Posts Tagged ‘San Francisco Peaks’

29
Aug

Indian Country Sunday Brunch – Alaskan dollmaker. Missouri River dams, flooded reservations. Fake snow in Ariz. Unity Day in S.D.

   Posted by: admin    in Alaska Native, Hopi, Lakota, Native religion, Navajo, Pick-Sloan Program

Mikhail, Aleut hunter, by Mary Ellen Frank, in commissioned baidarka by Aleut artist Doug Vaubel. (Photo Mary Ellen Frank)

Mikhail, Aleut hunter, by Mary Ellen Frank, in commissioned baidarka by Aleut artist Doug Vaubel.


Dollmaker focuses on portraits of Alaska Native people
Alaska’s Mary Ellen Frank is in Sitka this weekend for the 2010 International Conference on Russian America. Frank’s contribution? She’s a dollmaker, whose work, along with that of other dollmakers on both sides of the Pacific, is featured at the Sitka Historical Museum. As the Anchorage Daily News writes, Frank walks a fine line because she is not Native, but her internationally renowned dolls are portraits of Alaska Native people. It’s important, she says, to get permission from both individuals and tribes before making each doll. See more of her work on the Juneau Artists website.

New bill address Missouri River dams that flooded Indian Reservations
A half-century ago, something called the Pick-Sloan Program built a number of dams along the Missouri River, flooding lands of seven Indian reservations, destroying homes, farmland and hunting areas. Rob Capriccioso of Indian Country Today writes that “It is estimated that Lakota, Dakota and Nakota tribes lost 202,000 acres overall, which means the dams destroyed more Native American land than any other public works project in the history of the nation.” Now Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has introduced a bill that hopes to resolve the problems caused to those tribes.

Hopi Nation, other tribes, fight fake snow on sacred Arizona peaks
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the ongoing fight by the Hopi Nation and other tribes against snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks at the Snowbowl ski resort outside Flagstaff, Ariz. The Navajo, Hopi and 11 other tribes view the peaks as sacred and that any moisture there should occur naturally. The Flagstaff City Council will address the issue tomorrow, according to the Daily Sun newspaper in Flagstaff, which has a full report.

Porcupine's Tia Pourier, right, takes a closer look at her sister, Terri's, 14, left, neckless before modeling for the REDSPIRIT Fashion Show. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Rapid City Journal staff)

Porcupine's Tia Pourier, right, takes a closer look at her sister, Terri's, 14, left, neckless before modeling for the REDSPIRIT Fashion Show. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Rapid City Journal staff)

Red Spirit Fashion Show part of cross-cultural effort at Central States Fair
It was the first Unity Day at the 2010 Central States Fair in South Dakota, but it won’t be the last, the Rapid City Journal writes. Among the offerings at the event designed to promote cross-cultural understanding was the Red Spirit Fashion Show featuring contemporary clothing by Native American designers. Native Sun News publisher Tim Giago says Unity Day will be a part of next year’s fair. Giago helped organize South Dakota’s year of Reconciliation 20 years ago in an effort to improve troubled relations between the state’s Native and non-Native people. Now, as then, says Carmen Yellow Horse, it’s important that “we start a conversation.”

Gwen Florio

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9
Jul

Native American tribes seek to halt Snowbowl expansion

   Posted by: admin    in Cultural insensitivity, Dine, Navajo

The USDA on Friday OK'd snowmaking at Arizona Snowbowl, using either reclaimed wastewater or tapping directly into Flagstaff's potable water lines. (Josh Biggs/Arizona Daily Sun, file)

The USDA on Friday OK'd snowmaking at Arizona Snowbowl, using either reclaimed wastewater or tapping directly into Flagstaff's potable water lines. (Josh Biggs/Arizona Daily Sun, file)

Tribes who oppose construction at Arizona Snowbowl, because wastewater is used in snowmaking on their sacred sites, have asked a judge to stop construction there, the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff reports here:

    Attorney Howard Shanker filed a request for a temporary restraining order on Tuesday with Judge Mary Murguia, in the U.S. District Court for Arizona.

    The action comes after Friday’s decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow snowmaking and related construction on the (San Francisco) Peaks, an approval that becomes effective next week.

    Shanker’s tribal clients failed to prevail in court in arguing that making snow with reclaimed wastewater on the sacred San Francisco Peaks violated their religious freedom.

A court hearing is scheduled for next week on the issue. Meanwhile, the Daily Sun writes that Snowbowl owner Eric Borowsky has said he will ask the Flagstaff City Council for potable water.

That would necessitate approval of a new contract from the council, which has already approved the sale of reclaimed wastewater to Snowbowl. Potable water is, of course, more expensive than wastewater.

Thirteen tribes consider the mountains sacred. Only the Navajo Nation has said the potable water would be preferable.

The Daily Sun lists the following as claimants: Save the Peaks Coalition and Kristin Huisinga, Clayson Benally, Sylvan Grey, Don Fanning, Jeneda Benally, Frederica Hall, Berta Benally, Rachel Tso and Lisa Tso.

A Daily Sun editorial, here, counsels restraint – and communication:

    We’d urge Snowbowl to hold off before cutting any trees up on the mountain. There appear to be a lot of loose ends to tie up, and we’d hate to see something done today that we all might want to see undone tomorrow.

    Our recommendation remains to get all parties to the same table to talk it out, not negotiate separately, as the Forest Service and now the USDA appear to have done.

Gwen Florio

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