[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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