{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "@id": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/oak-flats/#article",
  "name": "Oak Flats and the Doctrine of Discovery unprecedented challenge and opportunity",
  "headline": "Oak Flats and the Doctrine of Discovery unprecedented challenge and opportunity",
  "description": "Abstract The case against Resolution Copper’s proposed mine in Oak Flat is an unprecedented opportunity for reckoning with the American ideal of religious freedom. This value was enshrined since its inception as one of the most basic tenets of human existence in American society. Freedom—religious freedom in particular—is perhaps the most important value that defines the United States. Yet this freedom was never meant for Indigenous nations, and in fact during the conquest of what has become the United States, Native peoples across the entire continent were systematically denied any right to or even ability to practice their spiritualities/belief systems. This is a reality which author Steve Talbot goes so far as to call spiritual genocide. This paper explores this ideal in the context of Resolution Copper’s mining project which threatens Oak Flat in Arizona. Oak Flat is sacred land for the Apache people, and the mine endangers not just the ecosystem, but the entire Apache nation. These pages trace the origins of the current reality in Oak Flat to the Christian Doctrine of Discovery. Oak Flat is an unprecedented court case that calls out the hypocrisy of the United States’ legal (and moral) foundations of universal religious freedom, which was never universal at all. Given this is such a central principle for US culture and identity, the implications and possible outcomes of Apache Stronghold v United States are of tremendous import—not just for the Apache nation, but for the entire United States.",
  "url": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/oak-flats/",
  "inLanguage": "en",
  "identifier": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/oak-flats/",
  "datePublished": "2023-03-23",
  "dateModified": "2023-03-23",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Luke Henkel"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Doctrine of Discovery Project",
    "url": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "@type": "Blog",
    "@id": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/",
    "name": "Doctrine of Discovery Project",
    "url": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/"
  },
  "image": "https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/assets/images/2021_10_22 _Steve_Pavey_Apache_convoy_ court_messenger-3.jpeg"
}