2007

San Francisco Peaks Stand Sacred

by miho kim

Native American Nations and environmental groups won an important victory this Spring, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a proposed ski area development and expansion on the sacred San Francisco Peaks would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The San Francisco Peaks in Northern Arizona are sacred to 13 tribes. “Traditional practitioners regard the San Francisco Peaks as the residence of Holy Spirits who have influenced, guided and supported Native people,” writes Robert Tohe, Diné leader and advocate, and environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club's Southwest Environmental Justice program. Vincent Randall, tribal councilman and Apache historian says, “The Mountain supplies us with important medicines and other plants for our use.”

At issue is a proposal to clear-cut more than 100 acres of rare alpine ecosystem to expand the Arizona Snowbowl ski area and to use treated wastewater to make artificial snow. The U.S. Forest Service, which leases the land to Arizona Snowbowl, a commercial enterprise, supported the proposal, but faced lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network.

DataCenter has worked with the Save the Peaks Coalition and its member groups since 2004, providing research support and training, and strategic campaign planning. Our research approach has distinguished between data and facts needed to defend one's position, and traditional wisdom and knowledge necessary to inform strategies and tactics that are culturally appropriate for the native communities involved.

In particular, the information uncovered by DataCenter about who exactly owned Arizona Snowbowl helped demystify the people who were behind the ski area development, as well as the crazy idea of spraying reclaimed sewage water from nearby Flagstaff to create artificial snow. "When DataCenter uncovered for us who were all the people behind this ski resort expansion, and where all the profits were going, so many people in and outside our community jumped on board and joined the campaign: we all knew who was behind the ski resort expansion and responsible for the desecration of our Sacred Mountain," noted Kevin Long (Diné) of ECHOES/Save the Peaks Coalition. Furthermore, “by unveiling the profits the Snowbowl stood to gain; and that Snowbowl does not have significant impact on the local businesses, the Data Center helped lift the fog from the people’s eyes,” said Dr. Laura Monti of the Christensen Fund, whose home in Flagstaff lies at the foot of the Peaks, and is deeply vested in the protection of the sacred mountain. When the owners argued the expansion as an economic necessity for the businesses, we knew their assets DataCenter uncovered would not paint nearly as dire a picture as they had conveyed. Digging information about them helped not only demystify the owners, but helped debunk some of the public messages they were sending out to sway the public.

When the owners argued the expansion was an economic necessity for the business, the Coalition knew, based on the corporate assets DataCenter exposed, Arizona Snowbowl was not at risk of experiencing the dire situation they conveyed. Digging information about Arizona Snowbowl helped debunk some of the public messages they were sending out to sway the public.

However, the struggle is not yet over. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice filed for a rehearing and appeal “en banc” on behalf of the Forest Service, despite a 21-tribe resolution calling on the Federal Government not to appeal the Ninth Circuit ruling.

To support the ongoing effort to save the San Francisco Peaks or learn more about what is being done to protect it, see: savethepeaks.org.

miho kim is an Information Activists at DataCenter.