The Latest Breaking News from Apache Stronghold

A U.S. appeals court has put the brakes on the transfer of federal forest land in Arizona to a company that plans to mine one of the largest copper deposits in North America

A U.S. district judge has denied a request by a Native American tribe and environmentalists to stop the federal government from transferring land in Arizona for a massive copper mining project

Another First Amendment case that the Court will consider this Friday, but on the religion side, is Apache Stronghold v.… The post One More First Amendment Case to Watch appeared first on Reason.com.

The Apache tribe is fighting to protect their sacred site, Oak Flat, from mining activities threatening their religious practices.

Oak Flat in central Arizona is the subject of a tug of war between people in the historic mining town of Superior who want a huge copper mine developed there for its economic benefits

Oak Flat is a piece of national forest land in central Arizona that has been at the heart of a years long struggle between Native American groups and mining interests that both see it as important to their future

Oak Flat, a mountainous area east of Phoenix, is an Apache sacred site where Native Americans gather to pray and perform coming-of-age ceremonies and sweat rituals

Native American tribal members fighting plans for an enormous copper mine on land they consider sacred say they are increasingly worried U.S. officials will move forward on the project even as they await a federal appellate court ruling in the case

There's long been a dispute about whether religious freedom provisions limit the government's power related to religious sites on government land. These are usually American Indian sites, though in principle they might be other religious sites as well. In Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Ass'n (1988), the Court held…