On Sunday afternoon, the Save The Peaks Coalition rallied in front of City Hall in reaction to the Supreme Courts refusal to hear the case. The turn out was great, and there was a lot of support from vehicles passing by. (If you’re unfamiliar with this, the bottom half of this article provides a background, but you should really just go here)

I can only remember one car sitting at the light adjacent to where we were, a group of guys shouting, “Snow making! Snow making! Snow making!” Some really negative and racist comments were directed specifically toward the indigenous population. Klee handled it really well, holding up a sign with an arrow pointing to the automobile. The sign said, “this is what racism looks like.”

Beyond the more obvious racism inherent in bumper stickers like, “Reclaim the Peaks,” (a reference to the sewer water they want to pump up the mountain to make snow, as well as the irony of “reclaiming” land that was flat-out stolen and labeled federal land), this issue has really illuminated deep racial divisions of Flagstaff.

Klee introducing Howard Shanker (who lost the election in November to Ann Kirkpatrick for this districts seat in Congress. Shanker was very supportive of the Save the Peaks coalition)

Attorney Howard Shanker speaking about the legalities of the case

Fourteen regional tribes and scores of local environmental groups have been fighting this issue for decades. Desecrating the Peaks is in direct violation of the Religious Freedom Act. I can’t even begin to explain the emotional impact that all this has on people whose religious and spiritual identity is directly connected to the Peaks. I go to these rallies and I talk with people in town. They have tears in their eyes; they shake when they speak personally about their connection with that mountain. And it’s not always indigenous people, either. I’ve cried over this mountain. My dad has said that his heart lies in the San Francisco Peaks. But I won’t pretend to have the same sort of connection that regional Native peoples do. Everyone who is in love with that mountain, not because of it’s potential for profit and recreation, is hated and vilified by those that just come here to ski.

If the decision went the other way around and the mountain was protected (not shut out to the community, but just left alone and respected for what it is rather than what it could be), do you think any skiers would sob and mourn the loss? Hell no. Most of the skiers don’t even live here. Those that own Snowbowl don’t even live in Arizona. And it wouldn’t be a loss to skiers any way. There are a million places to ski in this country. Leave this mountain alone.

Flagstaff is a 30% second home community; most of its out-of-town residents live in Phoenix; most of the people that ski the mountain are from Phoenix. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out whom the city is catering towards by selling wastewater to Snowbowl. The city caters to visitors over the people that actually live here…and certainly over those that have lived here longer than Flagstaff itself has existed.

Here is more proof. Where did they most recently repave the roads? Downtown. Where do the roads really need to be repaved? Our neighborhoods. They didn’t even bother to repave the southside of San Francisco. Now that street needs it. But they know the tourists and Phoenicians don’t cross the tracks, so why bother?

Klee holds up a bottle of reclaimed water, asking someone to bring it to the next city council meeting and challenge one of them to drink it since they apparently believe it is safe

…and, of course, speaking your mind in Flagstaff would not be complete without a watchful eye looming in the distance.

I have so much more to say about all this. It will have to wait until another time.