copper miners

Examines the true story of the high-elevation mesa known as Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site in southeastern Arizona where the San Carlos tribe conducts its Sunrise Ceremony, a coming-of-age ritual for Apache girls. Through interview transcripts and illustrations the author tells of how this San Carlos community has been fighting against the U.S. government and two massive mining companies to keep Oak Flat from being destroyed over its vast copper reserves.

"A coming of age story about Jack, a boy growing up in a Southern Appalachian town environmentally devastated by a century of poor copper-mining practices and pollution. Jack is opposed to the mine where so many of his relatives have died, but how can he tell that to his dad who wants him to follow in the family trade? Jack just wants his dad safe and the land returned to its pre-mining glory with trees, birds, frogs, and nature--like he's learning about in school. After Jack's uncle is killed in a mining accident and the Company implements a massive layoff, the union organizes and the miners go on strike. It seems Jack's wish is coming true. But the cost may be the ruin of his home and everything he loves"--OCLC.

"Starting in his own backyard in the old mining town of Bisbee, Arizona -- where he discovers that the dirt in his garden contains double the acceptable level of arsenic -- Bill Carter follows the story of copper to the controversial Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia; to the 'ring' at the London Metal Exchange, where a select group of traders buy and sell enormous amounts of the metal; and to an Alaskan salmon run threated by mining. Boom, Bust, Boom is a highly readable account -- part social history, part mining-town exploration, and part environmental investigation. Carter blends the personal and the international in a narrative that helps us understand the paradoxical relationship we have with a substance whose necessity to civilization costs the environment and the people who mine it dearly." -- Rear jacket flap.