On March 6, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act (H.R. 1351).

Oak Flat is sacred to several tribal nations in Arizona, including the San Carlos Apache Tribe, whose citizens have visited the area to conduct cultural ceremonies and gather traditional medicines and food for millennia.

For over a decade, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has opposed the development of the large-scale mine proposed for this area that would risk destroying many existing and unidentified prehistoric and historic cultural artifacts.

It was listed on the 2015 America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list.