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Oak Flat — also known as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel — is the Apaches’ Notre Dame Cathedral, or Mecca, or Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
In the mountains 70 miles east of Phoenix, the wildlife and tree-covered jewel covers some 2,400 acres, or roughly two-thirds the size of Sky Harbor Airport. The federally protected site also sits atop a bonanza of copper. On Thursday the federal government announced it will soon take a major step that could result in mining corporations using explosives to turn it into a gaping crater…