State of Emergency: Another Week of Action to Save the Peaks

Activists on-site have announced a state of emergency. Old growth forest is being clearcut and burnt, the land bulldozed. Many of the trees are not even being used for lumber, but piled into twenty foot high slash piles and burned. All of this so privileged tourists can go snow skiing, all of this to destroy a watershed, destroy a landbase, destroy a culture.

Another Week of Action is in progress, with street actions and direct action on the mountain continuing.

"If not now, when? If not you, who?"



"The pictures do not really explain the massive scale. The stump in the foreground is 5ft across and the log pile peeking over the top has a few hundred trees that were many hundreds of years old."



"20 foot tall slash pile being burned. Thanks Lorena Caballero for the photo. Be sure to check her photos for another full album of pictures."



From the album: Converge on the Peaks - www.TrueSnow.org by Nuvatuqui Ovi

"What is at stake is our prayers, our ways of life, our cultural survival."

Updates, additional photos, and statements from activists arrested on the Holy San Francisco Peaks on Saturday, courtesy IndigenousAction.org:

"What is at stake is our prayers, our ways of life, our cultural survival."

On the Gaelic front, so much of my work in recent years has been about preserving our prayers and songs for the coming generations. This is still culturally vital, but what good are these things if we no longer have the land on which to pray and sing? What use are our ceremonies if the land becomes too desecrated to sustain life? Without land we have no culture, no life, no future.

This is why my prayer is that our cultural preservation of language, songs, prayers and ceremonies, go hand in hand with our cultural preservation that prioritizes protection of the sacred land. The culture sustains us, the land sustains us, and neither can be separated from the other.

Update: Annie over at Tairis in Scotland has weighed in on the issue, as well. Good to see more international coverage, especially from a fellow Gaelic Polytheist who understands how vital this work is to our cultures, whether we are protecting sacred sites in Alba agus Éire or in the diaspora. Moran Taing!

What Part of "Sacred" Don't You Understand?

photo courtesy Outta Your Backpack Media / Censored News

View Video of Lockdown

Indigenous people and their allies were holding a prayer circle on the mountain Saturday morning. They had invited people of all faiths to the sacred site to pray with them in solidarity.

As they were praying in the cool, mountain air, sounds of heavy machinery drove away the sounds of nature. In rumbled the diggers... ready to desecrate and disrupt ceremony, ready to rip the mountain apart right in front of the people. Klee Benally jumped in front of a digger and chained himself to the heavy machinery to stop them, and activists moved to fill in the trenches, rock by rock, handful of earth by handful of earth.

Many of us involved in the struggle to protect sacred sites have stressed:

We protect the sacred sites
so we'll have a place to pray
We pray to have the strength
to protect the sacred land
United in our prayer
we protect the sacred land
Our action is our prayer
Our action is our prayer

How much clearer does the struggle get? How much more vividly can the need for resistance be shown, when clearcutters, diggers and bulldozers violate the sanctity of a prayer circle, and the people who were only there to pray are faced with the immediate decision whether to take it, to flee, or to put their bodies on the line to defend the land?

Full story and additional photos

Nineteen people have been arrested in the past ten days, as Navajo, Hualapai, Hopi, O'odham and other Indigenous people have been protesting the destruction of the sacred mountains.

"The Arizona Snowbowl plans to make snow for tourists on the sacred mountain using recycled waste water. Thirteen Native American Indian Nations hold the mountains sacred. Medicine men gather healing plants and conduct ceremonies on the mountains.
Already, there is clearcutting of the old growth forests for the pipeline and tourist developments."

More...

Klee Benally Locked Down on Holy Mountain

Two activists arrested, public protest at Coconino County Jail, bail support needed.

Via Brenda Norrell:

Navajo Klee Benally chained himself to an excavator on Snowbowl Road on Saturday, Aug. 14, after machinery disrupted a prayer gathering on San Francisco Peaks. Peaks police liaison Rudy Preston and author Mary Sojourner were arrested. Both have been bailed out of Coconino County Jail, according to a message at 1:30 am on Sunday.

More...

The Week of Action to save the sacred San Francisco Peaks from clearcutting, bulldozing, devastation and desecration has drawn many new supporters to the public marches and rallies, as well as direct action by those risking arrest on the mountain herself. Guess what, the week is over but the actions are not. The fight continues in the courts and defenders are camped all over the mountain, ready to launch direct action from base camps. Actionists have vowed to continue until the site is protected.

At 2pm Mountain Time on Saturday, Klee Benally locked down to heavy machinery on the mountain, laying his body on the line to protect this sacred site. Our prayers and gratitude to Klee and all the brave actionists on the mountain. Follow Censored News and twitter for the most up to date coverage, and the rest of us will do our best to spread the word as well.

More photos from the week of Action and invitation to prayer circle in support of the actions.

Update 5:26pm et: Police vehicles on scene, police are with Klee and other protestors.

Update 5:56pm et: Two actionists arrested: Mary Sojourner and Rudy Preston. Klee Benally is still locked down.

Statement from Protect the Peaks, via Brenda Norrell:

Snowbowl's destruction and desecration is currently being stopped by another blockade involving Klee Benally. Updates and photos are available at www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com. Jail support is needed and there will be a gathering outside of the Coconino County Jail (starting now until everyone is released). At this point, it is expected that $900 may be needed to bail out those arrested. If you can contribute to legal funds, please drop off money at the jail. Please support in person or in some other way.

For those wishing to help with bail but unable to get there in person, you can donate via PayPal at www.truesnow.org or www.indigenousaction.org.

Update 7:13pm et: Klee Benally cut out of chains, cited for disorderly conduct and released. Rally continues at jail.