Although copper has been mined in the area surrounding Oak Flat off and on since the 1870s, the current struggle over the fate of the campground — deemed sacred by Apaches and other Native peoples and ecologically sensitive by environmentalists — has a history of at least 30 years. Here’s a timeline of events:
1955: President Dwight B. Eisenhower issues a mining ban at Oak Flat, due to its natural and cultural value.
1995: Magma Copper Company discovers a deep copper deposit about 1.2 miles south of the Magma minehead and overlooking Oak Flat Campground, which is currently in the Tonto National Forest. According to Resolution Copper, the deposit lies a minimum of 3,300 feet below the surface.
1996: BHP Copper, Inc., acquires Magma Copper Company and the Resolution copper deposit. Shortly thereafter, BHP closes operations at the Magma Mine, but exploration of the Resolution deposit continues.
2001: Kennecott Exploration, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto (the mining firm of which Resolution Copper is a subsidiary) joins forces with BHP to drill and further explore the deposit. The deposit is found to be one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world with an estimated copper resource of 1.7 billion metric tons at an average grade of 1.52% copper.
2005: The first attempt by Congress to pass legislation to authorize a land exchange to allow mining (H.R.2618 and S.1122, the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2005 known as SALECA) is filed by former Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., and former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Several other Arizona legislators sign on as cosponsors.
2005-2014: Thirteen more attempts (seven in the House and six in the Senate) are made to push the land exchange. The exchange involves trading parcels of environmentally sensitive lands located within public lands that Resolution Copper purchased to exchange to the U.S. Forest Service for Oak Flat.
December 2014: The land exchange is included as part of the Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (the “NDAA”), known as a “must-pass” defense spending bill. The bill passes and is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
June 2015: The first of several bills to repeal the land exchange is filed by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.
March 2016: Oak Flat is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
May 2020: Rio Tinto destroys two rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia that were deemed of great cultural and spiritual significance for the past 46,000 years and cared for by the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura/Binigura peoples. The incident sets off an international outcry and the resignation of Rio Tinto’s CEO.
Jan. 12, 2021: Grassroots group Apache Stronghold sues the federal government to halt the land exchange, saying the Forest Service cannot legally transfer the land to Rio Tinto for several parcels the company owns and maintains the land around Oak Flat was reserved for Western Apaches in an 1852 treaty with the U.S. government.Jan. 15, 2021: The Forest Service publishes the final environmental impact statement on Oak Flat, which starts a 60-day clock within which the land exchange can be finalized. Two other lawsuits, one by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the other by a consortium of environmentalists and tribes, were also filed (one the same day and the other a week later). Those suits are later put on hold after the Biden administration withdraws the first environmental impact statement.
Feb. 12, 2021: A federal judge rejects Apache Stronghold’s request to halt the land exchange. The judge rules that the group, led by former San Carlos Apache Chairman Wendsler Nosie, has no standing because it does not constitute a tribe even though Nosie is a direct descendant of a signatory to the Treaty of Santa Fe, which promised the Apache nations trust lands.
March 1, 2021: The Forest Service withdraws the final environmental impact statement after a public outcry and a statement by President Joe Biden calling for greater tribal consultation. The agency says it will restart tribal consultation.
Oct. 21, 2021: Apache Stronghold asks a three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to prevent Resolution from obtaining the parcel of Tonto National Forest lands, including Oak Flat.
June 28, 2022: The three-judge panel at the 9th Circuit turns down Apache Stronghold’s bid to stop the land exchange. The justices affirm that the site, known also by its Apache name Chi’chil Bildagoteel, is “sacred ground,” but says neither tribal religious beliefs as set out in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act nor the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom to practice religion are sufficient to overturn the land swap.
March 21, 2023: Apache Stronghold tells a full panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Resolution project would prevent Native American groups from exercising their religion by destroying land they consider sacred.
May 2023: Resolution Copper is granted permission to join the 2021 lawsuit.
March 1, 2024: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules against Apache Stronghold in a narrow 6-5 decision.
October 2024: Apache Stronghold appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
April 2025: A Forest Service announcement that the process will move forward again sets off a flurry of court filings to stop or at least put on hold the move, which would open up a 60-day period within which the land exchange can take place. Apache Stronghold wins a temporary halt to the proceedings until the high court decides whether to hear their appeal.
May 27, 2025: The Supreme Court turns down Apache Stronghold’s appeal.
June 9, 2025: U.S. District Court Judge Dominic W. Lanza bars the Forest Service from completing the land exchange until a full 60 days after the new document is issued to give parties from two other lawsuits sufficient time to review the environmental impact statement and revive their litigation.
July 2025: Apache Stronghold asks the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision and hear the case.
July 24, 2025: A group of Apache women files another lawsuit to halt the land exchange at Oak Flat. The four women, who have spiritual and cultural connections to the site, file their suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Their litigation claims the exchange violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Amendment’s religious rights protections and two environmental laws. The suit also brings two new factors into play: A recent high court decision that affirms parental rights to direct their children’s religious education and references to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s blistering dissent to the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Apache Stronghold’s case.
August 2025: Judge Lanza hears the San Carlos and environmentalists’ lawsuits Aug. 6. He turns down their requests to halt the land exchange Aug. 15. Lanza turns down a request from the Apache women for an emergency injunction Aug. 17. The environmentalists and the Apache women immediately appeal Lanza’s decision to the 9th Circuit court.
October 2025: The Supreme Court justices turn down Apache Stronghold’s request to reconsider their previous decision.
December 2025: Rep. Adelita Grijalva files her first bill, continuing her late father’s fight to overturn the Oak Flat land exchange bill.