March 17, 2026
Mrs. Grijalva (for herself, Ms. Stansbury, Ms. Leger Fernandez, and Mr. Huffman) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
To preserve the Traditional Cultural Place of Chi’chil Bildagoteel Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Preserve the Traditional Cultural Place Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District Act
.
Sec. 2. Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1)
Chí’chil Biłdagoteel, meaning a broad flat of Emory oak trees
in Western Apache, and known as Oak Flat in English, is part of the ancestral homelands of Native Americans forcibly removed at gunpoint by the United States Army during the 1880s and held as prisoners of war in concentration camps until the early 1900s.
(2)
Despite being forcibly removed, Western Apaches and other Native Americans have maintained their deep connections to Chí’chil Biłdagoteel and continue to conduct religious ceremonies, gather medicines, water and other items for ceremonies, gather acorns and other foods, pray, and honor ancestors buried there as they have since time immemorial.
(3)
The National Historic Preservation Act was enacted in 1966 to help preserve the historical and cultural resources of the United States and authorized the National Park Service to establish and maintain the National Register of Historic Places to identify the Nation’s cultural resources and to indicate what properties should be considered for protection from destruction or impairment (36 CFR 60.1)
.
(4)
The National Park Service has established specific criteria for the evaluation of nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, including for traditional cultural places.
(5)
In 2012, the Tonto National Forest initiated the formal process of nominating Chí’chil Biłdagoteel to the National Register of Historic Places given its status as a known traditional cultural place.
(6)
From 2012 to 2014, as part of the nominating process, Tonto National Forest staff engaged in government-to-government consultations with Arizona Indian Tribes, made numerous site visits, compiled oral history and archival research, and worked with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer and the Pinal County Supervisor and incorporated their suggestions, comments and feedback, and this process resulted in the Forest Service formally nominating Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places.
(7)
The Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District encompasses thousands of acres located in the Tonto National Forest and includes Apache Leap, Ga’an or Devils Canyon, Queen Creek Canyon, and the previous Oak Flat Withdrawal Area issued under President Eisenhower’s Administration.
(8)
In 2014, despite bipartisan opposition, congressional allies of Resolution Copper inserted the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange Act as a closed-door, last-minute rider in the Carl Levin and Howard P. Buck
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 to give away approximately 2,422 acres of land within the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District to Resolution Copper.
(9)
In 2014 and 2015, under the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange (Section 3003 of Public Law 113–291; 16 U.S.C. 539p), the Forest Service supervised an ethnographic and ethnohistoric study in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act and found that—
(A)
Chí’chil Biłdagoteel is a sacred place for Western Apaches and an important traditional cultural place for at least 9 Tribes;
(B)
there are hundreds of traditional cultural resources, including ancestral archeological sites, petroglyph sites, Apache camps, and named landforms and resource collection areas within Chí’chil Biłdagoteel;
(C)
there are 46 known springs that are culturally important to Western Apaches in Chí’chil Biłdagoteel and the surrounding area; and
(D)
there are dozens of plants, minerals, and animals that possess traditional cultural significance to Western Apaches located in Chí’chil Biłdagoteel.
(10)
On March 4, 2016, the National Park Service listed Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
(11)
The Southeast Arizona Land Exchange Act does not require Resolution Copper to smelt, refine, or sell the copper it extracts from beneath the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District in the United States, nor is there any requirement that this copper, derived from public land, benefits United States consumers.
(12)
Resolution Copper is a joint venture of the world’s two largest foreign mining entities, Rio Tinto (55 percent stake) and BHP (45 percent stake), and these foreign corporations formed Resolution Copper to acquire public land within the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District to extract United States copper located beneath it primarily for export to the People’s Republic of China.
(13)
Rio Tinto’s largest shareholder is Chinalco, a company wholly owned by the People’s Republic of China, which owns 14.56 percent of Rio Tinto, 4 times more than the next largest shareholder, and Rio Tinto generates over 57 percent of its revenue through the export of minerals to the People’s Republic of China, while BHP generates over 62 percent of its revenue through the export of minerals to the People’s Republic of China, making the People’s Republic of China the largest market for Rio Tinto and BHP.
(14)
Rio Tinto has a long record of human rights violations and environmental devastation, harming communities around the world, including in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Namibia.
(15)
In 2020, Rio Tinto intentionally blew up an area sacred to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples in Western Australia, including the Juukan Gorge Rock Dwellings, which have evidence of human habitation dating back 46,000 years, because it was the cheapest way to access ore, resulting in immeasurable cultural and spiritual loss and pain for indigenous communities.
(16)
The Resolution Copper Mine will result in the destruction of most, if not all, of the 2,422 acres of the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District transferred to Resolution Copper, including the collapse of the surface, resulting in a 1.8-mile-wide crater 1,000 feet deep, and fracturing and dewatering of local aquifers, which will drain ground water and springs.
(17)
The Resolution Copper Mine proposes the development of significant mining-related infrastructure throughout Tonto National Forest, including large parts of the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District that were not transferred to Resolution Copper under the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange, for the construction, operation, and maintenance of—
(A)
a 19.6-mile pipeline corridor to slurry 1,370,000,000 tons of toxic waste to a dump site that will require drilling a tunnel through a mountain called King’s Crown Peak and constructing a pipeline bridge to span Ga’an Canyon in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District;
(B)
a 3.6-mile long high voltage power line corridor and a 16.9-mile power line through the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District to provide power to the toxic waste dump; and
(C)
new roads in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District for servicing of the pipelines and power lines and the conversion of various Tonto National Forest service roads to commercial use by Resolution Copper.
(18)
The Resolution Copper Mine will have enormous impacts on the region, including—
(A)
consuming over 250,000,000,000 gallons of groundwater over the 40-year life of the mine, which is enough water to support 180,000 people annually for 40 years, resulting in over 4 feet of land subsidence over large swaths of the East Salt River Valley due to decreases in groundwater levels, in some areas by nearly 200 feet; and
(B)
the construction of a toxic waste dump to store 1.37 billion tons of toxic waste in perpetuity that will measure nearly 500 feet high and span approximately 15,000 acres in an area called Skunk Camp in the Gila River watershed.
(19)
The Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District should be preserved and protected instead of allowing foreign-owned Resolution Copper to destroy it, resulting in permanent and irreplaceable religious and cultural loss to Native Americans while jeopardizing the health and safety of downstream communities due to inevitable future breaching of the toxic waste dump.
Sec. 3. Definitions
In this Act:
(1) Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District
The term Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District means the traditional cultural place listed on the National Register of Historic Places located on—
(A)
Tonto National Forest land in southeastern Arizona; and
(B)
what was previously National Forest System land but transferred to Resolution Copper on or about March 13, 2026, in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern Arizona.
(2) Indian Tribe
The term Indian Tribe has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
(3) National Forest System
The term National Forest System has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
(4) Resolution Copper
The term Resolution Copper means Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, formed by foreign mining entities Rio Tinto and BHP, to acquire 2,422 acres of the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District to extract and monetize American copper located beneath it.
(5) Secretary
The term Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture.
(6) Traditional cultural place
The term traditional cultural place means a place eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places based upon its associations with cultural practices and beliefs of a living community that are rooted in that community’s history and important in maintaining the community’s continuing cultural identity.
Sec. 4. Withdrawal
The National Forest System land located in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District is withdrawn from all forms of—
(1)
entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws;
(2)
location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and
(3)
disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials.
Sec. 5. Preservation of a historic place; prohibitions on use; consultations and cooperative agreements
(a) Preservation of a historic place
The Secretary—
(1)
shall preserve the natural condition of the National Forest System land in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District as a traditional cultural place;
(2)
shall not carry out any activity that would adversely affect the physical or cultural integrity of the National Forest System land in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District; and
(3)
shall prohibit any activities that could adversely affect the landscape or other natural structures, water resources, wildlife, flora, or ecosystems of the National Forest System land in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District.
(b) Prohibition of mining-Related activities
Notwithstanding any other law, all activities related to mining and mining-related activities, including rights-of way, toxic waste pipelines and related infrastructure, electrical and other utility development, waste disposal, and road development and road expansion, are prohibited on the National Forest System land in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District.
(c) Consultations and cooperative efforts
The Secretary shall engage in government-to-government consultations with Indian Tribes with ties to the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District and shall enter into cooperative agreements requested by these Indian Tribes to ensure access to the National Forest System land for traditional activities and preservation of sacred and cultural areas.