![\"\"](\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/09\/saveoakflat.jpg\")
\r\n<\/P>\r\nWASHINGTON – A federal judge Friday refused to order a halt to the proposed Resolution Copper Mine on Oak Flat, land that opponents say is sacred to the Apache people and will be destroyed by the mine.
<\/P>\r\n\r\nU.S. District Judge Steven Logan rejected a request by the group Apache Stronghold for a preliminary injunction against the mine, saying the group did not have standing to challenge the project. Further, \r\nLogan wrote,<\/a>\r\nthe group had not shown it had “a likelihood of success on, or serious questions going to, the merits of its claims.\u201d\r\n <\/P>\r\n\r\nThose included claims, in sometimes tearful testimony last week, that the project violated an \r\n1852 treaty<\/a>\r\nwith the Apache, that it would violate their First Amendment rights to worship and that the government violated their due process rights by rushing approval.\r\n <\/P>\r\n\r\nCalls seeking comment from the group and its attorneys were not immediately returned Friday. But in \r\na statement<\/a>\r\nposted to its website Thursday, Apache Stronghold advocates said the mine would destroy Oak Flat, leaving behind a “crater of rubble more than 1,000 feet deep and almost two miles across.”\r\n <\/P>\r\nThe group’s leader, Wendsler Nosie Sr., said in the statement that “Oak Flat or Chi’chil Bildagoteel cannot be replaced.” <\/P>\r\n <\/P>\r\nNosie and his granddaughter, Naelyn Pike, testified in Logan’s court last week about the significance of Oak Flat, which they said has been used for a coming-of-age ritual known as the sunrise ceremony, as a burial ground and as a place to collect food and herbs, or just gather with family. <\/P>\r\nPike testified that if Oak Flat is destroyed, “everything the creator has given to us will be taken away.” <\/P>\r\n\r\nThe Oak Flat parcel has been protected since the 1950s as a campground. But it was part of the 2,422 acres in the Tonto National Forest that the federal government agreed to swap with owners of \r\nResolution Copper<\/a>\r\nin exchange for 5,459 acres of land in southeast Arizona from the company.\r\n <\/P>\r\nThat swap was finally approved, after years of failure, when then-Sen. John McCain included it as a last-minute amendment to the must-pass Defense Department budget in December 2014. <\/P>\r\n\r\nThat started years of studies and planning on the project that ended in January when the U.S. Forest Service approved the final environmental \r\nimpact statement,<\/a>\r\nwhich clears the way for the land swap to take place. The government has said that exchange will not happen before March 11.\r\n <\/P>\r\nBut it would also irrevocably change the face of Oak Flat, ultimately leaving a crater 1,000 feet deep and two miles wide, critics say. <\/P>\r\n![\"Copper](\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/15\/oakflat.jpg\")
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