News

Film focuses on SF peaks debate
Navajo Times
By Noel Lyn Smith

  FLAGSTAFF - With Sunday's snowy weather outside, people gathered inside Northern Arizona University's Cline Library to watch a film about the Arizona Snowbowl and a controversial proposal to put treated wastewater on sacred land.

  The library was filled to near capacity for the premiere of "The Snowbowl Effect," a documentary on the issue of using wastewater to produce artificial snow for the Arizona Snowbowl, a 777-acre ski area located on land administered by the U.S. Forest Service on the San Francisco Peaks seven miles north of here.

  Owners of the Snowbowl, strained by years of below-normal snowfall and scarce water availability for artificial snow, want to use treated sewage effluent in their snowmaking machines. The idea was met with outrage by Native American groups, who say such an act would desecrate a place where gods live.

  The peaks are sacred to 13 surrounding tribes.

  Klee Benally, director of the film, said documentary was a two-year project aimed at promoting dialogue among citizens in and around Flagstaff. The city would furnish the wastewater. Benally, a member of the Indigenous Action Media, has been involved with the issue since 1996.

  The film begins with an image of the San Francisco Peaks and Native American dancers in the background. Employees from the U.S. Forest Service, the Arizona Snowbowl, the city of Flagstaff, tribal governments and local activists are interviewed concerning their viewpoints on using wastewater.

  Benally also interviewed a number of Native Americans from Yavapai to Navajo about their beliefs about nature.

  One image shows a young Native American girl carrying a sign that says, "Kachinas Make Snow" - this alone captures the position of Native Americans.

  Benally captures the distance between parties to the dialogue, both philosophically and technologically, with one scene in particular. In it, his father Jones Benally describes how he received the Forest Service environmental impact statement on a CD-ROM. Jones, also a traditional Navajo medicine practitioner, said he initially thought he had been sent a mirror.

  The environmental impact statement must conclude that the use of wastewater to make snow would not harm the peaks in order for the proposal to be approved by the Forest Service. The Forest Service is expected to release its decision in early 2005.

  Klee Benally said he wants his film to show the history and present day treatment of Native American religious beliefs. "We don't push our values on other people," he said.

  He wants the movie to show what is and is not appropriate for the peaks. And, he questions, is the appropriate behavior being valued?

  After the screening, Benally said that this was not the final version, explaining that his computer crashed three times during editing before he settled on showing a rough, unedited version.

  He said a final version of the film would be shown at Flagstaff and the Navajo Nation Museum in the near future. The documentary was paid for by Benally and his family, with equipment donated by Julia Butterfly Hill's Circle of Life, an organization devoted to honoring the diversity and interdependence of all life.

  Personally, Benally said he thinks it is important to protect sacred sites for future generations. "This is really important, it's not a game ... it's important to our people," he said.

  Sunday's event also featured live music by Berta Benally, David Milgram, hip-hop artist Yaiva, and DJ Young Native. All were armed with music focused on the environment, the recent election and culture.

Information: www.savethepeaks.org .