FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Tuesday, October 25, 2005

NAVAJO NATION TO SEND BUS TO HEARING IN PRESCOTT

The Navajo Nation leadership is asking the Navajo people to show their opposition to the continued desecration of the sacred mountain Dook 'o'slííd or the San Francisco Peaks during the hearing which is scheduled to continue on November 2, 2005, in Prescott, Arizona.

Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan and President Joe Shirley released a joint letter this week asking the people of the Navajo Nation to come out in full support of the efforts to protect the sacred mountain to the west. To do so, the Office of the Speaker and the Office of the President are sending a bus to the court hearing in Prescott so that the position of the Navajo people will be made known during this important hearing.

The bus will be leaving the morning of November 2, 2005, from the Navajo Nation Veterans Memorial Park in Window Rock, Ariz., at 6 a.m. The bus will return on the same day. Seating will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

In addition, the Navajo Nation Honor Riders are scheduling a motorcycle run to ride to the court house, which they also did on October 18, 2005.

The Navajo Nation is party to the lawsuit against the Coconino Forest Service and the Arizona Snowbowl to halt the proposed use of reclaimed waste water on the San Francisco Peaks. The use of sewer water on the mountain is considered sacrilegious by the Navajo people and by at least 12 other tribes.

“The integrity of our culture and our way of life is under attack. When the sanctity of one sacred mountain is compromised, the entire system is compromised. It is our job – as stewards of the environment in which we live – to protect these mountains for future generations to come,” the letter states.

“We humbly ask the Navajo people to fulfill that role as the protectors of our sacred sites and make known our opposition to any further development on Dook 'o'slííd – the San Francisco Peaks,” the president and the speaker state in the letter.

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