Stand up for LIFE: Be Complicit No More

Note: The following piece was co-authored by Sisters Joni Luna and Barbara Battista.

The Lakota shaman Black Elk once said, “We don’t have to heal the Earth, she can heal herself.  All we have to do is stop making her sick.”

Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr.* and his family hosted a delegation of Women Religious, Catholic Sisters, from seven communities and Indigenous elders from across the United States who gathered under the great blue skies (church) of Oak Flat, Arizona.  Mennonite, Quaker, and Buddhist friends were also hosted.

We were graciously welcomed to take part in Apache religious ceremonies, faith sharing, and cultural rituals, thus creating a sacred space for deep connection with Mother Earth, Creator, the universe, and each other. In so doing, this delegation of nine Catholic sisters stood in solidarity with the Apache Stronghold movement to defend, protect, speak out, and state unequivocally that we will be COMPLICIT NO MORE.

The Apache call this place Chi’chil Bildagoteel. Ceremonies, religious rituals, and communication with Creator/Yashua/God have taken place here for thousands – or more – years.  Particular religious ceremonies focused on honoring life, all life, happen only here. On no other place on Earth can these ceremonies take place.  It is here or nowhere.

To be Indigenous or Native is to live in rhythm with Mother Earth and thus to all life. To belong to a place and profess all as relatives, human and other-than-human alike.  To learn from creation and to honor creation.  To be one with rather than the one on the top.  I am attempting to describe the Sacred Hoop.

As a member of the Sacred Hoop, we five-fingered ones have a responsibility to show up for LIFE.  Every member has that responsibility, and the companion one which is to not detract or inhibit other members from thriving.  All members are important. Need I say that the Hoop is a circle, not a pyramid?

The fact that the U.S. government is planning to allow the destruction of Oak Flat, this place where Apache members of the Sacred Hoop not only honor LIFE but also commit to protecting and extending life into future generations shows us that this nation continues to operate from a mindset nurtured by the Doctrine of Discovery and other more recent proclamations claiming that some people deserve more—more honor, more life, more resources, etc. — than others.  America claims to be a land of liberty and justice for all.  Residents of this nation are supposed to be granted Constitutional rights that guarantee freedom of religion.  These rights are at risk of being denied if Oak Flat is in fact transferred to a mining company and, in the process, completely destroyed.

We must wake up to this threat.  Can we recognize that harm inflicted anywhere in the Sacred Hoop affects us all? Can we claim our responsibility to act, to show up for LIFE?  Admittedly we are in the last hour or minutes of this struggle.  Time is of the essence.  The Supreme Court can still intervene. The time is now to speak up for LIFE. 

It is with great faith and trust in Providence that we invite you to stand in solidarity with the Apache Stronghold and all those working to sustain thriving life for all. Pray that we honor LIFE.

Read more about the work to protect Oak Flat here.

Written on July 31, 2025 by Sister Joni Luna, SP, Multi-Colored Feathered Woman, and Sister Barbara Battista, SP.

• Wendsler Nosie Sr. was born on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Gila County, in San Carlos, Arizona, in 1959. He is a former Chairman and Councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a long-time opponent of the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange. He is currently living at Oak Flat (Chi’chil Bildagoteel) to defend it from a land transfer to Resolution Copper.