A chill over Agassiz

The Arizona Snowbowl, near Flagstaff, has picturesque ski slopes and a revered locale, situated on a site sacred to the Navajo and Hopi nations. What it doesn’t have much of is snow, or sources of water to make it, so it is proposing to create it with reclaimed wastewater from the lowlands. For Native Americans, this is, in the words of Navajo activist Robert Tohe, like “going into a church and defecating.”

Snowbowl’s runs sit on the slopes of 12,356-foot Agassiz Peak, one of several summits on a giant, dormant volcano that are collectively known as the San Francisco Peaks. Navajo and Hopi say they are indispensable to their religious beliefs and practices. Tohe is part of the Dineh Bild Zill (People’s Strength) Coalition, a grass-roots organization that is trying to prevent further desecration of these sacred peaks, which help define the boundaries of the Navajo, or Dineh, homeland. “We regard it as our mother,” he said.

“Twenty-two tribes in Arizona regard the mountain with great respect,” Tohe said. “Their beliefs require the mountain to remain undisturbed. When you disturb the mountain, you bring about disharmony; we’re witness to that right now -- crime, incest, sexual assaults.”

The ski area, meanwhile, doesn’t want to have to rely solely on the whims of nature. This skiing season didn’t open until Jan. 9. “We missed Christmas,” Snowbowl General Manager J.R. Murray said. The holidays are big revenue times for ski resorts, 80% of which rely to varying degrees on snowmaking. “All we’re asking is, hey, let us make snow,” Murray said.

The U.S. Forest Service, which has jurisdiction over the peaks, will decide if snowmaking can proceed. The agency released a draft environmental impact statement last week on the possible effects of using reclaimed water for snowmaking as well as those of other proposed Snowbowl upgrades. The public has a 60-day period to raise questions and concerns, which will be factored into the final environmental report. The Forest Service favors a plan to allow snowmaking, using wastewater, and other improvements at Snowbowl.

During good snow years, the ski area generates $20 million in revenue for Flagstaff and indirectly employs 178 local vendors who provide products and services to Snowbowl, said Jeremy Christopher, vice president of business development for the Greater Flagstaff Economic Council.

While recent drought conditions have increased the need for snowmaking, lack of snow has been a problem since the area’s inception in 1938. The porous volcanic peaks have no free-flowing streams for snowmaking, so the water has to come from elsewhere.

The city of Flagstaff has already agreed to sell Arizona Snowbowl 1.5 million gallons per day of reclaimed water from Nov. 1 through the end of February, if the snowmaking plan is approved. During the summer, this treated water is used at city parks, golf courses and school playgrounds.

But the Hopi don’t want water that has gone through hospitals and mortuaries sprinkled onto their sacred mountain, known to them as Nuvatukyaovi.

“That place is our responsibility,” said Bucky Preston from his home in Walpi, a village on the Hopi Indian Reservation. “This place is for people, but we need to protect it. When that’s gone, that’s one of the very few signs that this world is coming to an awful time.”

For the Hopi, the mountain is home to the katsinas, spirit messengers who, among other tasks, send Hopi prayers for rain and bountiful harvests on to their deities. The skiing and now the snowmaking, some Hopi believe, have interfered with the spiritual order. “The Hopi people are paying for this; we haven’t had rain, we haven’t had our crop like we did when I was a boy,” Preston said.

Both Hopi and Navajo nations direct prayers to the San Francisco Peaks and collect medicinal herbs from their slopes. In the view of Tohe and Preston, the desecration of sacred land for fun and profit is incomprehensible. “Why can’t they understand ‘no’?” said Preston. “It’s already been said: ‘No Snowbowl, no snowmaking, no expansion.’ ”

Conflict between Native Americans and the ski area is not new. In 1979, the Forest Service conducted an environmental assessment for Snowbowl and approved new development. The Navajo Medicinemen’s Assn. and others filed suit, arguing that expansion of Snowbowl impeded their ability to practice their religion.

The suit went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the Navajo lost.