Why Christians Should Care About Oak Flat

A small slice of Arizona wilderness is an unlikely battleground in America’s religious freedom struggle. In recent years, high-profile religious liberty cases have often involved such familiar settings as churches, schools, and workplaces. But that could change tomorrow when the Supreme Court votes on whether to hear a new case brought by Western Apache and other American Indian tribes. The case offers the Supreme Court an opportunity to ensure that religious freedom—and human dignity—is upheld for all.

For centuries, the Western Apache and other tribes have journeyed to Oak Flat, located in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest, to connect with their Creator, their families, and their faith. Apaches believe that their Creator gives life to all things—the water, air, and earth itself—deeply tying their religious identity to their land. To this day, Apaches journey to Oak Flat (known in Apache as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel) to perform coming-of-age ceremonies, sweat lodge ceremonies, and other religious rituals that cannot take place elsewhere.

For over seventy years, the federal government recognized the importance of Oak Flat to the Apaches and expressly protected it from mining interests.

But a decade ago, several members of Congress, under the influence of corporate mining lobbyists (when in doubt, follow the money), slipped a last-minute rider into a must-pass defense bill. That rider authorized the transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a multinational mining giant. Resolution Copper announced plans to turn the sacred land into a two-mile-wide, 1,100-foot-deep crater, ending important Apache religious practices forever.

With the help of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a coalition of Apaches filed a lawsuit in 2021 trying to halt the destruction of Oak Flat. Their case hinges on a landmark federal law known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), passed in 1993 to protect religious liberty for people of all faiths. For over thirty years, RFRA has been a cornerstone of religious freedom law, requiring the government to satisfy a demanding legal standard before it imposes a “substantial burden” on anyone’s exercise of religion.

In this case, however, despite the undisputed fact that the copper mine will destroy Oak Flat and make vital Apache religious practices impossible, a divided Ninth Circuit found no burden on religion. In the majority’s view, obliterating the cradle of Apache faith was not a burden on their religious practices. With no other legal recourse, Apache Stronghold recently asked the Supreme Court to intervene and prevent Oak Flat’s destruction. They are joined in their request by a diverse coalition of tribal nations, civil-rights groups, legal experts, and people of faith—including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

For those of us who gather in traditional houses of worship, Apache spiritual practices might feel remote or alien. A patch of Arizona wilderness bears little resemblance to the churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples we regard as sacred space. Yet our tradition of religious freedom, properly understood, has never been about protecting only what is familiar or convenient. Nor has it been a simple live-and-let-live compromise, a fragile truce in which we agree to tolerate one another’s practices for the sake of peace. It is instead a commitment to a fundamental principle that acknowledges our nature as rational beings, bearers of profound, inherent, and equal dignity, capable of ordering our lives toward the good, the true, and the holy.

Safeguarding this principle is essential. It allows us to confront life’s most fundamental questions: Who am I? What is my purpose? How should I live in relation to my neighbors and to the divine? These questions are not peripheral to human existence but are central to it. And the way we answer them shapes not only what we believe but how we live, the communities we form, and the way we choose to engage with the world. When government intrudes into this space, it disrupts the very process through which we seek to find meaning and authentically to order our lives.

Such overreach has become all too common in our country. Whether it was the Obama administration’s attempt to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, the Army’s ordering Captain “Simmer” Singh to shave his religiously required beard, or Colorado’s insistence that Jack Phillips bake custom wedding cakes in violation of his beliefs about marriage—in each instance, the government crossed into territory where it had no rightful authority; it sought to sever the duty each believer had to follow his or her conscience.

The case here is no different. In some ways, it is an attack of an even greater magnitude. The Apaches’ religious practices at Oak Flat represent the highest expression of their spiritual lives. If Oak Flat is destroyed, it will end Apache religious existence as it has been practiced since before the United States existed. That is why the Court should accept their petition to hear the case and why Americans of all faiths should join me in standing for their cause. Protecting Oak Flat would not only safeguard the Apaches’ rights but also strengthen religious freedom for all faiths, ensuring the government cannot trample on sacred beliefs and practices with impunity in the future. The idea that some beliefs—especially those that are uncommon or unfamiliar—are undeserving of equal protection betrays the very essence of religious freedom. To destroy the Apaches’ sacred land would strike at the dignity we all share as human beings.

Oak Flat’s fate will reverberate far beyond the Arizona wilderness. It will test whether America remains committed to upholding religious freedom for all people, even if their house of worship isn’t a structure with steeples or stained glass. If we fail that test, it will erode the very principles that define who we are as a people.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. 

First Things depends on its subscribers and supporters. Join the conversation and make a contribution today.

Click here to make a donation.

Click here to subscribe to First Things. 

Image in the public domain. Image cropped.