The Sacred Peaks and the Snow Made from Sewage

The San Francisco Peaks rise to twelve thousand six hundred thirty-three feet at Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona. They are the eroded remnant of a stratovolcano that erupted approximately four hundred thousand years ago, and they dominate the landscape visible from most of northern Arizona. What makes them politically and spiritually significant is that they are sacred to thirteen American Indian tribes.

For the Navajo, the peaks are called Dook'o'oslid, one of the four cardinal sacred mountains that establish the boundaries of Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. For the Hopi, the peaks are associated with the katsina spirits, the intermediary beings who carry prayers between the human and divine realms. The Havasupai, the Apache, the Zuni, and eight other tribes hold their own covenants with this mountain.

In two thousand and two, the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort, which sits on the slopes of the peaks inside the Coconino National Forest, proposed expanding its operations and manufacturing artificial snow using treated municipal wastewater. A coalition of thirteen tribes and environmental groups sued to stop it, arguing that spraying reclaimed sewage water on sacred ground constituted a violation of their religious rights under federal law.

The legal battle ran for years. A federal appeals court ruled in the resort's favor in two thousand and twelve. Construction of the wastewater pipeline began and was completed despite ongoing protests, including direct actions at the construction site. Snowmaking operations began in the season that followed.

The tribes did not agree with the ruling and do not accept it as settling the underlying question. The legal and spiritual dispute over what happens on these slopes remains unresolved in the communities that consider the peaks inseparable from their identity.