Oak Flat: The Fight For Sacred Lands by Lauren Redness

This is a book about a long and drawn out fight over something that has been going on for a very long time. For decades, a plot of federal land in southeastern Arizona called Oak Flat has been at the center of a fight over resource extraction. Since 2005, a mining venture has been pushing the U.S. government to let it excavate the site’s copper ore, which was discovered in 1995. The potential consequences of the mine go far beyond the estimated 1.5 billion tons of waste it would produce: it would destroy land that has been sacred to the San Carlos Apache tribe for generations. Oak Flat, called Chich’il Bildagoteel in the Apache language, would quite literally collapse into a void if the copper beneath it is mined. If thatwere to be allowed to happen, an important spiritual place will be destroyed. The author tells this sory in a unique way--she talks to the people who live there, whose culture is being threatened, and she does extensive illustrations of them and the land to bring home points about the story. It is a fun book to read, even though the story that is being told is a sad one. Highly recommended.