- Details
- By Elyse Wild
The leader of an organization that has been facing off against a foreign mining company with designs on destroying a sacred Indigenous site is walking more than 60 miles across Arizona to attend a court hearing that will decide the fate of 2,400 acres of federal public lands.
Wendsler Nosie, Sr. (San Carlos Apache), founded Apache Stronghold in 2014 to oppose the transfer of the public lands in the Tonto National Forest. The organization has been locked in a 10+ year legal battle with the mining giant Resoutin Copper to protect the land, which includes Oak Flat, a mesa that has been the site of religious ceremonies for tribes in the region since time immemorial. The lands are also home to endangered and threatened species, such as ocelots and Arizona hedgehog cacti.
Tomorrow, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether or not to lift an injunction that was put in place in August 2025 to pause the transfer to the mining company. If the court rules in favor of the mining company, the land transfer would begin immediately.
On Sunday, January 4, Nosie, Sr. set out on his walking journey from Oak Flat to the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix. In a letter issued to the media and supporters, the former tribal chairmen stated the trek was inspired by a spiritual encounter.
Below is the letter in full.
Editor’s note: The following letter is published as written.
January 3, 2026
Good afternoon to all my family, friends, relatives, and people. I come to you in this moment in time, knowing we all have been born into from our parents and those before. We all know those before us, suffered from a great evil, who tried to destroy them. This evil still exists today. Every day it works to control us and make its way to have us deceive our own children's lives, by them not being told the truth. We teach them to live and embrace a system of capitalism that we surely know won't secure the future. Through every passing generation, it clearly shows it has failed. From the birth of Europe to their unauthorized arrival here and the taking of the East Coast, wrongfully establishing their 13 colonies, they then turned toward the west, breaking all treaties that were dishonest from their inception, establishing a dishonest trust system allowing them to take more and more. Their human ideology, their way to survive through their economic engine, has been a disaster. It takes and it takes and gives nothing back. No care for any kind of life, no care for the next generation. It's about living for now and being greedy and destroying communities of people with their power of capitalism. Since the beginning, through colonization and capitalism, many here and around the world have suffered. People cried then and still today for a better day and still ask God, what have I done? The political agenda of capitalism is to put fear in each of us. Pushing each of us towards the illusion that mother earth and ourselves are useless. From fear we lose hope, the journey of spirituality and everything on mother earth, becomes disposable. Our mother earth is the timeline to everything. It gives us the water of life, it gives us the oxygen of life, it gives us the food of life, and it blesses us with life for our children and those yet to come. It saddens me when this country does not prioritize all the sacred elements that give us life. It saddens me to witness that some no longer care to keep God's greatest gift alive. From a spiritual understanding, our love for one another is critical, our morals to make right decisions is critical and the love for our mother earth should be embedded forever. We have all been taught not to recognize our mother and forced into a life to be colonized. We were blessed, in the beginning, with the tools of how to survive in the world that provides for us all. This evil took those tools away and taught us how to be selfish, greedy, impassive and assimilate our minds and hearts to believe in capitalism.
For what I have witnessed, I now can say, I see as what my father, my grandfather and great grandfather witnessed before me. Capitalism demands your loyalty, to destroy every moral ethic, spiritual belief and God's way of life. I too know who cares and protects what God and Jesus had warned the world about. I will not be one who is loyal to capitalism, you will not fool me. If we really think it through, from those who say that capitalism will solve our problems, and when we actually understand it, disaster will occur, i.e. billions of gallons of water can remain forever, no contamination to the environment, no climate changes, one of the oldest religious ceremonies before the beginning of time continues, etc. The United States of America clearly violated procedures and laws and ignored not only the Native Americans, but also the state of Arizona and the people of this country. Their decision to give full exemptions from the law has opened the door forever for corporations to follow suit. America, our civilization is in trouble and it needs your attention. As you and I today, as did our ancestors had encountered centuries ago, we are also in that moment. We cannot lose our mother earth, if she is lost, there is no life.
The sustainability of the Mother Earth ensures our children’s children will live. So, preserving mother earth today, will guarantee future generations.
I will be departing from Oak Flat on Sunday, January 4th at 11 AM. I will be walking and a little jogging to arrive in downtown Phoenix to attend the court hearings (AZ Reform Mining Coalition, ITCA, San Carlos Apache Tribe and Lopez/Kinsey(Burdette)cases vs. U.S.) which begin at 10 AM on January 7, 2026. For those who do know me well, I had a spiritual encounter and must travel in this spiritual way. I ask each of you, if possible, to make ceremonial fire, light a candle, or be in prayer. The decision of the federal judges will weigh heavy on the future for water, environment, religion, and the ability to give federal exemptions to corporations without following legal policies. Usen(Creator), hear my prayers, as I make this journey to encounter many ugly obstacles but also witness the beauty of all life. I will let No Fear distract me, for all the beautiful spirits will be in all four directions.
— Wendsler Nosie, Sr.
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