Video & Updates at: www.azresistsalec.wordpress.com

TEMPE, AZ — Indigenous Dine’ (Navajo) and O’odham elders and supporters are taking direct action by occupying Salt River Project (SRP) headquarters today at 10am. This action is occurring while the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) holds their “States & Nation Policy Summit” in Scottsdale, AZ. SRP is on ALEC’s corporate board.

Louise Benally, a resident of Black Mesa impacted by SRP’s operations, is delivering a letter to SRP that outlines critical concerns of her community. She expressed that “My community is heavily impacted by Salt River Project’s coal and water extraction activities. SRP has extensive ties to Peabody Energy’s massive mining operations and the Navajo Generating Station which they co-own. Coal mining has destroyed housands of archeological sites and our only water source has been seriously compromised. Their operations are causing widespread respiratory problems, lung diseases, and other health impacts on humans, the environment, and all living things.”

“…We demand that SRP & Peabody meaningfully involve the indigenous communities they are impacting, and that they convert to non-fossil fuel based energy sources and address the health impacts on our communities.”

“…ALEC, acting in the corporate interests of SRP & Peabody Energy, continues policies & operations that are not only devastating whole communities and ecosystems, but greatly de-stabilizing our planet’s climate for the profit of a few, the so-called 1%.” stated Benally.

Ray Aguilar stated that “the air conditioning and power we enjoy and water we drink comes at the suffering caused by SRP and Peabody’s exploitation of the land and people. When will we realize that our privileges our based on this? We must take further action. I just spent one week doing direct, on-land support with Black Mesa residents assisting with basic essential human needs.  That’s why I’m here today. This critical situation would not exist if not for these greedy corporations.”

Peabody Energy, also an ALEC member, is the world’s largest private-sector coal company. With 2010 sales of 246 million tons and nearly $7 billion in revenues, Peabody creates 10 percent of U.S. power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.

Since 1974 more than 14,000 Dine’ families have been forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands due in large part due to U.S.-backed tribal councils and cola mining.

To protest the deadly legacy of environmental and cultural destruction caused by the company’s collusion with Peabody Energy the protest has stated the following:

Big Mountain Sovereign Dine’ Nation

P.O. Box 23501

Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Salt River Project

1521 N. Project Drive

Tempe, AZ 85281

David Rousseau, President

John R. Hoopes, Vice President

CC:

American Legislative Exchange Council

Ben Shelly, Navajo Nation President

LeRoy N. Shingoitewa, Hopi Tribe Chairman

Barack Obama, United States President

Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona

Gregory H. Boyce, CEO, Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy Corporate Headquarters

Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission

Ben Nuvamsa, Former Chairman, Hopi Tribe

Black Mesa Water Coalition

Black Mesa Trust

Forgotten People

Gila River Indian Community

Zuni Salt Lake Coalition

Indigenous Environmental Network

Center for Biological Diversity

International Indian Treaty Council

To the Owners, Operators, & Beneficiaries of Salt River Project,

We are a community that is heavily impacted by the Salt River Project’s coal and water extraction activities. We are particularly impacted by Peabody Energy’s mining operations to which you have extensive ties, the Navajo Generating Station which you co-own, and the exploitation of the water that underlies our ancestral lands. We wish to formally bring before you some critical concerns of our community.

The Navajo Generating Station and Peabody’s mining operations cause widespread respiratory problems, lung diseases, asthma issues, other health impacts on humans, the environment, and all living things. We don’t have access to health insurance. The plants and animals are also impacted and there are no studies on that. There is no remedy for that for now.

Peabody is an extremely disrespectful company, they’re tearing up everything for the coal. Mother earth and our cultural resources such as sacred sites are not at all respected. Back in the mid-nineties, grandmothers were defending the land when the mine was being expanded more and more, and we witnessed peoples’ graves being totally bulldozed. They have been exploiting and destroying sacred places, and that is not being talked about.

And the coal ash that they’re trying to dump on our lands now—it’s really no different than the uranium that we have suffered from for so many years. It’s toxic and poisonous, and there’s no safe place to store the coal ash.

The mining needs to stop. Until then, we demand that you honor the clean air act and the EPA’s highest standards by installing the best retrofit technology available on the Navajo Generation Station to reduce pollution from mercury, arsenic, and other toxic pollutants being released in to the air.

Our water is being exploited and our aquifers have been depleted for decades, causing springs to go dry and vegetation to change. Salt River Project needs to stop manipulating the Navajo and Hopi tribal governments, coercing them to sign agreements without consent from tribal members. Our water resources are not replenishable, and without the water, we cannot continue our way of life.

The beneficiaries of the energy and water you sell must realize that our suffering is a direct result of their consumption. They must also understand that the continued taking of finite “natural resources” is creating imbalances that threaten the survival of everyone’s future generations.

These issues are not being heard: Stop exploiting and destroying our ancestral homelands. Stop poisoning us. Stop meeting behind closed doors. Stop greenwashing your unfair and harmful practices. Recognize that you have a unique ability and thus a responsibility to put an end to these things, and that by not­­­­ doing so you are also harming yourselves.

For background information: http://www.blackmesais.org

For information on ALEC protests: http://azresistsalec.wordpress.com and

http://www.alecexposed.org

From Truesnow.org:

Silent Vigil August 23 – 4PM – City Hall

Water is Life, Don’t sell ours to Snowbowl!

Wear tape or a cloth or something covering your mouth to show how the council has forced silence on this issue!

On Tuesday August 23 we will hold Silent Vigil in front of City Hall and subsequently in city council meeting. It is time to stop for a moment and pay our respects to the plants, trees, animals, and insects who died or lost their homes in the clear-cuts that are taking place up on the mountain at the hands of Arizona Snowbowl.

It would only take four city council members with courage and vision to end this entire treated sewage effluent fiasco forever. With their simple vote to end the contract it could put an end to anger and racism and outright desecration and begin the healing process. It would also keep 180,000,000 gallons of water a year filtering through 1200 feet of volcanic rock back into our own aquifer, instead of dumping it directly above a perched aquifer on the peaks and uphill from the Hart Prairie aquifer. Flagstaff water for Flagstaff, don’t sell it to Snowbowl.

Please join us in the City Council meeting and let them know what their silence feels like. The council chambers can likely hold about 200 people, so come on down and help us fill the room. Let them know that water is life, don’t sell ours to Snowbowl.

By Klee Benally – www.IndigenousAction.org

On Saturday, August 13th 2011, after a prayerful gathering on the Holy San Francisco Peaks, my friends Mary Sojourner, Rudy Preston and I were arrested by “law-enforcement” agents for standing against desecration and eco-cide caused by Arizona Snowbowl ski area.
Since June 16th, 26 arrests have been made during protests when Snowbowl started furthering desecration and eco-cide on the Holy Peaks.

As a Snowbowl hired excavator operator tore into sacred earth, plants and boulders to extend the wastewater pipeline trench further up the Holy Mountain, 40 people gathered in prayer in a meadow directly across from the excavation. At times, bulldozers and the excavator were no more than 200 feet from the gathering, so the machinery made it nearly impossible for elders to speak. The noise completely disrupted statements and prayers made by those in attendance.

Although I am not sure how it started, shortly after the prayer gathering a group of 30 people started pushing rocks and dug-up dirt into the pipeline trench. As I watched from a distance, every rock being placed back in the trench–to heal the scarring of desecration–appeared more powerful than any petition I’ve ever read.

Two Forest Service agents, who had apparently been monitoring the prayer gathering, emerged from the woods as the spontaneous action unfolded.

At that point I approached the excavator operator and stated, “Stop. You have interrupted and interfered with our prayers. You must stop.” I then chained and handcuffed myself to stop the excavator.
I was joined by more than 30 people who began chanting and singing. We sang in a way that was a continuation of our prayers. I was chained to the machine for approximately 2 hours.
Forest Service and Coconino County Sheriffs ultimately cut me out after Louise Benally, from Big Mountain, agreed that it was OK for me to do so. I was charged by a sheriff for “trespassing” and “disorderly conduct.”

How can I be “trespassing” on this site that is so sacred to me? This is my church. It is the Forest Service and Snowbowl who are violating human rights and religious freedom by desecrating this holy Mountain. Although an appeal is in the court system Snowbowl is attempting to undermine judicial process. Additionally, Snowbowl and the Forest Service are violating the 2004 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that was signed with Indigenous Nations. This MOA stipulates consultation must occur prior to any construction, this has not meaningfully occurred, if at has occurred at all. Not to mention, the Forest Service and Snowbowl are in violation of the Environmental Impact Statement, as they have followed none of the mitigation measures either. Their actions are far beyond “disorderly.”

After my arrest and release, Mary Sojourner who is a local author and activist, confronted Forest Service and Coconino County Sherrifs. She walked up to the excavator in an effort to stop pipeline construction and was immediately cuffed and put into a police van.

Mary stated, “I took action not just for the Mountain, but for my friend, Klee Benally, who I saw chained to a monstrous extractor, the pipeline trenching machine that had been ripping into the mountain and the peaceful morning air as thirty of us prayed for the Mountain; and so that older women and men would see that one doesn’t have to be young to stand up for a place and community that you love.”

Rudy Preston, local Peaks advocate, was also arrested and charged with two counts of “disorderly conduct” and “trespassing”.

Rudy offered this statement, “I feel like the world changed forever yesterday. Our actions on Nuvatukya Ovi (San Francisco Peaks in Hopi) have led to me seeing the true horrors perpetuated on the Indigenous cultures of our community every single day. Even without sewer water on the mountain, the desecration is a systematic perpetuation of genocide on local peoples for centuries and it is just as strong now as when peoples were forced onto the Longest Walk. My eyes will never again close to this injustice. And my body will not perpetuate it.
”
All that has happened in the last month was made possible by like-minded individuals taking action of all kinds. I hope that others move out of their comfort zone a bit and create actions that reflect their part in this. Not everyone can march in the streets, not everyone can lock down, not everyone has a car. But we all love the mountain and you don’t need to wait for a ‘known organizer’ to tell you what to do next.”

As I, Klee, was chained to the excavator I said, “This is not a game. This is not for show. This is not for media. This is to stop this desecration from happening.”

While construction was only stopped for just about 2 hours, it was stopped nonetheless. This is power.
This is a power that we all share. If one person, three, six, or nine, can stand in the way of machinery and say “enough,” imagine what would happen if it was every one of us who cared?

What is at stake is our prayers, our ways of life, our cultural survival. This is why this has to stop. This is why we say, ‘No desecration for recreation, protect the peaks!’

For more info, action and to donate for jail support: www.indigenousaction.org or www.truesnow.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
protectpeaks@gmail.com
www.truesnow.org

Blockade Halts Ski Resort Destruction & Desecration of Holy Mountain

Flagstaff, AZ — August 8th, 2011. Nine people took direct action at 5:00 AM on Monday morning, blockading the ongoing destruction and desecration of the Holy San Francisco Peaks.  Nine individuals directly confronted the ecocidal actions of Arizona Snowbowl, halting their daily clear-cutting and pipeline excavation plans for eight hours. Responding sheriffs deputies immediately arrested the group’s police liaison, who was ensuring the safety of demonstrators. More than 50 law enforcement officials used industrial saws and a jack hammer to forcefully break apart the blockade.

“The action we took today is one part of a series of events with the intent to stop Snowbowl, the US Forest Service, and other corporations from further desecrating the Holy San Francisco Peaks,” stated Haley Coles after being released from jail. “The pipeline will not be tolerated. Spewed waste water turned into artificial snow will not be tolerated. Clear cuts, slash piles, and burning of hundred-year old trees will not be tolerated. The Holy mountain will be defended, and the desecration will be stopped; at whatever cost. We have the mountain on our side,” said Coles.

Stephen Zavodynik, also arrested during Monday’s blockade, stated, “Today, a small group of people decided that they had enough of wealthy investors, cultural genocide, and privileged white people who are indifferent to the destructive impacts of their recreational activities.  We decided to take matters into our own hands and you can too. Whatever you feel is sacred, defend it with all your heart and take a risk, because our future generations will not forgive inaction.”

“As a snowboarder, I support an immediate reversal of all construction related to the expansion and spreading of treated sewage on the sacred San Francisco Peaks. It is our obligation to act immediately to prevent ongoing cultural genocide and environmental destruction just miles from where we live, where old growth forest is culled using slash and burn foresting techniques while huge, diesel-powered machines cut into the earth in preparation for the import of hormones, carcinogenic chemical compounds, and fecal matter onto the highest reaches of the San Francisco peaks. Allowing Arizona Snowbowl to buy treated sewage from the City of Flagstaff is an absolute failure of our elected representatives to protect the civil rights of indigenous members of the Flagstaff community. I will continue to use any means necessary to protect the peaks and support my friends and community members.” stated Kennedy.

Jenna Tomasello, who was also part of the action, stated that “Almost all of our options have been exhausted. The US Supreme Court failed to protect religious freedoms of Native peoples.  The Flagstaff City Council has failed to meaningfully listen to its constituents who have consistently vocalized their opposition to Arizona Snowbowl development for decades.  And the US Forest Service has failed to protect the public from the environmental impacts of treated sewage effluent.  It is time for more people, wherever you are, to open your eyes. Respect the land of which we are dependent on and the people that the land has been stolen from.  The only choice for us is to take action against those who threaten Indigenous cultures, the environment and our future.  It’s frustrating that we had to do this in order to make this point clear.” stated Tomasello.

“For those of us who have chosen to fight the colonial strongholds, we have also chosen to fight for the minds that hold this power.  If harmony is to prevail, all beliefs attempting to control nature must be liberated.  We belong to the Earth; the Earth does not belong to us.” stated Tom Lang, who was part of the action.

All 10 arrested were released within hours due to strong outpouring of community support.

17 people have been arrested during a community “Week of Action to Protect the Peaks.” 23 arrests have been made since June 16, when 6 people locked themselves to Snowbowl excavators and inside sewage pipeline trenches.

“This was an autonomous action planned by those who took part. It was beautiful and powerful and very responsible. We took every measure to ensure our safety. Nobody was unwillingly put in the way.” stated Rudy Preston, the arrested police liason for the group. “The Civil Disobedience roadblock on the mountain was not a family event or publicized with the rest of the legal actions planned for the ‘Week of Action.’” stated Preston.

Since May 25, 2011, the owners of Arizona Snowbowl, with the support of the U.S. Forest Service and the Flagstaff City Council, have laid over five miles of a 14.8 mile wastewater pipeline and have clearcut over 40 acres of rare alpine forest. A current lawsuit against the Forest Service focusing on the human health impacts of wastewater snowmaking is still under appeal in the 9th Circuit Court.  The individuals involved in today’s action are separate from the Coalition involved in the lawsuit.

The San Francisco Peaks are Holy to more than 13 Indigenous Nations.
They are a place of worship, a place where deities reside, a place where offerings are made, where herbs are gathered, where emergence has occurred, and a location where other sacred religious practices take place .

Monday’s blockade to protect the Peaks joins four decades of sustained resistance to desecration of the Holy Peaks. Over the past three weeks since Snowbowl began clear-cutting, dozens of protest camps have been established on the mountain and solidarity actions have occurred in Phoenix and Los Angeles.

###

CONTACT:
protectpeaks@gmail.com
www.truesnow.org

Flagstaff Police Aggressively Disrupt Protect the Peaks March
Six Arrested at Peaceful Protest

Flagstaff, AZ – August 7^th, 2011. More than one hundred people, including families with children and elders, marched through downtown Flagstaff on Sunday in protest of the destruction and desecration of the San Francisco Peaks by Arizona Snowbowl. Demonstrators first gathered at Wheeler Park where they were immediately ordered to leave the public park by the Flagstaff Police Department.  As the march wound through downtown Flagstaff demonstrators were met with positive responses and support while dozens of police – many out of uniform — harassed the demonstrators.  Police cars drove alongside the marchers.  As the protesters passed out flyers and carried banners through Flagstaff’s Southside, police violently disrupted the march, grabbing those who were closest to the street and arresting them.  As six marchers were handcuffed, the remaining demonstrators continued to yell demands for an end to the Peaks’ destruction.

“As long as Arizona Snowbowl, the Obama Administration’s Forest Service and the City of Flagstaff continue this ecocide and cultural genocide, we will not stop,” said Klee Benally (Dine’), one of the arrested marchers. “We will pray, march, protest, and take whatever action is necessary to ensure that our basic human rights, dignity and environment are safeguarded. Today’s unjustified force from the Flagstaff Police Department demonstrates that they are not on the side of justice or healthy communities. The Forest Service and City of Flagstaff are on the side of corporate interests that are destroying our communities.”

Since May 25, 2011, the owners of Arizona Snowbowl, with the support of the U.S. Forest Service and the Flagstaff City Council, have laid over five miles of a 14.8 mile wastewater pipeline and have clear-cut over 40 acres of rare alpine forest. A current lawsuit against the Forest Service, focusing on human health impacts of wastewater snowmaking, is still under appeal in the 9th Circuit Court.  The individuals at today’s march are separate from the Coalition involved in the lawsuit.

Sunday’s march joins four decades of sustained resistance to desecration of the Holy Peaks. Over the past three weeks since Snowbowl began clear-cutting, dozens of protest camps have been established on the mountain.

“The Week of Action is a culmination of efforts to directly address the lack of political will of the Forest Service and City Council to safeguard the community, public health and cultural rights,” said Nadia Del Callejo who was arrested while simply video taping the incident.

“The same profit driven push that has desecrated the Peaks, is the same sickness that has lead to the militarization of the border and is now trying to desecrate South Mountain, which is sacred to all O’odham.” said Alex Soto (Tohono  O‘odham ) who was also arrested, “Sacred sites are under attack, but today we said no. Our solidarity in these struggles is re-establishing our traditional networks of support ”

Demonstrators invite everyone to join them Monday, August 8, 12:30pm at the United States Coconino National Forest Service Office at 1824 S. Thomson St, Wednesday, 12:30pm at High Desert Investment at 504 E Butler Ave and Wednesday, 4:00pm at Flagstaff City Hall.

Protesters vowed to not stop until the desecration of the Peaks stops.  “I am not afraid of what will happen to me if I protest, what I am more afraid of is what will happen if I do not stand up for what the Peaks are,” Stated Del Callejo.

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50 Take Streets of Flagstaff, Police Abduct One

On Friday, August 5th, more than 50 people marched through the streets of downtown Flagstaff to raise awareness of Arizona Snowbowl’s eco-cide and desecration of the Holy San Francisco Peaks. The march was part of a week of action to bring community members together to protect the Peaks.

On May 25th 2011, authorized by the the Obama Administration’s Department of Agriculture and US Forest Service, owners of Arizona Snowbowl began further destruction and desecration of the Holy San Francisco Peaks. Since then Snowbowl’s crew of a handful of workers has laid over 5 miles of the planned 14.8 mile wastewater pipeline. They have cut a six foot wide and eight foot deep gash into the Holy Mountain.  Snowbowl is currently in the process of clear-cutting more than 30,000 trees and burning slash-piles.

Before the march began Flagstaff Cops kicked protestors out of Hopi Square, demonstrators continued nearby flyering and engaging in a spontaneous community forum about the issue.

Carrying banners that read, “Stop Snowbowl Cultural Genocide” and chanting, “Community Health Over Corporate Wealth!” marchers walked and took the streets for more than two hours distributing flyers.

A member of Youth of the Peaks, an Indigenous youth organization, witnessed Flagstaff Police Department Officer Simpson badge #41 texting “dealing with mother f–kers.” A crowd erupted in protest as he was reprimanded by a superior officer. An “official” report of misconduct was later filed against him.

A 2-story banner reading, “Environmental Degradation, Cultural Genocide, Racism, Public Health Threat. Don’t Regret Today. Destroy Snowbowl,” was hung over the square where hundreds of people were gathered during Flagstaff’s monthly Art Walk.

At approximately 7:30PM, as the crowd of 50 marchers crossed Aspen St., a Flagstaff cop grabbed one person from behind and arrested him for “obstructing a public thoroughfare.”

“Native Rights, Human Rights, Public Health, and respect descend on the heiarchy of social perception; while big brother and businessmen exchange hand shakes, lady liberty smiles oil, uncle sam perpetuates environmental disorder, and effluent water delivers the slope of tears.” stated Ron Thompson, who was arrested and released less than 3 hours later. “I had no descrepancies being selected in the school of fish by the shark to represent the voice of the unheard. That voice is the civic duty of the free society and the fines of tyranny will always cost more than obstruction of public thoroughfare.”

Some protestors creatively contributed political

art to “Art Walk” by hanging signs that read, “I love eating poop snow.”

Messages such as, “Your Silence Doesn’t Stop the Truth” were also projected onto buildings along with images of Snowbowl’s recent clear-cutting of the Holy Mountain.

Indigenous youth also held a “Zombie March” with over two dozen young people dressed as Zombies symbolizing the public health threat sewage effluent snowmaking poses.

From August 4-9, 2011 events are planned in Flagstaff, Arizona to protest Snowbowl ski area and the Obama administration’s US Forest Service sanctioned desecration of the holy San Francisco Peaks.

Upcoming Events:
Sun. 7th – MARCH FOR THE PEAKS! – 12:30PM
Meet and start in Wheeler Park downtown Flagstaff, AZ. Bring banners and signs.

Mon. 8th – RALLY AT USFS OFFICE! – 12:30PM
At Coconino Forest Service Office – 1824 S. Thompson St. Flagstaff, AZ (Near AZ Daily Sun off of Old Rt. 66)  Come on your lunch hour.  Bring banners and signs.

Tues. 9th -PROTEST HIGH DESERT INVESTMENT & CITY HALL!
PROTEST HIGH DESERT INVESTMENT – 12:30PM
504 E Butler Avenue (across from New Frontiers)

PROTEST CITY HALL – 4:00PM
Meet at Flagstaff City Hall on Rt 66 side.  Bring banners and signs, drums and song.

BACKGROUND:

Although a current legal battle is under appeal, Snowbowl owners have chosen to undermine judicial process by rushing to construct the pipeline.

Encampments have been established on the holy Mountain in protest of the destruction and desecration.

All are welcome to camp and bear witness to Snowbowl’s desecration.

For more than a dozen years Indigenous Nations, environmental activists, and concerned community members have worked together to protect the holy site and surrounding area from further ecological destruction, public health threats, and spiritual desecration.

Arizona Snowbowl’s development plans include clear-cutting 74 acres of rare alpine habitat that is home to threatened species, making new runs and lifts, adding more parking lots and building a 14.8 mile buried pipeline to transport up to 180 million gallons (per season) of wastewater to make artificial snow on 205 acres. The Peaks are central to the ways of life of more than 13 Indigenous Nations.  The use of wastewater undermines internationally recognized rights of Indigenous people; rights that the Forest Service and administration is obliged to protect.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Converge on the Mountain!
Join an established base camp or start your own.
More info: www.truesnow.org

Contact Flagstaff City Officials and urge them to RESPECT the environment, Indigenous culture, and protect public health by finding a way out of their contract to sell Snowbowl wastewater!
PHONE: (928) 779-7600
EMAIL: council@flagstaffaz.gov

Contact Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and express concern that there was no meaningful public process when the agency approved wastewater for snowmaking. File a complaint and demand full public review!

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
1110 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
(800) 234-5677 – Toll Free

Northern Regional Office
1801 West Route 66, Suite 117
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001
(877) 602-3675 – Toll Free

www.azdeq.gov/function/compliance/complaint.html

Contact the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which heads the Forest Service, and urge them to revoke the Special Use Permit for Arizona Snowbowl for greater public interest.
The USDA has been holding hearings on protection of sacred places due to the Peaks controversy. Urge the USDA to immediately place an administrative hold on all development on the San Francisco Peaks!

CALL CRAIG JOHNSON USFS TRIBAL LIASON IN FLAGSTAFF, AZ AT: 928 525 6578.

Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

Phone: 202-720-3631

Email: TribalSacredSites@fs.fed.us

Send Letters to the Editor of your local papers.
Arizona Daily Sun: rwilson@azdailysun.com

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How long will we allow the destruction and desecration to continue?
Take action for Sacred Sites, Human Rights, Environment, Public Health, Community, Respect!

PROTECT THE PEAKS!
WEEK OF ACTION
August 4-9, 2011
Flagstaff, AZ

ALL EVENTS RAIN OR SHINE!
(Please come prepared with rain gear)

Thurs. 4th – BANNER MAKING – 5:30PM
At Taala Hooghan Infoshop – 1704 N 2nd St.

Fri. 5th – AWARENESS MARCH – 5:30PM
Meet at Heritage Square downtown Flagstaff. We will walk through downtown and hand out flyers.

Sat. 6th – DAY OF PRAYER – ALL DAY
Organized by Youth of the Peaks. Pray where you are.
A gathering will also be held near Snowbowl parking lot by Humphrey‘s Trail at 11AM.

Sun. 7th – MARCH FOR THE PEAKS! – 12:30PM
Meet and start in Wheeler Park downtown Flagstaff, AZ. Bring banners and signs.

Mon. 8th – RALLY AT USFS OFFICE! – 12:30pm
At Coconino Forest Service Office – 1824 S. Thompson St. Flagstaff, AZ (Near AZ Daily Sun off of Old Rt. 66)  Come on your lunch hour.  Bring banners and signs.

Black & White printable flyer

Tues. 9th -PROTEST HIGH DESERT INVESTMENT & CITY HALL!
PROTEST HIGH DESERT INVESTMENT – 12:30PM
504 E Butler Avenue (across from New Frontiers)

PROTEST CITY HALL – 4:00PM
Meet at Flagstaff City Hall on Rt 66 side.  Bring banners and signs, drums and song.

ADDITIONAL WAYS TO TAKE ACTION:

Join the encampments!
Join a current camp or start your own.
Come camp for a day or more, or just visit to support the encampments.

Donate supplies or funds.

MORE INFO: www.TrueSnow.org
Contact: protectpeaks@gmail.com
(928) 600-0856

Dear friends, family, neighbors, and allies,

The time is now!  We are the people we’ve been hoping for!  Join us in support of protecting the Holy San Francisco Peaks from further desecration and destruction.

A group of us, calling ourselves the Cook Shack, are starting a base camp in support of the current encampment and convergence on the Holy San Francisco Peaks on Friday, July 15th.  We are an affinity based group who believe that the destruction and desecration must end now for the physical, emotional, and spiritual dignity, health and well-being of all people in the present and in future generations.

CookShack goals are very simple:

Join us for a few hours, a day, a week or a month: If you find yourself in affinity with us and would like to join us or support us and other base camps, please stop by Taala Hooghan Infoshop (1704 N. 2nd St. East Flagstaff AZ 86004) or e-mail us at PTPcookshack@gmail.com to drop off supplies and/or get more info.  Connect with us before Friday morning and go with us to the mountain to set-up camp!!!

We remind folks that this is a drug/alcohol/hater free encampment, and we support a diversity of tactics and strategies.  Please come as self sufficient as possible.

We encourage everyone to answer the calls to action and start their own affinity groups and their own base camps!!! Please visit www.truesnow.org for the latest info.

We need the following… please remember we’re camping when making your donations!

To be able to survive:

To be able to camp:

To be able to cook:

To be able to document and communicate:

To be able to support each other:

If you think of something else that isn’t on this list that we or other base camps might need, please don’t hesitate to donate.

We thank you for all your love, support and spirit!

The CookShack Base Camp!

E-mail us – ptpcookshack@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter – @ptpcookshack
Friend us on Facebook – Peaks CookShack

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday June 19, 2011
Contact: Beth Lavely protectpeaks@gmail.com

Protest Halts Snowbowl Waste water Pipeline Construction
End Destruction and Desecration of Holy San Francisco Peaks

“We took every possible measure to ensure our safety.  Our actions were taken to safeguard Indigenous Peoples’ cultural survival, our community’s health and this sensitive mountain ecosystem.  Those who cut us out endangered our well being ignoring the screams to stop.  They treated our bodies the way they’re treating this holy mountain. If they had their way, we wouldn’t even exist.  There is more danger in doing nothing. To idly stand by and allow this destruction and desecration is to allow cultural genocide”, said the other young Dine’ woman who chose to lock down.

“The police’s use of excessive force was in complete disregard for my safety.  They pulled at my arms and forced my body and head further into the machine, all the while using heavy duty power saws within inches of my hand,” said Evan Hawbaker.

“Our only offense was resistance; resistance of the implications that’s Snowbowl’s development exudes. The police’s defense was to implement tactics of fear to reach a goal, essentially to continue construction as soon as possible. Our safety was prioritized second to Snowbowl’s demands.  I was one of the demonstrators in the trench, locked at the neck with a partner. I was not aggressive. My lock was sawed through, inches away from both of our heads, secured solely and recklessly by the hands of a deputy. During the process, we were repeatedly asked to chant to reaffirm our consciousness. The police’s response was hasty, taking about ten minutes in total–it was dehumanizing,” said Hailey Sherwood, one of the last protester to be cut out.

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Credits included in titles.
Photographs courtesy of Kyle Boggs of  The Noise & Beth Lavely

Protesters: NAU Get Off Mount Graham!
Winona LaDuke, ‘It’s Time to Say No.’

Written by Klee Benally and MT Garcia

FLAGSTAFF, AZ — On Tuesday, February 1, a dozen people including students and community members gathered at Northern Arizona University to protest the college’s partnership with a telescope development located on a sacred site.

NAU is listed on the telescope project’s website as a “project partner” along with University of Arizona and Arizona State University at 25% of the development’s partnership.

Mount Graham, located near Tucson, Arizona, is holy to San Carlos Apache, White Mountain Apache, Pascua Yaqui, Chiracahua and other Indigenous Nations who have struggled for years to stop the development with support of environmental groups.

The protest started at 5pm on the corner of Butler and Milton. The demonstrators held banners that read, “Stop desecration and extinction on Mount Graham,” and “Protect sacred sites, defend human rights.”

At the Highcountry conference center parking garage, a banner was dropped that read, “NAU off Mount Graham, protect sacred places”.

At 6pm the group started marching to Ardry Auditorium where it planned to support prominent Indigenous activist and author, Winona LaDuke’s speech for Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the way to the Auditorium, the protesters marched and chanted through the Union surprising NAU students.

The march grew to more than 30 people, who at times took to the streets and were chanting, “NAU off Mount Graham,” and connecting the struggle to protect the San Francisco Peaks with “Save the Peaks, save Mount Graham.”

“This is an issue of Indigenous People’s religious freedom and protection of sacred places. We’re here to address NAU’s complicity in desecrating a very sacred site.” said Bobby Lynn, a student at NAU who was part of the protest and march, “NAU should know better than to partner with the Mount Graham telescope. Here in Northern Arizona, Snowbowl ski area is attempting to further it’s desecration by expanding and making snow from treated sewage. This issue has divided our community and caused so much harm. We are in solidarity with those struggling to protect Mount Graham!” said Lynn.

Winona LaDuke urged everyone in attendance to “deconstruct empire” and addressed issues in Arizona, such as the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort, Mount Graham telescope, uranium mining, and copper mining. “I wanna encourage you all, to do good work, to make things better. I want to encourage you, whether it is the uranium mining at the Grand Canyon, leave it in the ground. Whether it is the Snowbowl. Whether it’s the copper mining, and the sacred lands of the Apache or the telescope project that this University here became complicity in. Its time to say no.”

TAKE ACTION TODAY:
Contact NAU President Haeger and urge him to respect the Apache, to save the Mount
Graham red squirrel and to get NAU out of the Mount Graham telescope project.
Phone: (928) 523-3232
Email: John.Haeger@nau.edu

More information about the issues:
www.mountgraham.org
www.savethepeaks.org
www.truesnow.org
www.stopuraniummining.org

CHIMAYO, NM—For too long, the US government and corporations have sacrificed the environmental integrity, the health, and the well-being of indigenous and poor communities to secure access to resources through the threat and use of force. We cannot reverse the course of a nuclear future unless we undo the legacy of racism and violence.

This week, young people from across the country are arrived at the Disarmament Summer Encampment to spend an exciting 10 days organizing for a nuclear-free world. Think Outside the Bomb (TOTB)—the nation’s largest youth-led network working for nuclear abolition—is hosting about 150 youth who have joined together to oppose the far reaching nuclear-industrial-complex.

The encampment is the culmination of TOTB’s Disarmament Summer Campaign, which has come at a time when the nation is spending more on the nuclear complex than ever before, including budgeting seven billion dollars to modernize facilities in New Mexico, Kansas City, and Tennessee—a series of projects that would give the U.S. the capability to make new new nuclear weapons. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), in Los Alamos, New Mexico, stands to play a major role in this nuclear relapse as plans are advanced to construct a new Chemical Metallurgy Research and Replacement (CMRR) facility. The CMRR facility holds potential to increase LANL’s ability to construct new plutonium pits—the core and trigger mechanism of high-powered nuclear weapons. At a time when budget crises and funding cuts are all too familiar, the nation cannot afford to continue building these incredibly costly and potentially destructive weapons.

“It’s time for our country to begin stepping toward real change, which cannot be done as long as we are throwing billions of dollars into the furnace that is the nuclear-industrial-complex,” said Jono Kinkade, TOTB media contact. “People are demanding better jobs and renewable energy, and in order to head in that direction we need to send our policy makers a sobering wake up call.”

During the encampment, participants will paint the expansive picture of the nuclear-industrial-complex through workshops, informative first-hand stories, and an ongoing discussion about why nuclearism still plagues this country and how we can put an end to it.

“We came to terms with assortment of expensive and toxic problems of nuclear weapons and nuclear power decades ago, and yet the industry is pushing like never before to take us into a nuclear relapse,” said Liz Woodruff, TOTB media contact and organizer with the Snake River Alliance in Boise, Idaho. “We can do so much better than to waste billions of dollars on a dangerous and obsolete energy source.”

Attendees of the encampment hail from all over the map—spanning from Washington State to South Carolina, as well as the Marshall Islands to right here in New Mexico. This diversity of geographical origins and the wide array of backgrounds makes Think Outside the Bomb truly unique. This rich, interwoven character creates the perfect atmosphere for resistance to the pervasive negative effects of the nuclear-industrial-complex. Uranium mining, enrichment, nuclear power, weapons, waste and haphazard disposal are all on TOTB’s map, and throughout the week we will be highlighting each one of these stages in more detail.

“This encampment is the active creation of a nuclear weapons free world” explained Steve Stormoen, a member of TOTB and a leader in the construction of the encampment. “It would be shortsighted to base our resistance only on opposition to bombs. Instead, we are focused on building a culture to combat the bomb-making mentality. A nuclear-free future is possible today, here and now, by building community, creating a space for sustainable living, and engaging in direct acts of resistance to nuclearism.”

The encampment infrastructure was built by TOTB and local allies, including students from Northern New Mexico College; residents of Santa Fe and Pojoaque; and members of TEWA Women United. After spending a few days addressing the slew of nuclear topics, participants will head into Los Alamos, NM on Friday, August 6, to commemorate the U.S. attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. After a rally at Ashley Pond in downtown Los Alamos, TOTB will march toward the entrance of Los Alamos National Labs.

Come join us to learn the deeper details of the nuclear complex and hear personal stories of people affected by the toxic legacy of nuclearism.

More information, visit http://www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org

Directions to the Encampment:
From Santa Fe: Take US-285 N/US-84 W for about 23 miles. After the Long John Silver’s, make a right at 76. Stay on 76 for about 7 miles until you pass the Family Dollar. Soon after the Family Dollar, take a sharp right on Country Road 102. At the end of Country Road 102, make a right (ignore the left arrow sign), and go into the 2nd driveway on the left marked 6A.

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Who we are:
Think Outside the Bomb is a cross-cultural alliance of youth working together to reignite hope from below and build a grassroots, consensus-based, nonviolent direct action movement. In partnership with the Tribal Environmental Watch Alliance, TEWA Women United, the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, Products of Atzlan youth group, and the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum, we are committed to collective liberation, a sustainable future, and an end to the cycle of nuclear violence.

Anti-immigration bills such as SB 1070 rest on the “securing” of the borders in order to manage the flow of migration. This securing includes and is not limited to a physical wall to be made on Indigenous land (Tohono O’odham/Lipan Apache to name a few). The state’s power to waive pre-existing laws (such as NEPA, NAGPRA) in the name of security, directly attacks Indigenous autonomy/sovereignty. The “political” solution will bring forced removal and relocation of the many Indigenous nations that span “their” borders by means of a reinforced physical barrier. In addition, the peoples who will be primarily targeted for racial profiling will be Indigenous peoples on both sides of the U.S/Mexico border. The passage of HB 2281 further contributes to the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples by criminalizing the histories of Indigenous peoples in our own lands within the Arizona public school system. The immigration struggle is also an Indigenous struggle.

PROTEST

US Immigration Court

160 North Stone Avenue

Tucson, AZ 85701-1584

Friday, 5/21

11am – 1pm.

For those attending the NAISA conference, please gather in the lobby of Westin at 10:15am.

For more information on the protest, contact:

NAISA members: contact Mishuana Goeman, Southern California Native Feminist Group, at mishuana@gmail.com
Support the following Indigenous groups organizing against SB 1070:

O’odham Solidarity Against Borders Collective
http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/

Lipan Apache Women’s Defense http://lipanapachecommunitydefense.blogspot.com/

O’odham Voices Against the Wall,
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

Council Advocating an Indigenous Manifesto
indigenize@gmail.com

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