Naelyn Pike, a 16-year-old member of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, demonstrated in Times Square on Friday against a land swap between the federal government and a copper company that could affect land the protesters hold sacred. Photo credit: Standing Fox
Katniss is real, and she is an Apache.
While we were all looking the other way, sacred Apache land (that was also property of the American people as a whole) was sold to an Australian-British mining company that will soon have the rights to leave a 2-mile crater in the area. How did this happen? Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake slipped the deal in at the last minute at the bottom of a much-needed military defense spending bill. Apache have been camped out on the sacred site of Oak Flat ever since, and this young warrior, along with a handful of others, traveled to NYC all the way from Arizona to try to bring attention to her people’s plight.
Let’s help this story spread and let this real life rebel know that she is not alone, and that the American people won’t stand for this betrayal to us all.
For more information about Oak Flat, see these articles:
Apache tribe brings battle for Oak Flat to New York’s Times Square
Selling Off Apache Holy Land
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar Orders Apache Stronghold Visitors Removed by Capitol Police,Threatens Grandmothers With Arrest.
Visit the Apache Stronghold website for current updates and to find out what you can do to support the Apache in the fight to save Oak Flat.