Above: Former San Carlos Apache Chairman Wendsler Nosie Sr. addresses Apache Stronghold on Jan. 10.

UPDATE: Jan. 15 The Trump administration on Friday approved a controversial land exchange in Arizona, lifting a major hurdle for Resolution Copper Mining LLC to move forward with developing a massive underground mine beneath a historic Apache cultural site.

This project is complex, and the impacts were rigorously analyzed over the past five years, Tom Torres, acting supervisor of Tonto National Forest, said in a statement accompanying the release of a final environmental review of the project. The project also included consultation with affected Indian tribes to best address the negative impacts to sacred tribal lands, he added.

PREVIOUSLY:

OAK FLAT, Ariz. In November 2019, Wendsler Nosie Sr. sent a letter informing the U.S. Forest Service of his plan to return home to Oak Flat, a high desert oasis in Arizonas Tonto National Forest that the Apache people hold sacred.

This wouldnt be a weekend retreat. Instead, the former San Carlos Apache tribal chairman would establish permanent residency there in a spiritual quest to protect the holy site from being murdered at the hands of foreign mining firms. A few days later, Nosie ran some 40 miles from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation to Oak Flat, carrying with him a staff adorned with eagle feathers.

More than a year later, Nosie is still there, protesting a mining companys plan to turn Oak Flat into one of North Americas largest copper mines. His stand may soon come to an end, as the outgoing Trump administration is racing to finalize a land swap that would turn over 2,400 acres of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian mining firms Rio Tinto and BHP.

The U.S. Forest Service is expected to publish a final environmental review of the proposed mine on Friday months ahead of its earlier schedule and five days before President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated. The move would trigger a 60-day deadline for the government to complete the land exchange.

Were on pins and needles, Nosie told HuffPost last weekend at his Oak Flat camp, where he and other Apache tribal members gathered to pray ahead of the looming announcement.

Once the deal goes through, Nosie expects hell be forced out of his Oak Flat camp.

On Tuesday, tribal advocacy nonprofit Apache Stronghold filed a lawsuit to block the Forest Service from publishing that statement, arguing that the land swap violates Apache tribal religious freedom and due process rights. Nosie, the groups founder, said theyve done everything they can to fight off the powerful forces championing the giant mine. Now, theyre left to pray.

Im praying to the country that they wake up, because once the water is contaminated and gone... he paused, letting out a deep sigh, were looking at a disaster for our children and grandchildren that are yet to be born. Theyre going to suffer the consequences.

Biden has not publicly addressed the controversial Arizona project, and his transition team did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment. The incoming administration is already being pressured to block the land swap, should it be finalized before his Jan. 20 inauguration, by swiftly rescinding the Trump administrations final environmental review.

In plans released on the campaign trail, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris vowed to reverse the Trump administrations rollback of numerous protected sites and to give tribes a greater role in managing public lands.