A CBF Oak Flat Advocacy Trip

By Isaac Mwase

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) Advocacy team arranged an advocacy trip to Oak Flat, Arizona. I was invited as a past Chair for the CBF Global Missions Council and someone who participated in advocacy with Congress related to Indigenous Peoples (Senate Bill S.761 and House Bill HR.7227), fall of 2024.

In preparation for the Trip to Phoenix, Arizona November 6-9, I and the approximately 30 others who went were asked to do the following:

• Download and look around the land acknowledgments app Native Land. Research where you live

• Watch Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen Lands, Strong Hearts – The Anglican Church of Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwkB1hn5E8

• Read The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy by Robert Jones.

After doing most of the above I was impressed by the following Maryland land acknowledgment drafted by an elder of the Choptico Band of Indians, Piscataway-Conoy Tribe for the MSAC Land Acknowledgement Project:

“We acknowledge the lands and waters now known as Maryland are the home of its first peoples: the Accohannock Indian Tribe, Assateague People’s Tribe, Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians, Choptico Band of Indians, Lenape Tribe, Nanticoke Tribe, Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Piscataway Indian Nation, Pocomoke Indian Nation, Susquehannock Indians, Youghiogheny River Band of Shawnee, and tribes in the Chesapeake watershed who have seemingly vanished since the coming of colonialism. We acknowledge that this land is now home to other tribal peoples living here in diaspora. We acknowledge the forced removal of many from the lands and waterways that nurtured them as kin. We acknowledge the degradation that continues to be wrought on the land and waters in pursuit of resources. We acknowledge the right of the land and waterways to heal so that they can continue to provide food and medicine for all. We acknowledge that it is our collective obligation to pursue policies and practices that respect the land and waters so that our reciprocal relationship with them can be fully restored.”

My church, University Baptist, Baltimore sits on land that belonged for generations to the Piscataway and Susquehannock peoples.

I arrived in Phoenix shortly after noon on Thursday November 6. An Uber conveyed me to the Hampton Hotel near the ASU downtown campus. I and the others met in the lobby around 4:45pm and were carpooled for a fried bread dinner at the famous Fried Bread House. We learned from the owner and granddaughter of the founder, a member of the Hopi Tribe, that fried bread was a survival food.

Friday, November 7, 2025

After a presentation on the Doctrine of Discovery by Rev. Dr. Amy Jacoby given from 9-10am, we carpooled to the Heard Museum. This is a must see Museum for anyone who is serious about advocacy on issues of justice related to indigenous people. 

We spent the afternoon touring the Phoenix Boarding School. Mariah Humphries, a Mvskoke Nation citizen gave a presentation about the Truth & Healing Commision. It was an evening cultural treat to enjoy food prepared by Chef Nella Belin of Nella’s Innovative Kreations and a Hoop Dancing Demonstration by Ginger and her three children.

Saturday, November 8, 2025

About 30 of us travelled in two vans to Oak Flat, a scenic drive about an hour’s drive from Phoenix. Henry Muñoz, a retired miner and resident of Superior, Arizona, who is a prominent opponent of the proposed Resolution Copper mine at Oak Flat and chairman of the Arizona Concerned Citizens and Retired Miners Coalition and a member of the Hispanic Conservation Leadership Council at HECHO (Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors) made a spellbinding presentation why locals and others should advocate against mining at Oak Flat. 

Lunch was served in Superior, which is less than a twenty minute drive from Oak Flat, at the Bellas Restaurant:

The last major presentation occurred at 5:00pm. Mariah Humphries led a difficult conversation about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The statistics are staggering. Worth a web search.

I am very grateful for the organizers of this CBF Advocacy Trip: Rev. Jennifer Hawks, Rev. Sharon Felton, and Chief Advocate for Migration Elkert Rodriguez. University Baptist Church, Baltimore provided funding for the trip. I love my church. Here we are sporting the Oak Flat advocacy sign: