A Native American group that has faced multiple federal court losses in its attempt to halt the sale of an ancient sacred site is once again petitioning a court to block the land transfer to an international mining company.
The White House said in March that it would go ahead with the planned sale of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a transfer that the coalition group Apache Stronghold has been fighting for roughly half a decade.
The Native American group has attempted several times to have federal courts block the sale, which it says violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Those efforts peaked in October 2025 when the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by the group to have its case heard.
Yet on April 22 the religious liberty law firm Becket said Apache Stronghold filed an amended lawsuit in U.S. district court, with senior attorney Luke Goodrich claiming that the federal government "rushed the Oak Flat transfer through under cover of darkness" in order to avoid "meaningful judicial review."
"That was as illegal as it was brazen," Goodrich said, urging the court to "rescind the illegal transfer and protect the freedom of Western Apaches to continue worshipping at Oak Flat for generations to come."
In addition to claims of violating both the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the suit alleges that the transfer violates the 1852 Treaty of Santa Fe struck between the Apaches and the U.S. government.
The Indigenous coalition has garnered support from major Catholic backers in its religious liberty bid. In 2024 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) joined an amicus brief arguing that lower court decisions allowing the sale of Oak Flat represent "a grave misunderstanding" of religious freedom law.
The Knights of Columbus similarly filed a brief in support of the Apaches, arguing that the decision to allow the property to be mined applies an "atextual constraint" to the federal religious freedom law with "no grounding in the statute itself."
Resolution Copper was aiming to start exploratory drilling at the Oak Flat site in mid-March, according to a March 15 letter filed at the Supreme Court by an attorney for the company.
