Oak Flat

Oak Flat is a serene high-elevation mesa that sits above the southeastern Arizona desert, fifteen miles to the west of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. For the San Carlos tribe, Oak Flat is a holy place, an ancient burial ground and religious site where Apache girls celebrate the coming-of-age ritual known as the Sunrise Ceremony. In 1995, a massive untapped copper reserve was discovered nearby. A decade later, a law was passed transferring the area to a private company, whose planned copper mine will wipe Oak Flat off the map--sending its natural springs, petroglyph-covered rocks, and old-growth trees tumbling into a void.

Redniss's deep reporting and haunting artwork anchor this mesmerizing human narrative. Oak Flat tells the story of a race-against-time struggle for a swath of American land, which pits one of the poorest communities in the United States against the federal government and two of the world's largest mining conglomerates. The book follows the fortunes of two families with profound connections to the contested site: the Nosies, an Apache family whose teenage daughter is an activist and leader in the Oak Flat fight, and the Gorhams, a mining family whose patriarch was a sheriff in the lawless early days of Arizona statehood.

The still-unresolved Oak Flat conflict is ripped from today's headlines, but its story resonates with foundational American themes: the saga of westward expansion, the resistance and resilience of Native peoples, and the efforts of profiteers to control the land and unearth treasure beneath it while the lives of individuals hang in the balance.

These discussion questions were provided by a Bookclubs user

Book club questions for Oak Flat by Lauren Redniss

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Lauren Redniss said she wants her books to combine fact and feeling. What did you think of her unusual approach? What, if anything, did you feel as you read the book?

The Sunrise ceremony is an important rite of passage for Apache girls. Did you participate in a coming-of-age ceremony for yourself or your children? How did it compare with the dance described in the book? What purpose do you think ceremonies like this serve?

The Apache say Oak Flat is sacred land. What makes a place sacred? Who decides? If people prayed there at some point in the past, does a place remain sacred forever? When a church, temple or other house of worship is torn down, is the land still sacred? Do Indian sites remain sacred if they are rarely used for ceremonies?

Many big companies, including Resolution Copper, sponsor projects and events in communities where they have operations. What do you think about this common business practice? To what extent does it impact your opinion of a company?

The Navajo Nation trademarked the Navajo name and has been willing to sue to stop others from using it commercially. However, the Apache and most other tribes do not own trademarks. Are names like the Apache helicopter or the Jeep Cherokee appealing to you? How is using tribal names commercially any different from using them for sports teams?

Have you ever owned any Apache tears? How did you use them?

What do you think life in Superior will be like in 20 years if Resolution Copper is operating its mine? What will it be like if that doesn’t happen?

Ownership of what once were Indian lands goes back to the Doctrine of Discovery, which said that representatives of Christian monarchs could claim land they “discovered” and could rule over the nonChristian inhabitants. That right passed to what became the United States through war and purchase, and of course has since passed to modern day property owners. However, considerable land in the West remains under federal ownership and its use is highly contentious:

How much say should residents of a state or local area have over the use of nearby federal lands? Should their interests outweigh those of U.S. taxpayers as a whole?
How much say should be given to Indians who once used those lands? Does it make a difference how those lands were used (living quarters, hunting, sacred ceremonies, etc.)
How do you weigh the value of job creation against environmental preservation?

What did you think about the process that led to approval of the sale of the Oak Flat land to Resolution Copper? What changes could or should be made?

Mining isn’t just the removal of the desired resource but also the creation of huge amounts of waste from the process. Was it shocking to read that the Resolution Copper mine might produce a mountain range of tailings 10 miles long and 520 feet high? In Florida, we live with phosphate mines and the risk of environmental disasters when dams break, such as we experienced recently at Piney Point. Phosphate, of course, is essential for growing food, while copper is essential for modern electronics and electric cars. Where/how can we find solutions to this dilemma?

Oak Flat Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Oak Flat discussion questions

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A powerful work of visual nonfiction about three generations of an Apache family struggling to protect sacred land from a multinational mining corporation, by MacArthur "Genius" and National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, the acclaimed author of Thunder & Lightning

"Brilliant . . . virtuosic . . . a master storyteller of a new order."--Eliza Griswold, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS