Designating Oak Flat as a National Historic Place could nix plans for making this sacred Apache site into a copper mine owned by foreign interests. But there are no guarantees. Arizona federal legislators John McCain, Paul Gosar, Ann Kirkpatrick and Jim Flake did their best late last year - in December 2015 - to stealthily and sneakily stick legislation calling for this land swap of sacred Apache land into a defense bill.

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Although Native Americans still want President Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier - this is really the biggest wish most Natives seem to have - they are happy with Obama's decision to designate Oak Flat as a National Historic Place, which could ruin plans for transforming this ancient tract of Apache sacred land into a copper mine owned by foreign interests.

But the catalyst of this political maneuver was probably a direct result of New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also listed as the Granite State's 'Junior Senator', which is really a misnomer because if Burning Bernie keeps up his major makh and mojo, he might just find himself in the Oval Office as Obama's Democratic replacement. According to a March 2 editorial in Indian Country Today Media Network written by Stephen Fox: "Taking on these mining companies and fighting back against the millions of dollars these companies and their allies spent and continue to spend on lobbyists and political contributions, Senator Sanders introduced S. 2242, the Save Oak Flat Act, to correct not only an injustice to Native Americans but also against the American people. This situation is generally unknown to most American citizens. Sanders' legislation, the Save Oak Flat Act, would repeal Section 3003, the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange Act (Land Exchange), of the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, which would privatize part of the Tonto National Forest and transfer Oak Flat, a sacred area of Apaches and other Native Americans, to Resolution Copper Mining, jointly owned by foreign-owned mining companies BHP Billiton (United Kingdom) and Rio Tinto (Australia), resulting in the destruction of this sacred area. Resolution Copper Mining seeks to develop the largest copper mine in North America on this sacred land that will result in the collapse of an area at least 2 miles in diameter and the destruction of the Oak Flat area.

"The Save Oak Flat Act would immediately halt this giveaway of land and natural resources owned by the American people to foreign-owned mining companies. Sanders' bill is cosponsored by New Mexico's Senator Martin Heinrich and Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin."

But there are others at the federal level who don't care about treaty law, environmental concerns, or just doing what is fair and right. Arizona's Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar and Repug tea-bagging counterpart U.S. Sen. John McCain, senior Arizona Senator, joined forces last December with Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick to sell off this ancestral Native American land. They stuck a piece of legislation into a 1,600-plus page, comprehensive, national defense bill. Those close to this land-swap mess also say Jeff Flake, junior Arizona U.S. Senator, was involved.

Gosar and McCain's nefarious scheming to to have Oak Flat made into a copper mine owned by an Australian-British corporation, Resolution Copper, may have been thwarted by Obama's decree, along with Sen. Sanders' hard work and diligence, but nothing is certain yet. There are no guarantees that even with a designation as a National Historic Place, the ultimate salvation from ruin of this large tract is a sure-fire go. And just like the devil, scheming tea-bagging rattlesnakes like the Arizona federal leaders involved with this sell-off never sleep. They are always looking for ways to make even the best of dreams virtual nightmares. All for the almighty dollar disguised under the All-American word 'PROGRESS'. This 2,400 acres of sacred ceremonial lands owned by the Apaches - known as Oak Flat or Chi'chil Bildagoteel - lies in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. Sites the Apaches call Apache Leap, a mountain held sacred by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and even the Tonto National Forest, will be turned into caves, barren extraction areas spanning miles, and a desolate, environmentally hazardous landscapes if the copper mine sees its way here.

In protest, more than 300 Apache tribal members have occupied the site in protest since early 2015. They are determined to protect their ancestral grounds where girls hold their coming-of-age ceremonies, along with other sacred ceremonial rituals. It's a beautiful place of natural wonder and beauty, but where money is to be made, political prostitutes like Gosar, McCain, Flake, and Kirkpatrick also abound.

Canupa Gluha Mani, leader of the Strongheart Warrior Society, told this writer in a telephone interview early Monday morning (March 14): "On what grounds does White America have to take ceremonial land away? What authority do they have? The authority they claim to have is that they oversee and supersede issues when in fact, they don't. Some tribal governments default on the rights of indigenous people. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Whtie America can take our land away, extract minerals, and strip away everything in the interests of White America. Corporate America cannot extract the earth like this. What grounds do they have? It's their white supremacy. All these governments -- do they understand? The indigenous people - through the independence of their status - never relinquished their treaty obligations of their inherent status. This goes back to time immemorial. Today we have indigenous people who are warriors and who stand up for the rights of Native Americans. That's what Strongheart has done. We fight for the rights of Indian people. A dog soldier proverb is that 'A nation can never be conquered unless the hearts of our women are under the earth.'"

The Strongheart Warrior Society is based in South Dakota, is primarily comprised of Lakota Natives, but is involved in political, economic and social struggles that many American Indian tribes face. Canupa Gluha Mani, a full-blooded Lakota, told this writer during another telephone interview over the past winter that the Strongheart Warrior Society was actively involved with helping the Apaches fight this federal land-grab deal.

Apache spokesman Wendsler Nosie, Sr. wrote an open letter to U.S. Rep. Gosar that Oak Flat "has always been our connection to our Mother, our right to exist, a central part of our prayers, songs, stories and spiritual practices. It is from here that we emerged. It is who we are. We have lost so much."

In mid-March, Gosar threw Trump-like tantrum, throwing around his anger with these words: "Shame on the Park Service and Forest Service for ramming a bogus historic place listing down the throats of Arizonans. Clearly, the Obama Administration cares more about pandering to extremist environmental groups and a D.C. lobbyist from the Clinton Administration than following the law and listening to the American public. Oak Flat has never been a sacred site, as confirmed by the local tribe's own former historian. Yet, Obama's minions are hell-bent on sabotaging an important mining effort by listing a small, public campground 20 miles away from the nearest tribe's reservation as a historic site."

In a March 3 article that appeared inTucson Weekly, Apache Stronghold Chief Organizer, Wendsler Nosie, is noted as saying: "Oak Flat, known to us Chi'chil Bildagoteel, has always been our connection to our Mother, our right to exist, a central part of our prayers, songs, stories and spiritual practices. It is from here that we emerged. It is who we are. We have lost so much. So many of our people, the original people of this land, have been wiped out, and those that remained were removed, exiled, from our indigenous lands and placed in concentration camps. Chi'chil Bildagoteel, our holy land, was put under the care of the U.S. government, and because of its uniqueness, the great value of maintaining its ecological and cultural integrity, protected by its laws. But now these laws are being subverted. The land handed over to foreign mining concerns through underhanded backroom deals by Arizona representatives in the U.S. Congress eliminates these protections."

This opednews.com writer could not believe that federal legislators McCain and Gosar had the audacity to stick this sinister land-swap deal into the annual defense bill. I wrote about this surreptitious scheme here on opednews.com then. At the time, this issue got little, if any, attention from the national mainstream media. But that's nothing new. They wouldn't know what actual news was if it actually happened to them. Oh, but wait, there's always Donald Trump. What did the old boy do today? We've got to cover it.

In this opednews.com story, I wrote about this Neanderthal legislator's antics and caustic words back then - this Paul Gosar creep. Perhaps this man's mindset may find a home in some Eastern Bloc country, but sooner or later, in a free democracy, renegade politicians like Gosar always seem to find a mean dead end street. And I hope he's found one with his plans for this rotten land-grab.

Here's another excerpt of the story I wrote here last December on the land-swap was being railroaded through U.S. Congress last December: Gosar's horrid diatribe calling American Indians "wards of the state" and adding that, 'Tribes, you can call yourselves sovereign nations, but when it comes down to the final test, you're not really sovereign because we still have plenary authority over you,'" has only served to add insult to injury of what has become a very volatile and controversial land swap.

Anyhow, Paul Gosar, you are not the dictator of Arizona, although it is quite apparent that you think you are just that. You and other tyrants like John McCain, who have been running rough shod over the U.S. Constitution for far too long now do not have a monopoly on truth, nor do you have a license to do whatever you want to do. This very brave and honest President, Barack Obama, has definitely thrown a monkey wrench into the gears of your tea-bagging machine to create lakes of methane and craters so deep they look like the landscape of some unoccupied and uninhabitable exoplanet somewhere in the Sombrero Galaxy. This is still the United States of America and political pawns like you, Gosar, and McCain, Flake, and Kirkpatrick, still have adversaries who very much want to protect Mother Earth. And yes, Native Americans do have supporters at the federal level. President Obama, overall, has been a good friend to American Indians in his two terms as this country's top leader. Mr. Peltier has been imprisoned for four decades now and Natives consider him a political prisoner. President Obama still has some time left in office and who knows, a full pardon and clemency may come late in Obama's second term. Untold Presidents prior to him, after all, have turned their backs on Peltier and a deaf ear to the wants and wishes of American Indians, after all.

But as for Oak Flat, it's a universal applause for Barack and his stance. As Stephen Fox writes in the Indian Country Today Media Network story that is cited above: "For centuries, the Oak Flat area in the Tonto National Forest has been considered sacred to Apaches, Yavapais, and other Native Americans. Located about an hour due east of Phoenix, Arizona, this unique and stunningly beautiful land has long played a vital role in Native ceremonies, religion, tradition, and culture."

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Oak Flat has always been a place where Native Americans in the region have gone to pray, to conduct ceremonial dances, to gather acorns for sustenance, to collect medicines and ceremonial items, and to seek and obtain peace and personal cleansing."

"Public lands, like Oak Flat, are carved out of the ancestral homelands of Indian tribes, and the historical and spiritual connections of Native Americans to these lands have not been extinguished. The United States has legal and moral obligations to provide access to Native Americans and to protect these traditional territories in a manner that respects the cultural, historical and religious importance to Indian tribes."

"For over a decade, hundreds of tribal governments, tribal organizations, and hundreds of thousands of individual grassroots activists united in opposition to the Land Exchange to protect these tribal homelands. Because of this staunch opposition, House of Representatives Leadership twice pulled the bill from consideration because it lacked the votes for passage during the 113th Congress. The Senate also refused to advance the bill through regular order."

Authors Bio:

Samuel Vargo worked as a full-time reporter and editor for more than 20 years at a number of daily newspapers and business journals. He was also an adjunct English professor at colleges and universities in Ohio, West Virginia, Mississippi and Florida for about a decade. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in English (both degrees were awarded by Youngstown State University).