Opinion ID: 6353575
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The At-Issue Land

Text: The Tonto National Forest stretches across nearly 3 million acres (or about 4,500 square miles) across Arizona. APACHE STRONGHOLD V. UNITED STATES 9 See Tonto National Forest, U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture, https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tonto/home/?cid=fsbdev3_0 18924 (last visited June 15, 2022). Most of the forest is owned by the United States and is managed by the United States Forest Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. See id. Within the Tonto Forest is Oak Flat, a 6.7-square-mile plot of plains, oak groves, and rocky cliffs that sits about 4,000 feet above sea level. Beneath Tonto Forest and extending under part of Oak Flat lies “one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world,” containing an estimated 1,970 billion tons of copper. Also within the Tonto National Forest are several areas sacred to the Apache American Indians. Oak Flat is one of these areas, as are Devil’s Canyon (called Ga’an Bikoh by the Apache), a depression just east of Oak Flat, and Apache Leap (called Dibecho Nadil by the Apache), a steep slope just to Oak Flat’s west. These three adjacent areas are places where the Apache’s Ga’an—beings that the Apache describe as their “creators, [their] saints, [their] saviors, [their] holy spirits”—live and where the Apache can communicate with them. Currently, the federal government owns Oak Flat. 1 Devil’s Canyon is owned partially by Arizona state government trusts 2 and partially by the federal government. And Apache Leap is owned partially by Resolution Copper 1 Apache Stronghold may dispute the United States’ ownership of part of Tonto National Forest later in this litigation but does not do so in this appeal. 2 Arizona holds some land in trust on behalf of a group of public entities, including state universities and state K-12 schools. See State Trust Land Beneficiaries, Ariz. State Land Dep’t, https://land.az.gov/our-agency-mission/beneficiaries (last visited June 15, 2022). 10 APACHE STRONGHOLD V. UNITED STATES and partially by the federal government. See 16 U.S.C. § 539p(d)(1)(A)(v). In recent years, Oak Flat has been used for a variety of purposes, both religious and secular. After decades of holding religious rituals on their reservations, the Apache have recently returned to worship in Tonto Forest. In 2014, the Apache held a “Sunrise Dance” on Oak Flat for just the second time in “more than a hundred years.” That 2014 ceremony closely followed another Sunrise Dance held the previous year at Mt. Graham, another sacred site elsewhere in Arizona. Separately, recreational users often camp, hike, or rock-climb throughout Tonto National Forest, including on Oak Flat.