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APACHE STRONGHOLD

EIN 47-4032813 SAN CARLOS, AZ

Revenue 2024
$291,775
Expenses 2024
$302,894

Program services were 95.8% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
X01
Classification
1000
Street
PO BOX 766

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2024

Mission

APACHE STRONGHOLD IS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO COME TOGETHER IN UNITY TO BATTLE CONTINUED COLONIZATION, DEFEND HOLY SITES AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION, AND ARE DEDICATED TO BUILDING A BETTER COMMUNITY THROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRAMS AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.

  • APACHE STRONGHOLD, SAN CARLOS, AZ, IS A 501C3 NONPROFIT COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO COME TOGETHER IN UNITY TO BATTLE CONTINUED COLONIZATION, DEFEND HOLY SITES AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION, AND ARE DEDICATED TO BUILDING A BETTER COMMUNITY THROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRAMS AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. WE WORK FROM SAN CARLOS, AZ CONNECTING APACHES AND OTHER NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ALLIES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. CHI'CHIL BILDAGOTEEL ALSO KNOWNS AS OAK FLAT IS A SACRED SITE FOR OUR APACHE PEOPLE AND MANY OTHER NATIVE AMERICANS. THIS IS A PLACE THAT HAS SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE A PLACE WHERE WE PRAY, COLLECT WATER AND MEDICINAL PLANTS FOR CEREMONIES, GATHER ACORNS AND OTHER FOODS, AND HONOR THOSE THAT ARE BURIED HERE. WE HAVE NEVER LOST OUT RELATIONSHIP TO CHICHIL BILDAGOTEEL, THOUGH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, AT TIMES IN OUR HISTORY, HAS IMPRISONED US ON OUR RESERVATIONS AND NOT ALLOWED US TO COME HERE. WE HAVE ESTABLISHED AND ENCAMPMENT TO PROTECT THE HOLY GROUND AT CHICHIL BILDAGOTEEL WITH ITS FOUR CROSSES, REPRESENTING THE ENTIRE SURROUNDING SACRED AREA, INCLUDING ITS WATER, ANIMALS, OAK TREETS, AND OTHER PLANTS CENTRAL TO OUR TRIBAL IDENTITY. THE FOUR CROSSES ARE NOW PART OF THE BODY OF CHICHIL BILDAGOTEEL.

    Expenses $209,167 · Grants $98,828

  • Prayer Journey August 4, 2024- September 25, 2024 On July 11th, 2024, the Apache Stronghold started the journey of prayer to the Supreme Court to stop the shattering of human existence and to protect Mother Earth. We have traveled, held ceremonies and gathered prayers from Tribes, Communities, Churches, and people in support of saving Oak Flat and religious freedom and protections for all. We began in the Northwest, Westcoast, South, mid-west to the East to gather in Washington DC at the Supreme court on September 11. We are appealing a lower court ruling that would have allowed the total destruction of Oak Flat by allowing the land to be transferred to Resolution Copper, a foreign owned company, owned by BHP and Rio Tinto. We will appeal Apache Stronghold v. United States to the U.S. Supreme Court on September 11. The case involves the federal governments planned destruction of Oak Flatknown in Apache as Chi'chil Bidagoteel a sacred site where Western Apaches and other Native peoples have worshipped since time immemorial. Oak Flat is the birthplace of our religion and the site of sacred ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. The United States is now planning to transfer ownership of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a foreign-owned mining company that plans to destroy it. Resolutions mine will swallow Oak Flat in a two-mile-wide, 1,100-foot-deep crater, ending Apache religious practices forever. Our lawsuit challenges the destruction of Oak Flat as a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the Constitution, and the 1852 Treaty with the Western Apaches. In March, the sharply divided Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 6-5 vote, ruled that the obliteration of Oak Flat does not amount to a substantial burden on our religious exercise and that the Constitution and federal civil rights laws do not apply to the governments disposition of its own land. In September, we will ask the Supreme Court to correct this ruling and hold that federal law protects Oak Flat. The stakes could not be any higher. If the Ninth Circuits ruling is allowed to stand, the United States will be allowed to destroy Oak Flat and any other sacred site with impunity. If the Supreme Court rules in our favor, it will ensure that Native Americans receive the same protection for our religious freedom that all other religious groups across the country already enjoy.

    Expenses $51,720

  • Wishtoyo Light Fire Malibu CA March 28- 31 The Apache Stronghold was welcomed back to Chumash ancestral homeland at Wishtoyo Chumash Village to host the first Lighting of the Fire ceremony. Lighting of the Fire ignites all the prayers across this country to fight the greatest evil we all face. It will take the old ways of prayer and ceremony to confront the effects of colonization and capitalism. Our elders witnessed the fracturing of our people, our religion and the destruction of our greatest gift Nigosun (Mother Earth). The Apache Stronghold arrived at Wishtoyo on Friday, March 29, 2024, to prepare for the ceremony. The Lighting of the Fire ceremony began on Friday, March 29, 2024, at midnight and continued throughout the day, Saturday. Welcomed all tribes, non-natives, and allies to join us in prayer. We call upon the world to light prayer fires on the same day. This will clear the path for us to confront the greatest evil and will protect us on our join forward. One Prayer, One Drum, One Circle!

    Expenses $8,246

  • 9th Annual Oak Flat March/Run --February 15-18, 2024 People join in solidarity with our spiritual journey of prayer and ceremony in protection of Chi'chil Bildagoteel (Oak Flat). Each year hundreds of people walk/run together for the 45 miles from the San Carlos reservation, through the mining towns of Miami and Globe, up to Oak Flat. This walk is of spiritual importance to the Apache Stronghold and a way for us all to commit to the protection of Oak Flat each year that the mine has still not been built! Participants gather in solidarity at Oak Flat to protect all that is holy.

    Expenses $7,450

  • Notre Dame November 15-17, 2024 Notre Dame filed Amicus Brief with Supreme Court Case- Created Video and shown at Notre Dame Football Game. University of Notre Dame. https://youtu.be/RPKm8XZm_6k?si=cs0Q0hyt1h7SFbNP Fighting for Religious LIberty In Arizonas Tonto National Forest, Chichil Bildagoteel, known as Oak Flat, is a sacred space for the Apache and other Native tribes. Countless generations have used the site for religious and coming-of-age ceremonies and have gathered medicinal plants and acorns from its majestic oaks. But Oak Flat is in danger. In 2014, a land swap deal offered Oak Flat to a mining company that intends to place a copper mine leaving the site unsafe for humans. Apache Stronghold, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization made up of Native and non-Native allies, are intent on saving Oak Flat. While the Notre Dame Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic, launched in 2020, isn't representing the Apache Stronghold, it's very supportive of its mission and has filed multiple amicus briefs in support of protection for Oak Flat. The Clinic, one of the world's leading academic institutions on the subject, is representative of Notre Dame's values. Informed by its Catholic character, the University has always supported and promoted religious liberty as a fundamental human right. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at the Notre Dame Law School, is careful to note that religious liberty encompasses all faiths, and those without faith. The Religious Liberty Clinic was created because our freedom of conscience, our freedom to believe, and then live according to our beliefs, is the most important and fundamental freedom that we have. Not just as Americans, but as humans, he said.

    Expenses $7,245

  • Dzil Nchaa Sian (Mt. Graham) Sacred Run July 18-21, 2024 The 33rd annual mount Graham sacred run, Apaches and supporters gathered in Eastern Arizona to honor Apache holy places by participating in the 33rd annual mount Graham sacred run. The four day long run and prayer begins at the Old San Carlos monument on the San Carlos Apache reservation and ends atop mount Graham, a sky island Oasis surrounded by a sea of the Sonora desert. The Mt Graham sacred run spotlights the ongoing occupation of the mountain by scientific pursuits by research universities and institutes including the Vatican, the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, Notre Dame, Germany's Max Planck institute and Italys Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory.

    Expenses $6,200

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Officers and directors · 2024

As listed in Part VII of the 2024 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • WENDLSER NOSIE SR

    Chairman

    Total calculated
    $74,945
    From this org
    $0
    From related orgs
    $74,945
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    1 + 40 related

  • LIAN BIGHORSE

    Secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2024
    Revenue
    $291,775
    Expenses
    $302,894
    Contributions
    $291,775
    Grants paid
    $98,828
  • 2023
    Revenue
    $283,664
    Expenses
    $242,919
    Contributions
    $283,664
    Grants paid
    $115,000
  • 2022
    Revenue
    $223,074
    Expenses
    $235,511
    Contributions
    $223,074
    Grants paid
    $75,000

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Other returns filed

  • 2021 · 990

    Revenue
    $216,689
    Expenses
    $162,745
    Assets (EOY)
    $80,506

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all.

Grants made

Where these grants went next →

Grants received

Related organizations

From Schedule R Part II, where a filer lists the tax-exempt organizations it is related to by control. It does not record shared board members or money.

Declared on its 2024 return

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

  • Exemption revoked 15 May 2018.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2024, the newest we have parsed for this organization.