Native Voices on the Spiritual, Cultural and Biological Vitality of the Sacred Peaks

Since skiing began on the Sacred Peaks, Peoples indigenous to this region have insisted on the sanctity of the Mountain and voiced opposition to the exploitive nature of recreational colonization. Below are some of the testimonies from Indigenous Leaders and Elders in defense of the Sacred Peaks.

"It is our deeply held belief that the proposed expansion project, including the introduction of reclaimed wastewater onto the mountain, will interfere with the ability of the Gaan [Apache Crown Dancers] to guide us in our lives…The proposed expansion of the Snowbowl and the introduction of reclaimed wastewater for snowmaking will taint and scar the Mountain, causing it to be ineffective, essentially killing the spiritual force within it."

-Vincent Randall, Yavapai-Apache Nation Councilman and Dilzhe'e Apache historian quote appears in Benally, J., & Goodman, J. (2005). Native Americans fight to save sacred site. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 29(4).

“The San Francisco Peaks is the essence of who we are. It is a Holy place of worship that was placed in the West for our sacred prayers and worship. It is a place where several of our Navajo people have placed theirs and that of their children’s umbilical cords, and is the Holy house of our sacred deities whom we pray to and give our offerings. It is also a place where our Navajo medicine healers or medicine men have placed their sacred bundles and use the sacred dirt from the San Francisco Peaks to place inside these bundles. The San Francisco Peaks is also a place where we gather and collect our sacred herbs for healing and our way of life ceremonies yearlong. The United States of America will commit genocide by allowing the desecration of the essence of our way of life.”

-Joe Shirley Jr., President, The Navajo Nation (in a 2004 Letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in response to the Draft EIS for Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Expansion)

“As the Forest Service knows, Hopi clans migrated through the San Francisco Mountains, Nuvatukyaovi, “Place of Snow on the Peaks,” made settlements nearby and placed shrines on the mountains to serve as places of worship. All of the religious ceremonies encompassed within Nuvatukyaovi demonstrate the sacred relationship of the mountains to the Hopi people. The history of clans migrations through the area continue to be related, discussed and passed on. The mountains contain clan and society shrines, and several significant gathering areas for medicinal and religious use. Hopi Priests continue to visit Nuvatukyaovi…The ceremonies associated with the mountain, the plants and herbs gathered on the mountain, and the shrines and ancestral dwellings located on the mountain are of central importance to the religious beliefs and practices of the Hopi people…As other Hopi people before me, I know that the religious beliefs and practices of our people as they relate to the Peaks and the Kachina ceremonies are very sincere. They form a vital part of virtually all aspects of our life and culture.”

-Wayne Taylor, Jr., Chairman, The Hopi Tribe (2004 letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in Opposition to Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Improvements)

“I am writing on behalf of the Western Apache NAGPRA Working Group, which consists of traditional Elders from White River, San Carlos, Payson and Camp-Verde (Yavapai-Apache Nation). For the Western Apache People The Peaks, known to us as Dził Cho, are extremely important. The Mountain is important for a number of reasons. We often hear the word “Sacred,” it is easy to say, but what does that really mean? To our People it means there is more up there than meets the eye, more than simply a mountain. Dził Cho marks our place in this world and is the home of the Mountain Spirits (Gan) who bless our lives and anchor our understanding of what it means to be Apache. The Mountain supplies us with important medicines and other plants for our use. My Father gathered his tobacco there, it is the source of Big Mountain Lion Medicine and our ladies have in recent years gone back to the high meadows to collect many different plants. The flanks of the Mountain supplied us with meat and other foods. As a young girl my Grandmother (born in 1875) and her family would set up camp and hunt antelope on the flanks of Dził Cho. On the east side of the Mountain my Great Grandmother (born circa 1836 near Mormon Mt.) saw the first white people in the region driving cattle through before Flagstaff was even a town.

For the people who own and control what happens on Dził Cho the most sacred thing is money. We know money is important. We cannot raise our families in this world without it, but there is a line we cannot cross. The Sacred is not for sale. We have lost so much of our old culture to convenience and to the business of modern life that the further selling and development of Dził Cho is not acceptable. With the business of making money, more is never enough. If the upgrades to the Snow Bowl go through and the drought continues the grey water from Flagstaff will not be enough and they will want more. Where will it come from? Will they drink up all the water in the region for the benefit of business while others go without? The answer is yes they will. Using the water in this way makes no sense.

I would like to ask the Forest Service how they can ignore the convictions of over a quarter of a million Indian People for the benefit of a few skiers and business’s? The government always ignores its trust responsibilities to Indians when it comes to supporting business. When the Mountain is harmed it harms all of us; Red, White, Black, Brown and Yellow alike. It is up to us, the Indian People to take care of it. We were here first and we do not plan to leave. It is with these thoughts on my mind that I tell you the Western Apache NAGPRA Working Group and the Yavapai-Apache Nation support all of your efforts and prayers in uniting us to stop the development on the Peaks.”

- former Yavapai-Apache Tribal Chairman Vincent Randall in a 2004 memo to the Navajo Medicine Men’s Assoc. on behalf of the Western Apache NAGPRA Working Group and the Yavapai-Apache Nation

“I was a Hopi when I was born. When I die I will be a Hopi. I will go home to the mountain as a spirit to bring rain to my people...Maybe the Creator is saying it is high time I speak to everyone on the planet…The San Francisco Peaks, which we call Nuvatukyaovi, “Place of Snow on the Peaks,” since time immemorial are the spiritual essence of what Hopis consider to be among the most sacred landscapes in Hopi religion, the spiritual home of the Katsina, significant religious deities that all Hopis believe in, and therefore they are sacred.”

-Elliot Selestewa, Jr., Hopi from Moencopi, recorded during Coconino National Forest Public Hearing on Dec 9, 2002 in Tuba City

“Our sacred mountain is a source of goodness and purity, and all efforts to make it into a destination (especially for wastewater and recreationists) will disturb the natural order of things and damage all those beings and processes dependent on this order.

From the perspective of many Apache cultural specialists, the proposed project amounts to an expanded continuation of a decades-old uncontrolled experiment to find out what will happen (next) to Native people and ecosystems with the desecration and disrespectful alteration of sacred landscapes. We respectfully suggest that we already know too well the disastrous results of such unnecessary and short-sighted experiments.”

-Dallas Massey, Sr., White Mountain Apache Tribal Chairman (2004 letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in Opposition to Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Improvements)

“…the San Francisco Peaks are of the highest cultural significance to many traditional Apaches, including many members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. In the recent past knowledgeable San Carlos Apache Tribal members, as well as Tribal members from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Tonto Apache Tribe, and the Yavapai-Apache Nation, have offered in-depth consultations on the traditional importance and cultural resources of the Peaks. Much of this information was used as the basis for the determination that the Peaks are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Our elders have on previous occasions told the Coconino National Forest that the best way to protect the cultural resources on the Peaks is to keep the whole mountain as natural as possible, and that past Anglo activities have damaged and destroyed many cultural resources. The only sure way to mitigate these adverse effects, and to maintain healthy cultural resources, is to manage the Peaks to resemble as close as possible pre-Anglo conditions.“

- Kathleen Wesley Kitcheyan
Chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe (2004 letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in Opposition to Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Expansion)

“To reiterate our stance; the Yavapai-Apache Nation is not against development, far from it, however certain places such as the Peaks do not need anymore alteration or artificial adjustments. It is not merely the use of polluted water we object to, but the destruction of more forest that will accompany the construction of such a large, invasive project. Skiing in the desert runs the same risks as golfing in the desert, inasmuch as water is the common denominator for both activities. As time goes on there will be more and more focus on the topic of water and its uses for us all. We may have reached a threshold in the region when the success of large scale developments based on the poor use of water will have to make due as is or wither based on the naturally occurring climate we all share.”

-Vincent Randall, Yavapai-Apache Nation Councilman (2000 Letter to Coconino National Forest Supervisor)

“The Hopi Tribe’s concerns regarding the use of reclaimed wastewater for snowmaking are focused on adverse impact on the spiritual, cultural, medicinal, and biological purity of the water. Our concerns cannot be simply dismissed as purely spiritual. The spiritual and the physical are interconnected.”

-Wayne Taylor, Jr., Chairman/CEO, The Hopi Tribe (2004 letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in Opposition to Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Improvements)

“We are writing to you voicing our concern over the proposed expansion to the Arizona Snowbowl located on Dzil Cho (San Francisco Peaks). That concern encompasses several distinct topics, but only one issue; the health of the Mountain. We know from centuries of surviving on the beautiful, but unforgiving landscape of central and northern Arizona that the health of the land is directly correlated to the health of our People, Apache and Yavapai alike. Our ancestors lived with a light hand on the landscape and practiced conservation before it was fashionable, not because it was politically correct, but because it was the strategy that allowed us to be sustained in our country.”

- Jamie Fullmer, Yavapai-Apache Nation Tribal Chairman; Vincent Randall, Apache Historian; Elizabeth Rocha, Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural Specialist in a letter to Coconino Forest Supervisor opposing the proposed Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Expansion in March 2004

“The San Francisco Peaks or known as Wi’ Han Bacha in the Hualapai Language, is a sacred site for the Hualapai people and Tribe. Since time immemorial, the Peaks served an important link for the Hualapai people’s cultural survival through oral traditions depicting the mountain as an important link to religious ceremonials honoring creation…The San Francisco Mountains and Peaks is a place of great religious and cultural importance for the Hualapai Tribe. The tribe possesses a wealth of traditional knowledge about the Peaks, knowledge derived over many generations before the conception of United States of America.”

- Louise Benson, Chairwoman of the Hualapai Tribe (2004 letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in Opposition to Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Expansion)

“The Peaks have always been of critical importance to the religious beliefs and practices of all Hopis with implications affecting all mankind...Hopis believe that continued or expanded commercial use of the home of the Kachinas (the Peaks) for a ski resort or any other similar commercial or recreational purpose would constitute a direct affront to the Kachinas and to the Creator, thereby resulting in severe adverse consequences to the Hopis and all mankind...It is my opinion, that in the long run if the expansion is permitted, we will not be able successfully to teach our people that this is a sacred place. If the ski resort remains or is expanded, our people will not accept the view that this is the sacred Home of the Kachinas. The basis of our existence as a society will become a mere fairy tale to our people. If our people no longer possess this long-held belief and way of life… then it follows they will also no longer possess the entire Kachina belief. This will have a direct and negative impact upon our religious practices. The destruction of these practices will also destroy our present way of life and culture.”

-Abbott Sekaquaptewa, Hopi Tribe Chairman, in testimony given in Wilson vs. Block, 1981

“We as Hopis know why and understand why we oppose this [facilities expansion at Arizona Snowbowl and reclaimed wastewater]...Who have you become to take away the responsibility of nature to make snow?...When Hopis do not show up at hearings such as this, that is the ultimate indication that they do not approve of and will not support the question that is at hand or the decision to be made.”

- Hopi Vice Chairman Elgean Joshevama recorded during Coconino National Forest Public Hearing on Dec 9, 2002 in Kykotsmovi

“One of our four sacred mountains, Dook’oos’łiid, “Shining Clouds on Top” is being considered for expansion of recreational facilities and artificial snowmaking for the enjoyment of a few (skiers) at the religious and cultural expense of 13 Native American area tribes; and

The proposal of artificial snowmaking with reclaimed waste water is an affront to the Native American religion, culture, identity, and value system as well as the seasonal cycles of nature; and …

Dook’oos’liid should be conserved and preserved in a natural state with normal seasonal cycles to ensure harmony and respect.”

-David Clark, President and Herman Johnson, Vice President on behalf of Azee’ Bee Nahagha of Diné Nation as part of a resolution passed in March 2004.

The San Francisco Peaks are essential because they hold a spiritual and cultural significance to thirteen tribes throughout Arizona and New Mexico. Ceremonies are held on the hallowed ground and sacred medicinal plants integral to certain ceremonies and religious practices grow on San Francisco Peaks The use of reclaimed wastewater on this sacred place ruins the spiritual quality of the San Francisco Peaks and will have an adverse affect on the health of the essential plants needed for ceremonies given the irreversible pollution of the soil and plants the wastewater will cause.

Additionally, by adding more lifts to extend further up the peak, the increased activity will interfere with the katsinas’, or natures spirits, rehearsals o rain that are crucial to the Hopi existence. For a significant part of the year, tribes need to make use of the peaks for ceremonies that protect the people for the rest of the year. When ceremonies are not taking place, these sacred areas must remain undisturbed to protect the integrity of the ceremony and the blessings it holds.

- Tex G. Hall, President, National Congress of the American Indian, of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations (2004 letter to the Coconino National Forest Supervisor in Opposition to Arizona Snowbowl Facilities Expansion)