Screw Your Religion! We (Still) Want To Ski!
Back in October I blogged about the efforts of a coalition of 13 Native American tribes to block a local ski resort from pumping artificial snow made from waste water onto the mountain these tribes consider sacred. On January 11th U.S. District Court Judge Paul Rosenblatt ruled against the tribes which would allow the desecration to go forward.
Shortly after the decision attorney Howard Shanker who represented the coalition in the court battle made this statement.
“This decision further eviscerates the rights of Native Americans to protect sacred lands that are essential to their belief systems. This is a direct affront to traditional Native beliefs and one more nail in the coffin of all the Tribes’ throughout the Country ability to survive in tact. The federal government tends to view Native religions and traditional practitioners with historic and archeological interest. The fact is, however, that traditional beliefs play an extremely important role in the daily lives of many tribal members. These beliefs and traditions cannot be “preserved” or put in a museum, they must be respected and honored. It is a tragedy that the government and the courts do not seem to understand this. Or perhaps they simply disregard this fact because, after all, respecting Native beliefs can be inconvenient for the government when it comes to government land use decisions. It is well established that the San Francisco Peaks are among the most sacred of sites to over 13 tribes in the southwestern United States. Practitioners and political leaders from the Navajo Nation, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, the Hualapai Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe all came forward to testify as to the sacredness of the Peaks, a fact that was already well known to the Forest Service before they approved the use of reclaimed waste sewage water to make snow. They all hoped that justice would be accomplished. It was not in this case. Here, the federal government felt, and the court affirmed, that the economic viability of the Arizona Snowbowl Resorts Limited Partnership was more of a priority than the beliefs of hundreds of thousands Native Americans. This decision will be appealed.”
Now the Associated Press is reporting that The Navajo Nation is indeed pushing forward with the appeal on this decision. There is a good chance this case may reach The Supreme Court on appeal. If it does, it will be interesting to see if the SCOTUS will continue the trend of strong support for religious rights under Chief Justice Roberts. One can only hope that justice will prevail and this sacred site will remain unspoiled by waste water for the enjoyment of skiers.
Previous posts on the issue:
10.24.2005 Screw Your Religion! We Want To Ski!
No responses yet
