A work of visual nonfiction by Lauren Redniss, published in 2020, following three generations of a San Carlos Apache family and their opposition to a proposed copper mine at Oak Flat (Chi'chil Bildagoteel), a site the San Carlos Apache Tribe and neighboring nations hold sacred, where Apache girls undergo the coming-of-age Sunrise Ceremony. The book combines Redniss's own illustrated art with reporting on the decades-long legal and legislative fight over the land, including the federal land-transfer act that would open Oak Flat to mining. It names the site's religious standing and the litigation over it without describing the Sunrise Ceremony's own ritual content.
Facts
Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterOak Flat (Chi'chil Bildagoteel), a site the San Carlos Apache Tribe and neighboring nations hold sacred and where Apache girls undergo the coming-of-age Sunrise Ceremony, and the decades-long legal fight over its transfer for copper mining. The book names the site's religious standing without describing the Sunrise Ceremony's own ritual content. 2 Scholarly ReceptionNamed a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice; Eliza Griswold's review there called it brilliant and virtuosic, praising Redniss as a master storyteller. Redniss is a MacArthur Fellow and National Book Award finalist. 2 Production
Publication Year Place of Origin Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
An outside-authored account of the community's legal fight over a sacred site, not a work of or by Western Apache religious authority.
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