Oak Flat defenders clap back at Trump after court blocks copper mine construction in Arizona

After an appeals court halted a land exchange that would give way to one of the country’s largest copper mines in Arizona, Indigenous sovereignty activists responded to President Donald Trump’s rant on social media that targeted the opposition who kept the deal from moving forward. 

The temporary administrative injunction issued late Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit effectively prevented the U.S. Forest Service from transferring ownership of Oak Flat to multinational companies Rio Tinto and BHP. This trade was set to take place on Tuesday per the terms of a 60-day review issued by a U.S. District judge.

“The Apache people will never stop fighting for Chí’chil Biłdagoteel,” said San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler in a statement. “We thank the court for stopping this horrific land exchange and allowing us to argue the merits of our pending lawsuit in court.”

Following Monday’s decision, in a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed those opposing the construction of the mine were “Anti-American, and representing other Copper competitive Countries. We can’t continue to allow this to happen to the U.S.A.!”

Shortly after, the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition (AMRC) released its own statement, rebuking the claims made in Trump’s “characteristically juvenile” post, noting that building the copper mine on sacred land would not only be detrimental to Indigenous communities but would also require offshore smelting. With recent tariffs demanding more U.S.-made materials — and more planned by the Trump administration — subsequent imports could weigh greatly on U.S. companies and ultimately consumers.

“The only long-term effects on the USA and Arizona of this mine would be a huge crater (two miles across and 1,000 feet deep) where Oak Flat used to be, and 1.4 billion tons of toxic mine waste that must be contained in perpetuity. And here is the real kicker—if the Resolution mine is built it will use at least 250 billion gallons of water that Arizona simply does not have to spare.

“How is it ‘Anti-American’ to preserve a site that is on The National Register of Historic Places for its sacred value to Indian tribes? How is it radical left activism to insist that people keep the water they need to live?” the statement concluded.

The fight to protect Oak Flat, a sacred Western Apache site east of Phoenix, Arizona, has been center stage during Trump’s second presidency, as Indigenous and environmental rights activists, alongside religious liberty and recreation groups, continue to fight against the mining of the publicly owned land.

Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Biłdagoteel in Apache, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a Western Apache Traditional Cultural Property and National Historic District. For centuries, this site has been the center of sacred ceremonies for Western Apache people that cannot be held anywhere else.

The construction of the Resolution Copper mine would turn the sacred site into a two-mile-wide and 1,100-foot-deep crater in order to mine what is said to be the second-largest copper deposit in the world. The proposal saw the light of day in 2014 when Congress passed a bill that allowed the transfer. It has been embattled in court proceedings since.

The decision from the Ninth Circuit comes nearly three months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of Apache Stronghold v. United States, in which a coalition of Apache, Indigenous and other allies sought to prevent the transfer of the public land.

The judges agreed to consolidate two appeals brought forth by Indigenous sovereignty groups, including the Apache Stronghold case and the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition vs U.S. Forest Service and Resolution Copper and halt the land exchange pending a review of the merit of the appeal.