Hopi
People Rejoice in Protection
of their Sacred Mountains
Hopi
Tribe Wins Landmark
Religious Freedom Case on Appeal
The San Francisco Peaks, almost 13,000
feet tall, are the holy mountain where their Kachina spirits
dwell. It is a site of sacred pilgrimage, source of plant materials
for ceremonials, source of the waters for the desert lands.
A federal appeals panel blocked
a ski resort's plan to make artificial snow by spraying treated
wastewater on mountains that Indian tribes consider sacred.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco,
overturned a lower court ruling from January 2006 that would
have let the resort, the Arizona Snowbowl, to proceed with
the snowmaking and other upgrades on the San Francisco Peaks
near Flagstaff. Thirteen tribes, along with the Sierra Club
and other environmentalists, had appealed the decision. They
said using wastewater, no matter how clean, would offend
deities and spiritually contaminate herbs and other plants
used for medicine and religious ceremonies.
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Photo from the
Hopi Tutuveni
showing Hopi perspective that the spiritual
helpers make snow, not ski area developers |
a portion
of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona
Excerpts from the Hopi newspaper
Tutuveni, March 15, 2007:
In a victory expected to reverberate across Indian County, The Hopi and five
other tribes have won their lawsuit to stop snowmaking using reclaimed wastewater
on the San Francisco Peaks.
On March 12, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
9th Circuit found in favor of Arizona tribes who maintain
that using reclaimed wastewater to make snow at the
ski resort violates their rights under the Religious
Freedom and Restoration Act. The decision sets
a precedent for the interpretation of RFRA in regard
to Native American religious rights.
None of the Forest Service’s arguments — multiple use interests,
or economic interests of the City of Flagstaff or the resort owners — justify
placing such a substantial burden on the tribal members’ exercise of religion,
according to the appeals court. “We hold that the Forest Service’s
approval of the Snowbowl’s use of recycled sewage effluent to make artificial
now on the San Franciso Peaks violates RFRA.” wrote
the court.
The judges explained that the religious burdens placed
on the tribes by the proposed snowmaking “fall
roughly into two categories: (1) the inability to perform
a particular religious ceremony, because the ceremony
requires collecting natural resources from the Peaks
that would be too contaminated — physically,
spiritually, or both — for sacramental use; and
(2) the inability to maintain daily and annual religious
practices comprising an entire way of life, because
the practices require belief in the mountain’s
purity or a spiritual connection to the mountain that
would be undermined by the contamination.”
“I am really thankful and deeply appreciate the 9th Circuit Court’s
decision,” said Bucky Preston, one of the Hopi plaintiffs. Some
of the judges in the courts must have a good heart
and looked deeply into themselves to realize that the
Peaks are so sacred to us and they understood our beliefs.”
Hopis at prayer shrine high on the
Peaks
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I am sad to report that a subsequent appeal by the US
Forest Service overturned the above decision and the Hopi
Tribe along with other Arizona tribes and environmental
groups are taking to the next higher level of appeal.
Jan., 2009
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