Good morning friends and fellow humans. I hope this message finds you well.

This morning a full federal appeals court panel of 11 judges will rehear the appeal by Apache Stronghold to protect Oak Flat from destruction by a foreign mining company.

Oak Flat is a sacred site on Apache land east of Phoenix which is under threat of imminent destruction after the federal government decided to transfer the lands it had been responsible for protecting for over 60 years to foreign mining company, Resolution Copper — a joint venture of global mining firms Rio Tinto & BHP.  

The transfer was a last-minute attachment included with a "must-pass" defense bill in 2014 which is intended to give 3.75 miles of supposedly federally protected national forest land to the foreign mining company in exchange for eight parcels it owns in Arizona.

One may find themselves asking why the federal government would move to give "federally protected" lands to a foreign mining company that intends to extract copper from the sacred grounds and send it overseas to be refined in China and sold back to the United States.

The answer is that this legal maneuvering uses a loophole that allows the foreign mining company to extract what would be otherwise illegal for the US government or domestic mining company to do.

The question I find myself asking is, by what valid lawful authority do the men and women acting as representatives for the federal government claim they have right to destroy the sacred Apache site?

The question every American should ask is, does the financial benefit of a foreign mining company overshadow the religious freedom and right of the Apache people to protect their sacred lands — which is the original location of their creation story — from destruction?

The impact of this decision will be felt beyond Oak Flat, affecting all cases involving American Indian sacred sites, and the right of religious freedom and protection of property for all people.

Is genocide for profit what "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" means to the current representatives and judges of the federal government?

If these sacred lands cannot be protected along with the religious freedom of the people in the so-called land of the free, then the message being sent by the men and women acting as representatives is that they believe no one, nowhere, and nothing is sacred — and that puts all ways of life under threat wherever profit is deemed to be more important than the natural unalienable rights of the people.

I founded Guardian Grange to help protect natural resources, strengthen communities and uplift veterans who sacrificed ourselves in service to support and defend the people of these lands.

I am asking for your prayers that the panel today will decide in favor of supporting the original people of this land and defend their right to religious freedom.

You can learn more about the fight to save Oak Flat at http://apache-stronghold.com/

Please share this message with anyone who believes that protecting sacred lands and rights of people is important, and would be willing to pray in solidarity with Apache Stronghold today.

Thank you,

Mark Matzeldelaflor