Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West by Lauren Redniss is an incredibly accessible book for anyone who would like to read more non-fiction but doesn’t feel like they have the ability to. I’m talking about myself here, yes, but in recommending the book to other people I have found that I’m not alone in feeling totally overwhelmed by academic non fiction. That’s not to say that more scholarly writing is not important or necessary, but Redniss’s book is a good middle ground that shows that a book can be a historical marker as well as warm and welcoming. Redniss breaks up the history being delved into with lovely and simple pencil illustrations. Sometimes the illustrations stand alone and sometimes they are layered with text that feels dreamy like poetry, but still imbues a sense of the urgency of the battle to save Oak Flat and Apache Leap from mining and other corporate interests. A lot of the story gets told through the eyes of a a young activist, Naelyn Pike. We are introduced to Naelyn’s family through a narrative that is cohesive but also plain spoken and easygoing, even when they are speaking passionately about their opposition to their sacred land being sold away to an extremely extractive industry. Redniss also includes the voices of those that support mining the land — but it is very clear that she does not support their point of view. She includes portraits of everyone interviewed, and by looking at them you can see they are all drawn with the same empathic hand, regardless of where they stand.
Opposing politicians like John McCain and Raúl Grijalva make brief but impactful appearances. My friends and I used to drive by the former’s Sedona property and flip it off from the road. Anyway, as of this writing, there is no working mine in Oak Flat. Head over to Resolution Copper’s Myth vs. Fact section on their website for a laugh about the attempts made to paint mining for copper on sacred lands seem totally benign. The scene from Oak Flat that remains most vividly in my mind is Nizhoni Pike’s Sunrise Ceremony. Redniss includes this ceremony as the end of the book, and when read cover to cover you realize you have been reading sunset to sunrise via the illustrations of the land. So far the San Carlos Apache have successfully avoided their sacred land being taken from them. May they continue to prevail.
I read this book because it will be discussed at the upcoming Joshua Tree Desert Book Club meeting being hosted by Hi Desert Times in the Corner 62 courtyard this Sunday, May 19th at 11am. Even if you don’t get a chance to read the book, you’re welcome to attend!
The title for this writing was taken from the album title of Black Belt Eagle Scout’s 2023 release. Check it out. Currently, I am reading Never Whistle at Night, and one of the stories in it mentions Sedna, which stuck out to me because it is the title of one of the songs on the record. I love when different media I’m consuming weaves itself together. Anyway, check out both books and the record. Thanks for reading!