Page 323 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

24 Implications of Sense of Place and Place-Based Education 297

The Gaan are the very foundation of our religion; they are our creators, our saints, our
saviors, our holy spirits. (Nosie 2009, p. 6)
The leaders have also expressed concern over possible environmental damage and
have questioned how many mining jobs would actually be made available to tribal
members. The Oak Flat area also includes cliffs and boulders long favored by
climbers and other recreationists, who have expressed opposition to the land
exchange and the mine. Local chapters of national environmental organizations and
local grassroots environmental groups have expressed a range of positions regarding
S. 409, from strong opposition (Bahr 2009), to support with certain qualifications
(Campana 2009), to approval (Shearer 2009). This is a reflection of differing views
on potential damage to the Oak Flat area, and the ecological and environmental
value of the parcels that RCM has offered in exchange.
The Apache Leap escarpment, located between Oak Flat and the town of
Superior at its base, is not within the footprint of the mine but is also a place of
dispute, because of its spectacular beauty and its many archaeological sites,
which are presumed to be Apache but might also be Yavapai. Both the Apache
and the Yavapai were mobile hunter-gatherers or foragers and part-time horticultur-
ists, who established camps and moved through a seasonal round collecting wild
foods, hunting, and planting limited crops. They also had centuries of peaceful
trade, intermarriage, and adjacent band territories; and both were interned
together on the San Carlos Apache Reservation (about 60 km east of Superior)
for a generation, until the Yavapai were allowed to leave after 1905. There is a
wealth of historic material on the Apache, but much less on the Yavapai.
Archaeologists and anthropologists have expressed opposition to the land exchange
absent additional research and mitigation efforts at Apache Leap (Society for
American Archaeology 2009).
Today, the population of the town of Superior is 69% Hispanic. Many of the
residents’ ancestors came here in the nineteenth century, from older mining com-
munities in Mexico, to work the Magma Mine. Their descendents are now raising
the fourth generation of Superior residents and for many the self-identity as mineros
remains as strong as ever. The Magma Mine also employed eastern Europeans,
whose descendants have married into the town. There are also two large Chinese
extended families, whose grocery and supply businesses have long served the
community. The population of Superior was long considered particularly well edu-
cated for that of a small, rural town, and many of its citizens have served the state
of Arizona in public office.
Residents of Superior are strongly attached to the town and its desert and moun-
tain surroundings. Our ongoing ethnographic, ethnogeological, and pedagogical
studies in the area have revealed that residents score very highly on quantitative
measures (Semken and Butler Freeman 2008) of place attachment to and place
meanings of the town and its adjoining landscapes. Even those forced by economic
necessity to move to larger towns in the Phoenix metropolitan area to the west
continue to express strong ties to Superior. Many who live elsewhere but claim
Superior as their home make frequent visits.