Court: No Fake Snow at Sacred Peak

AP via SFGate ^ | 3/13/7 | KIM CURTIS

[SmithL]

San Francisco (AP) -- A ski area on a northern Arizona mountain may not use treated wastewater to make snow because that would violate the rights of American Indian tribes that consider the peak sacred, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The Arizona Snowbowl on the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff wanted to add a fifth chair lift, spray man-made snow and clear about 100 acres of forest to extend its ski season.

However, the Navajo Nation and a dozen other Southwest tribes filed suit to block the project, arguing that it would violate their religious freedom. The lawsuit also said the government did not adequately address the environmental effect of using wastewater, which would be pumped up a pipeline from Flagstaff.

In a decision Monday, Judge William A. Fletcher of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the snowmaking scheme violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and would be akin to using wastewater in Christian baptisms.

[SmithL]

Fletcher, William A.

Born 1945 in Philadelphia, PA

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Nominated by William J. Clinton on January 7, 1997, to a seat vacated by William Albert Norris; Confirmed by the Senate on October 8, 1998, and received commission on October 9, 1998.

Education:
Harvard College, B.A., 1968

Oxford University, B.A., 1970

Yale Law School, J.D., 1975

Professional Career:
U.S. Navy Lieutenant, 1970-1972
Law clerk, Hon. Stanley A. Weigel, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 1975-1976
Law clerk, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Supreme Court of the United States, 1976-1977
Professor of law, University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, 1977-1998

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male

[M203M4]

In a decision Monday, Judge William A. Fletcher of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Aww, they care about religious freedom now.

[BMIC]

Who OWNS the land? They and only they have a right to makes such decisions, in the absence of a significant threat to the public health.

[neverhillorat]

Didn`t we win the Injun Wars?

[spunkets]

Water's water.

[M203M4]

Didn`t we win the Injun Wars?

The media must think the results are not valid because they were not around to screw over the good guys.

[Mikey_1962]

How about yellow snow?

[The Electrician]

A ski area on a northern Arizona mountain may not use treated wastewater to make snow

Pssst... A good portion of the water/snow that falls from the sky and flows in rivers and streams is also from "treated wastewater" (hint for slow judges: do a google search on "bear" "piss" "woods").

So, when will the plaintiffs construct a giant umbrella to shield their "sacred land" from all of the treated wastewater that falls on it?

[stuartcr]

What did the Injuns do, to make them the bad guys?

[Ros42]

They said on our local news here in Flagstaff last night, that they intend to appeal this, and take it all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.

[andy58-in-nh]

Come on, you know the rules: it's only legal to discriminate against Christians.

BTW, this judge is a big-time friend of the Clintons. Harvard, Oxford, and Yale J.D. The perfect resumé capper though, is having taught at Berserkley.

[machogirl]

interesting,

the white mountain apache tribe doesn't have any problem with sunrise ski on the sacred white mountains, come to think of it, i don't have any problem with it either,

i guess it's only sacred because it's gov't land and not tribal (make money off the snow bowl) land

before any pc trolls start howlin', i am part cherokee, although that shouldn't matter at all, i should be able to express my opinion ANYWAY regardless of my ethnic background

[ApplegateRanch]

would be akin to using wastewater in Christian baptisms.

Well, I'll be dipped! They missed the key word, treated.

And, we do use it every day, and not just for baptisms.

Ponds; creeks; rivers.

We pump it out of the ground via thingies called "wells".

It even falls from the sky.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

Posted by -=SoylentSquirrel=- to bnelson44

On News/Activism 03/13/2007 12:15:21 PM CDT · 18 of 21

But the thing is, we beat them soundly in a war. They lost. Thus, they should play by our rules. We should not have to coddle Indians any more than we should coddle a child who wants to eat nothing but ice cream.

For a modern day indian to point at a mountain (owned by the people of the United States) and say "This place is sacred to my people, thus you may not use it as you see fit" is ludicrous. It is on Gov't land, not Navaho land. Plus, the Navaho stole the land from its' formers owners most likely through warfare and violence. They do not have the moral high ground.

Why am I on my high horse? Because I have seen how the natives invariably trash their land; Every reservation I have ever crossed, from Washington State to the Four Corners, looks like a trash dump. And yet they have the gall to try to ruin life for the productive, clean members of society.

Side note: I climbed the mountain in question, it is the highest point in Ariz., and from the top you can see the Grand Canyon, 80 miles away. It's a breathtaking sight.

[machogirl]

have you climbed mt. baldy?

from what i remember, unless you have a permit, you can only climb to a certain elevation, and then because it's sacred, you have to turn around, but I do remember that you used to be able to buy a permit to go to the top

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

We were told that we had to stay on a certain side of the mountain to avoid intruding on "sacred territory". The trail itself kept us on the correct side. We went all the way to the top, and ran into several hikers who were irritated that indians could tell them where they could and could not hike. One guy sneered "what, are they gonna scalp me?".

Regarding Mt. Baldy, I don't know what you're referring to, so I guess the answer is no.