Oak Flat

Starred review from December 23, 2019
MacArthur “genius grant”–recipient Redniss (Thunder and Lightning) combines drawings with reportage and oral history to tell the story of America’s decimation of indigenous people and culture in this gorgeous, devastating, and hopeful ethnographic account. Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site in Arizona’s “Copper Corridor” is the subject of a years-long legal battle, beginning in the early 2000s, between the Resolution Copper mining company and an underresourced coalition of Apaches and conservationists. The hero of this far-reaching epic is Naelyn Pike, an Apache teen who testifies to Congress and provides an eloquent account of her Sunrise Dance, a complex coming-of-age ritual for young Apache women. Redniss also interviews miners and non-Native longtime residents of poverty-stricken Superior, Ariz., to reveal that only outsiders are getting rich in the mining scheme. She also documents the long legal war that the U.S. has waged against Native American territories, including the Supreme Court’s 1823 ruling in Johnson v. McIntosh that “‘principles of abstract justice’ could not be factored” into decisions about Native land. Redniss’s glowing colored-pencil illustrations capture the surreal magic of Southwestern landscapes: from a green-eyed ocelot, to the nearly empty Main Street in Superior. The future of Oak Flat and other sacred sites remains precarious, but Redniss effectively conveys the importance of these grounds and delivers a respectful and powerful portrait of people who are down but refuse to be counted out.

Starred review from March 15, 2020
A vast deposit of copper was discovered beneath federal land in Arizona, in 1995. The ore was worth billions of dollars, but for the residents of the San Carlos Apache Reservation, the land, especially the mesa known as Oak Flat, was priceless and sacred. A powerful mining company lobbied in Washington, DC, to change the law so that they could possess the land and extract the copper. Some people in the nearby struggling town of Superior supported them, but environmentalists protested, and many Native Americans objected, including Naelyn Pike, a courageous young Apache activist. In her fourth work of visual nonfiction, Redniss, a recipient of Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, forges an enthralling convergence of oral history and narrative to tell with precision and empathy the dramatic story of the still unresolved battle over Oak Flat. She reaches back to the region's history of conquest and economic booms and busts; illuminates Apache culture, highlighting the arduous, traditional coming-of-age ceremony for young women that Naelyn performs on Oak Flat; and elucidates the damage copper mining does to the land and human health. By letting facts and perceptions reverberate in sync with her similarly distilled, lustrously colorful drawings, Redniss creates a stunningly holistic and deeply moving tale of how we value and live on the earth for better and for worse.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2020

With this follow-up to her acclaimed Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future, Redniss continues to explore narrative and visual nonfiction in a work about Oak Flat, AZ, an ancient Apache burial ground and religious site. Redniss effectively chronicles Apache resistance to a cooper mining company interested in Oak Flat, and dedicated conservationists who provided additional support. The author interviewed Apache who perform religious ceremonies at Oak Flat, including the Sunrise Ceremony, a coming-of-age rite for young girls. She also interviewed Apache who work for the mining company, and are optimistic about the mine's and the community's future. Interspersed throughout are the author's drawings, which add additional personal touches to both the landscape and the people. Besides personal histories and narratives, the book also delves into the history of Arizona mining; the sovereignty of Native tribes; and the historical trauma as a result of ongoing efforts of colonization, including the systematic "re-education" of Native children. VERDICT As the fight to prevent the mine from operating continues to be litigated, works like this will continue to enrage and enchant readers of environmental underdog stories; this will be a helpful starting point for all interested in environmental justice. [See Prepub Alert, 9/23/19.]--Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2019

MacArthur fellow Redniss, a National Book Award finalist for Radioactive and PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award winner for Thunder & Lightning, here offers a graphic-format account of how three generations of an Apache family are struggling to prevent Oak Flat, a high-elevation mesa that is both an ancient burial ground and a religious site for the coming-of-age rituals of Apache girls, from falling to a multinational mining concern. Also included: the impact on a mining family.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 15, 2020
This artistically and thematically profound account of a controversial mining initiative on land that the Apaches of Arizona consider sacred suggests a culture clash of irreconcilable differences. As she has demonstrated in previous books, MacArthur fellow Redniss (Illustration/Parsons School of Design; Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present and Future, 2015, etc.) has a scope that extends well beyond the conventional limits of the graphic novel. Here, she frames her provocative narrative with artistry that evokes the awe and wonder of Native origin stories and the timelessness of eternity. Against this majestic artistic backdrop, Redniss chronicles the machinations of a mining company boasting massive profits as they battle the Natives of the region, who "consider themselves to be at war with the United States." As one activist notes, "we were kicked out of these holy places. The Apache religion survived...with the hope of returning one day to the ancestral homelands. There was always that prophecy: that the final fight between the Apache and America would be for our religion." On one side are jobs and millions of dollars, though within the context that mining operations have an expiration date, in this case likely four decades, and that the Arizona landscape is littered with ghost towns, examples of what happens after the boom goes bust. On the other side are ancient spiritual values and traditions that long predate the intrusion of white settlers and their mistreatment of those who had preceded them. Amid the gorgeous illustrations, Redniss provides plenty of historical context about how the American government has violated its own agreements with those tribes--and how it continues to do so. Yet the author refuses to oversimplify, giving voice to those who feel that standing in the way of progress simply perpetuates so many of the problems endemic to communities who have suffered such abuse. As a work of advocacy, the book is compelling and convincing; as a work of art, it is masterful.

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