a Native American sacred site to a copper-mining company.
The justices left in place a lower-court decision that allows the transfer of land in central Arizona known as Oak Flat. The land, which has great spiritual value to the Western Apache Indians, sits on the worlds third-largest deposit of copper ore.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, whose rulings have long supported Native American rights, called the courts refusal to review the case a grievous mistake one with consequences that threaten to reverberate for generations.
Faced with the governments plan to destroy an ancient site of tribal worship, we owe the Apaches no less than a consideration of their legal arguments, wrote Gorsuch, who was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. They may live far from Washington, D.C., and their history and religious practices may be unfamiliar to many. But that should make no difference.
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