native people the apache indions - a new generation fearing the land would be pulled out from under them by a decision from asked. the fight to save an assessment ral homeland. >> reporter: for many years these people have been fighting for this land. >> this is an ancestral place, of veneration ceremony for a long time. >> reporter: the former archeologist is fighting a losing battle. >> what happens to this after the mine is that this will be in the middle of the subsidence area. we are standing over it. this will sink away and be destroyed. >> reporter: okay flat part of the national forest sits on top of one of the world's richest deposits. a cap called resolution copper has been trying to acquire of the land for nearly a decade. in december they succeeded. a place of great natural beauty okay flat has been under federal protection for mining since 1965. resolution kopper the subsidiary of rio tinto has made more than a dozen attempts to acquire the land through special legislation in congress. year after year the bill failed to pass. this time a new tactic. the land deal was inserte