Post by Okwes on Dec 21, 2006 11:47:01 GMT -5
For more info and pictures please visit: www.savethepeaks.org
"Prayers don't stop"
Group gathers to pray, discuss the sacred peaks
By Cindy Yurth
Special to the Navajo Times
navajotimes.com/news/peaks112206.html
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. | November 22, 2006
T
There are those who would say the fate of Dook'o'oosl''d is in the
hands of three federal judges in San Francisco.
Klee Benally prefers to think it's in the hands of the Creator.
The Din� musician and activist, whose family helped found the Save the
Peaks Coalition, was among about a dozen people gathered at the foot
of the Navajos' western sacred mountain Sunday afternoon to await 11
horseback riders and 14 runners.
The two groups, coming from the north and south, respectively, were to
converge on the spot and offer prayers prior to a forum on sacred
landscapes at Northern Arizona University.
The riders, who had taken two days to cover the rocky 35 miles from
Grey Mountain, Ariz., arrived about 5 p.m. They were two-and-a-half
hours later than expected after pausing for a sweat bath Sunday afternoon.
The runners, coming from Prescott, Ariz., finally emerged from
Sycamore Canyon at 8 p.m., having missed not only the prayers but the
forum.
No matter, said ultra-marathoner Thomas Arnold of Prescott, the only
person to complete the entire 130-mile distance.
"The whole point of this was to suffer, as some kind of offering to
the mountain and also the indigenous cultures who are trying to
protect it," he said in a telephone interview Monday. "I received all
the suffering I could handle."
Arnold explained the group had underestimated the ruggedness of the
canyon. Having started from Prescott at 4 a.m., they intended to run
all night and meet the riders at the base of Mount Humphreys Sunday
afternoon.
Instead, they ended up spending Saturday night huddled around a
campfire "catnapping" and rationing their limited food and water.
By daylight, they found the canyon offered "more canyoneering than
running," Arnold said wryly. All the more reason to respect sacred
landscapes, he added.
"It was a very spiritual experience for me," he said. "I've been
running these kinds of things for years. It was pretty humbling not to
make it."
Arnold said he was feeling fine other than a swollen knee.
Prayers don't stop (sub)
Six Native American tribes, two individuals and three environmental
groups combined forces this spring to appeal a Jan. 11 U.S. District
Court decision to allow expansion of the Snowbowl ski area below Mount
Humphreys, highest of the San Francisco Peaks, as they're known to the
non-Native population.
The expansion would include the use of treated wastewater to make snow
for the ski slopes during droughty years.
The plaintiffs contend both the expansion and the use of treated
wastewater on the mountain violate the tribes' tradition of protecting
the peaks as sacred space, to be used only as a site of ceremonies and
to gather medicinal plants.
The peaks are considered holy by 13 of Arizona's 27 federally
recognized tribes.
The Snowbowl operates under a lease from the U.S. Forest Service,
which manages the Coconino National Forest and the Kachina Peaks
Wilderness Area that border the resort.
After conducting an environmental assessment, the Forest Service had
decided to allow the expansion.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case
Sept. 14 and has not yet issued a ruling. But Benally said
Dook'o'oosl''d's advocates aren't "just sitting around waiting for a
court ruling."
"Our prayers don't stop when the court stops," he declared.
They're not just praying either, added Rudy Preston of the Flagstaff
Activist Network, a member group of the Save the Peaks Coalition and a
plaintiff in the appeal.
"There's a lot, actually, that can be done while we're awaiting the
ruling," Preston said. "The Forest Service is just one facet of the
campaign."
For instance, he said, the coalition is lobbying the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality to raise their purity standards
for water that can be used in snowmaking.
They've also approached the city of Flagstaff to cancel its agreement
with the resort to purchase the city's treated wastewater.
"Without the wastewater, they can't make the snow," reasoned Preston.
The plaintiffs have argued their case on public health grounds as
well, noting that children could eat snow made from treated wastewater
and get sick, as it is not pure enough to drink.
A spiritual event (sub)
But for most of the people gathered on Dook'o'oosl''d Sunday, the
issue is spiritual.
"It's cultural genocide," said Kelvin Long of Educating Communities
while Healing and Offering Support (ECHOES). "If the plants that are
contaminated by wastewater can no longer be used, that ends a way of
life. It's the most devastating thing they could do to us."
Jones Benally, Klee's father and a medicine man with the Winslow,
Ariz., hospital, confirmed that he would no longer pick medicinal
plants from the mountain if the wastewater proposal goes through.
And that would be a loss, he said, not just for the Navajo.
"Everybody gets sick the same," he said. "These plants heal everybody.
I can heal diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer with the plants
you find on this mountain."
But John R. Murray, general manager of the Snowbowl, said Monday he
thinks the wastewater issue is a smokescreen being used by the tribes
to get the public's support.
"If our proposal included potable water, we would have the same
opposition from the tribes as well as opposition from others because
potable water supplies are even more delicate and sensitive in
Arizona," he wrote in an e-mail to the Times.
"The tribes in court testimony said they would oppose any source of
water," he said. "The reclaimed water gives them something more to
talk about and try to scare others with their concern."
He added that he found it "ironic" that two plaintiffs, the White
Mountain Apache and the Yavapai Apache, use reclaimed wastewater in
their own businesses - Sunrise Ski Area, where it is used for
snowmaking, and Cliff Castle Casino, where it irrigates the grounds.
Preston admitted that, while Sunday's events were more prayer than
protest, the groups are indeed trying to catch the public eye.
"Every time we do one of these things there's been one or two people
show up who say, 'My God! I didn't even know about this,'" he said.
"Every time we do an event like this we reach a certain segment of the
public."
A hike up the Mount Humphreys trail, which starts about 50 feet from
where the activists had gathered in a circle to pray, confirmed that
there are still many Arizonans unfamiliar with the issue.
Of 11 hikers stopped on the trail by the Times, five had heard about
the Snowbowl controversy and six knew they were treading on sacred ground.
"I wish there was some way we could have our recreation and the
Indians could still have their sacred mountain," mused an NAU student
hiking the trail with her friend. "But I just don't see it."
"Prayers don't stop"
Group gathers to pray, discuss the sacred peaks
By Cindy Yurth
Special to the Navajo Times
navajotimes.com/news/peaks112206.html
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. | November 22, 2006
T
There are those who would say the fate of Dook'o'oosl''d is in the
hands of three federal judges in San Francisco.
Klee Benally prefers to think it's in the hands of the Creator.
The Din� musician and activist, whose family helped found the Save the
Peaks Coalition, was among about a dozen people gathered at the foot
of the Navajos' western sacred mountain Sunday afternoon to await 11
horseback riders and 14 runners.
The two groups, coming from the north and south, respectively, were to
converge on the spot and offer prayers prior to a forum on sacred
landscapes at Northern Arizona University.
The riders, who had taken two days to cover the rocky 35 miles from
Grey Mountain, Ariz., arrived about 5 p.m. They were two-and-a-half
hours later than expected after pausing for a sweat bath Sunday afternoon.
The runners, coming from Prescott, Ariz., finally emerged from
Sycamore Canyon at 8 p.m., having missed not only the prayers but the
forum.
No matter, said ultra-marathoner Thomas Arnold of Prescott, the only
person to complete the entire 130-mile distance.
"The whole point of this was to suffer, as some kind of offering to
the mountain and also the indigenous cultures who are trying to
protect it," he said in a telephone interview Monday. "I received all
the suffering I could handle."
Arnold explained the group had underestimated the ruggedness of the
canyon. Having started from Prescott at 4 a.m., they intended to run
all night and meet the riders at the base of Mount Humphreys Sunday
afternoon.
Instead, they ended up spending Saturday night huddled around a
campfire "catnapping" and rationing their limited food and water.
By daylight, they found the canyon offered "more canyoneering than
running," Arnold said wryly. All the more reason to respect sacred
landscapes, he added.
"It was a very spiritual experience for me," he said. "I've been
running these kinds of things for years. It was pretty humbling not to
make it."
Arnold said he was feeling fine other than a swollen knee.
Prayers don't stop (sub)
Six Native American tribes, two individuals and three environmental
groups combined forces this spring to appeal a Jan. 11 U.S. District
Court decision to allow expansion of the Snowbowl ski area below Mount
Humphreys, highest of the San Francisco Peaks, as they're known to the
non-Native population.
The expansion would include the use of treated wastewater to make snow
for the ski slopes during droughty years.
The plaintiffs contend both the expansion and the use of treated
wastewater on the mountain violate the tribes' tradition of protecting
the peaks as sacred space, to be used only as a site of ceremonies and
to gather medicinal plants.
The peaks are considered holy by 13 of Arizona's 27 federally
recognized tribes.
The Snowbowl operates under a lease from the U.S. Forest Service,
which manages the Coconino National Forest and the Kachina Peaks
Wilderness Area that border the resort.
After conducting an environmental assessment, the Forest Service had
decided to allow the expansion.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case
Sept. 14 and has not yet issued a ruling. But Benally said
Dook'o'oosl''d's advocates aren't "just sitting around waiting for a
court ruling."
"Our prayers don't stop when the court stops," he declared.
They're not just praying either, added Rudy Preston of the Flagstaff
Activist Network, a member group of the Save the Peaks Coalition and a
plaintiff in the appeal.
"There's a lot, actually, that can be done while we're awaiting the
ruling," Preston said. "The Forest Service is just one facet of the
campaign."
For instance, he said, the coalition is lobbying the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality to raise their purity standards
for water that can be used in snowmaking.
They've also approached the city of Flagstaff to cancel its agreement
with the resort to purchase the city's treated wastewater.
"Without the wastewater, they can't make the snow," reasoned Preston.
The plaintiffs have argued their case on public health grounds as
well, noting that children could eat snow made from treated wastewater
and get sick, as it is not pure enough to drink.
A spiritual event (sub)
But for most of the people gathered on Dook'o'oosl''d Sunday, the
issue is spiritual.
"It's cultural genocide," said Kelvin Long of Educating Communities
while Healing and Offering Support (ECHOES). "If the plants that are
contaminated by wastewater can no longer be used, that ends a way of
life. It's the most devastating thing they could do to us."
Jones Benally, Klee's father and a medicine man with the Winslow,
Ariz., hospital, confirmed that he would no longer pick medicinal
plants from the mountain if the wastewater proposal goes through.
And that would be a loss, he said, not just for the Navajo.
"Everybody gets sick the same," he said. "These plants heal everybody.
I can heal diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer with the plants
you find on this mountain."
But John R. Murray, general manager of the Snowbowl, said Monday he
thinks the wastewater issue is a smokescreen being used by the tribes
to get the public's support.
"If our proposal included potable water, we would have the same
opposition from the tribes as well as opposition from others because
potable water supplies are even more delicate and sensitive in
Arizona," he wrote in an e-mail to the Times.
"The tribes in court testimony said they would oppose any source of
water," he said. "The reclaimed water gives them something more to
talk about and try to scare others with their concern."
He added that he found it "ironic" that two plaintiffs, the White
Mountain Apache and the Yavapai Apache, use reclaimed wastewater in
their own businesses - Sunrise Ski Area, where it is used for
snowmaking, and Cliff Castle Casino, where it irrigates the grounds.
Preston admitted that, while Sunday's events were more prayer than
protest, the groups are indeed trying to catch the public eye.
"Every time we do one of these things there's been one or two people
show up who say, 'My God! I didn't even know about this,'" he said.
"Every time we do an event like this we reach a certain segment of the
public."
A hike up the Mount Humphreys trail, which starts about 50 feet from
where the activists had gathered in a circle to pray, confirmed that
there are still many Arizonans unfamiliar with the issue.
Of 11 hikers stopped on the trail by the Times, five had heard about
the Snowbowl controversy and six knew they were treading on sacred ground.
"I wish there was some way we could have our recreation and the
Indians could still have their sacred mountain," mused an NAU student
hiking the trail with her friend. "But I just don't see it."