Tucson
ABOUT
an hour east of Phoenix, near a mining town called Superior, men, women
and children of the San Carlos Apache tribe have been camped out at a
place called Oak Flat for more than three months, protesting the latest
assault on their culture.
Three
hundred people, mostly Apache, marched 44 miles from tribal
headquarters to begin this occupation on Feb. 9. The campground lies at
the core of an ancient Apache holy place, where coming-of-age
ceremonies, especially for girls, have been performed for many
generations, along with traditional acorn gathering. It belongs to the
public, under the multiple-use mandate of the Forest Service, and has
had special protections since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower
decreed the area closed to mining — which, like cattle grazing, is
otherwise common in national forests — because of its cultural and
natural value. President Richard M. Nixon’s Interior Department in 1971
renewed this ban.
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