H.R. 7957

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7957 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7957

To preserve the Traditional Cultural Place of Chi'chil Bimdagoteel 
Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 
and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 17, 2026

Mrs. Grijalva (for herself, Ms. Stansbury, Ms. Leger Fernandez, and Mr. 
Huffman) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To preserve the Traditional Cultural Place of Chi'chil Bimdagoteel 
Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 
and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Preserve the Traditional Cultural 
Place Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:
(1) Chi'chil Bimdagoteel, meaning ``a broad flat of Emory 
oak trees'' in Western Apache, and known as Oak Flat in 
English, is part of the ancestral homelands of Native Americans 
forcibly removed at gunpoint by the United States Army during 
the 1880s and held as prisoners of war in concentration camps 
until the early 1900s.
(2) Despite being forcibly removed, Western Apaches and 
other Native Americans have maintained their deep connections 
to Chi'chil Bimdagoteel and continue to conduct religious 
ceremonies, gather medicines, water and other items for 
ceremonies, gather acorns and other foods, pray, and honor 
ancestors buried there as they have since time immemorial.
(3) The National Historic Preservation Act was enacted in 
1966 to help preserve the historical and cultural resources of 
the United States and authorized the National Park Service to 
establish and maintain the National Register of Historic Places 
``to identify the Nation's cultural resources and to indicate 
what properties should be considered for protection from 
destruction or impairment (36 CFR 60.1)''.
(4) The National Park Service has established specific 
criteria for the evaluation of nominations to the National 
Register of Historic Places, including for traditional cultural 
places.
(5) In 2012, the Tonto National Forest initiated the formal 
process of nominating Chi'chil Bimdagoteel to the National 
Register of Historic Places given its status as a known 
traditional cultural place.
(6) From 2012 to 2014, as part of the nominating process, 
Tonto National Forest staff engaged in government-to-government 
consultations with Arizona Indian Tribes, made numerous site 
visits, compiled oral history and archival research, and worked 
with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer and the 
Pinal County Supervisor and incorporated their suggestions, 
comments and feedback, and this process resulted in the Forest 
Service formally nominating Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District to the National Register of Historic Places.
(7) The Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District encompasses 
thousands of acres located in the Tonto National Forest and 
includes Apache Leap, Ga'an or Devils Canyon, Queen Creek 
Canyon, and the previous Oak Flat Withdrawal Area issued under 
President Eisenhower's Administration.
(8) In 2014, despite bipartisan opposition, congressional 
allies of Resolution Copper inserted the Southeast Arizona Land 
Exchange Act as a closed-door, last-minute rider in the Carl 
Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 to give away 
approximately 2,422 acres of land within the Chi'chil 
Bimdagoteel Historic District to Resolution Copper.
(9) In 2014 and 2015, under the Southeast Arizona Land 
Exchange (Section 3003 of Public Law 113-291; 16 U.S.C. 539p), 
the Forest Service supervised an ethnographic and ethnohistoric 
study in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act 
and found that--
(A) Chi'chil Bimdagoteel is a sacred place for 
Western Apaches and an important traditional cultural 
place for at least 9 Tribes;
(B) there are hundreds of traditional cultural 
resources, including ancestral archeological sites, 
petroglyph sites, Apache camps, and named landforms and 
resource collection areas within Chi'chil Bimdagoteel;
(C) there are 46 known springs that are culturally 
important to Western Apaches in Chi'chil Bimdagoteel 
and the surrounding area; and
(D) there are dozens of plants, minerals, and 
animals that possess traditional cultural significance 
to Western Apaches located in Chi'chil Bimdagoteel.
(10) On March 4, 2016, the National Park Service listed 
Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District on the National Register 
of Historic Places.
(11) The Southeast Arizona Land Exchange Act does not 
require Resolution Copper to smelt, refine, or sell the copper 
it extracts from beneath the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District in the United States, nor is there any requirement 
that this copper, derived from public land, benefits United 
States consumers.
(12) Resolution Copper is a joint venture of the world's 
two largest foreign mining entities, Rio Tinto (55 percent 
stake) and BHP (45 percent stake), and these foreign 
corporations formed Resolution Copper to acquire public land 
within the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District to extract 
United States copper located beneath it primarily for export to 
the People's Republic of China.
(13) Rio Tinto's largest shareholder is Chinalco, a company 
wholly owned by the People's Republic of China, which owns 
14.56 percent of Rio Tinto, 4 times more than the next largest 
shareholder, and Rio Tinto generates over 57 percent of its 
revenue through the export of minerals to the People's Republic 
of China, while BHP generates over 62 percent of its revenue 
through the export of minerals to the People's Republic of 
China, making the People's Republic of China the largest market 
for Rio Tinto and BHP.
(14) Rio Tinto has a long record of human rights violations 
and environmental devastation, harming communities around the 
world, including in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, 
Indonesia, Mongolia, and Namibia.
(15) In 2020, Rio Tinto intentionally blew up an area 
sacred to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples in 
Western Australia, including the Juukan Gorge Rock Dwellings, 
which have evidence of human habitation dating back 46,000 
years, because it was the cheapest way to access ore, resulting 
in immeasurable cultural and spiritual loss and pain for 
indigenous communities.
(16) The Resolution Copper Mine will result in the 
destruction of most, if not all, of the 2,422 acres of the 
Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District transferred to 
Resolution Copper, including the collapse of the surface, 
resulting in a 1.8-mile-wide crater 1,000 feet deep, and 
fracturing and dewatering of local aquifers, which will drain 
ground water and springs.
(17) The Resolution Copper Mine proposes the development of 
significant mining-related infrastructure throughout Tonto 
National Forest, including large parts of the Chi'chil 
Bimdagoteel Historic District that were not transferred to 
Resolution Copper under the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange, 
for the construction, operation, and maintenance of--
(A) a 19.6-mile pipeline corridor to slurry 
1,370,000,000 tons of toxic waste to a dump site that 
will require drilling a tunnel through a mountain 
called King's Crown Peak and constructing a pipeline 
bridge to span Ga'an Canyon in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel 
Historic District;
(B) a 3.6-mile long high voltage power line 
corridor and a 16.9-mile power line through the 
Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District to provide power 
to the toxic waste dump; and
(C) new roads in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District for servicing of the pipelines and power lines 
and the conversion of various Tonto National Forest 
service roads to commercial use by Resolution Copper.
(18) The Resolution Copper Mine will have enormous impacts 
on the region, including--
(A) consuming over 250,000,000,000 gallons of 
groundwater over the 40-year life of the mine, which is 
enough water to support 180,000 people annually for 40 
years, resulting in over 4 feet of land subsidence over 
large swaths of the East Salt River Valley due to 
decreases in groundwater levels, in some areas by 
nearly 200 feet; and
(B) the construction of a toxic waste dump to store 
1.37 billion tons of toxic waste in perpetuity that 
will measure nearly 500 feet high and span 
approximately 15,000 acres in an area called Skunk Camp 
in the Gila River watershed.
(19) The Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District should be 
preserved and protected instead of allowing foreign-owned 
Resolution Copper to destroy it, resulting in permanent and 
irreplaceable religious and cultural loss to Native Americans 
while jeopardizing the health and safety of downstream 
communities due to inevitable future breaching of the toxic 
waste dump.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:
(1) Chi'chil biQdagoteel historic district.--The term 
``Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District'' means the 
traditional cultural place listed on the National Register of 
Historic Places located on--
(A) Tonto National Forest land in southeastern 
Arizona; and
(B) what was previously National Forest System land 
but transferred to Resolution Copper on or about March 
13, 2026, in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern 
Arizona.
(2) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian Tribe'' has the 
meaning given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
(3) National forest system.--The term ``National Forest 
System'' has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the 
Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 
(16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
(4) Resolution copper.--The term ``Resolution Copper'' 
means Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, formed by foreign mining 
entities Rio Tinto and BHP, to acquire 2,422 acres of the 
Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District to extract and monetize 
American copper located beneath it.
(5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
of Agriculture.
(6) Traditional cultural place.--The term ``traditional 
cultural place'' means a place eligible for inclusion on the 
National Register of Historic Places based upon its 
associations with cultural practices and beliefs of a living 
community that are rooted in that community's history and 
important in maintaining the community's continuing cultural 
identity.

SEC. 4. WITHDRAWAL.

The National Forest System land located in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel 
Historic District is withdrawn from all forms of--
(1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land 
laws;
(2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and
(3) disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and 
geothermal leasing or mineral materials.

SEC. 5. PRESERVATION OF A HISTORIC PLACE; PROHIBITIONS ON USE; 
CONSULTATIONS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS.

(a) Preservation of a Historic Place.--The Secretary--
(1) shall preserve the natural condition of the National 
Forest System land in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District as a traditional cultural place;
(2) shall not carry out any activity that would adversely 
affect the physical or cultural integrity of the National 
Forest System land in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District; and
(3) shall prohibit any activities that could adversely 
affect the landscape or other natural structures, water 
resources, wildlife, flora, or ecosystems of the National 
Forest System land in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District.
(b) Prohibition of Mining-Related Activities.--Notwithstanding any 
other law, all activities related to mining and mining-related 
activities, including rights-of way, toxic waste pipelines and related 
infrastructure, electrical and other utility development, waste 
disposal, and road development and road expansion, are prohibited on 
the National Forest System land in the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic 
District.
(c) Consultations and Cooperative Efforts.--The Secretary shall 
engage in government-to-government consultations with Indian Tribes 
with ties to the Chi'chil Bimdagoteel Historic District and shall enter 
into cooperative agreements requested by these Indian Tribes to ensure 
access to the National Forest System land for traditional activities 
and preservation of sacred and cultural areas.
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