Oak Flat’s injunction has been denied. The United States now initiates land transfer to Resolution Copper. We the people still pray and fight for sacred land.

Oak Flat has been on death row for a while now. With Jesus this Lent, Oak Flat is handed over for crucifixion. 

On March 13, 2026, the courts again refused to protect that which is holy. It reminds me of an ancient system of courts that shuffled Jesus between hearings without really hearing anything. It’s also like Pontius Pilate claiming to have power over life and over death, power that is God’s alone. The courts’ inaction allows Resolution Copper to move towards their crucifixion of Oak Flat. 

The Ninth Circuit Court declined to continue an injunction that would protect Oak Flat from destruction while the people’s cases are heard. This also happened in May 2025 at the Supreme Court level with the still active case of Apache Stronghold, which includes so many of us who joined as friends through Amicus Briefs. This denial of protective justice also happened to the other three cases for Oak Flat, brought by young women and their parents whose lives are tied so deeply to the land through Sunrise Ceremony, by environmental organizations and by the San Carlos Apache Nation. 

After the court’s decision, the U.S. administration then immediately initiated the process to transfer the land to the foreign mining corporation that has plans for the complete destruction of Oak Flat.  (See here, particularly page 11, for more details of the attempted land transfer process and Resolution Copper’s claims.) Resolution Copper no doubt now believes themselves free to flog Oak Flat with bulldozers carving more roads, to nail Mother Earth to the cross beams of their erected metal towers and to pierce the side of sacred land, drilling and pumping until the deep reserves of pure water bleed out completely.  

What is there for us to do? 

• Pray, especially for the young women and their families whose case for religious freedom moves forward, and for the judges who will hear it and the other three cases.

• Advocate for congressional action. Encourage your representatives and senators to sponsor, in both the house and the House and Senate, the new legislation introduced by Rep. Adelita Grijalva. 

• Listen to the land, and come to it to pray when you hear the call. Resolution Copper has publicly promised not to close the campground for years to come. We hold them to that.

As a Christian whose life is deeply tied to Oak Flat, I wonder, what did it take for Jesus’ beloveds to listen outside the trial, to witness the miscarriage of justice and to stand at the foot of the cross?  What was the sound of their laments? 

I also wonder: 

• What does it take to believe that love is stronger than death? 

• Which is more powerful: God in the land, or false human claims to own that which is sacred?

• Do I — do we — believe in resurrection?