Flagstaff Police Attack and Arrest San Francisco Peaks Marchers
BREAKING NEWS
Updated Monday, Aug. 8
By Brenda Norrell
Photos: Navajo Klee Benally attacked and arrested by Flagstaff, Arizona,
police. Photo by Youth of the Peaks.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Defenders of San Francisco Peaks were arrested
during a peaceful march on Sunday and then locked down to halt pipeline
construction on Monday at dawn. Native Americans and supporters are
continuing their week of action to halt the Snowbowl Resort from the
continued destruction of sacred San Francisco Peaks.
Protect the Peaks supporters locked down on Snowbowl Road this
morning, Monday, Aug. 8, at 5 am. Peaks defender and police liaision
Rudy Preston was arrested at the scene on Monday morning.
Alex
Soto, O'odham, reporting from the lockdown, said that Flagstaff and
Coconino County officers were cutting away the pipes to the
barrels which the eight protesters were locked down with. Construction
was halted on the pipeline which would carry sewage water for
snowmaking for tourists at the Snowbowl Ski Resort, on sacred San
Francisco Peaks.
On Sunday, six people protecting San Francisco Peaks were targeted
and arrested during a peaceful march for the protection of the Peaks.
San Francisco Peaks defender Klee Benally, Navajo, was among those
arrested.
In front of Macy's Coffeehouse on Sunday afternoon, undercover police
infiltrated the hundred person march in an attempt to squash the
growing anti-Snowbowl movement.
The peaceful march by Native Americans and supporters was surrounded by police
from the moment the march formed, marchers said.
One marcher said, "They were just waiting to pounce. And they did!"
The
six arrested were released on bail late Sunday. Klee Benally said in a
message on Twitter: "Just released from jail. Protect the peaks. The
struggle continues."
Supporters protecting San Francisco Peaks said they will continue
with a planned protest outside the US Forest Service on Monday at 12:30
p.m.
Native Americans are struggling to defend sacred San Francisco Peaks
from snow to be made from sewage water at the Snowbowl tourist resort on
the Peaks. The mountains are sacred to 13 Native American Nations.
Medicine men gather plants on the Peaks and hold traditional healing
ceremonies on the Peaks.
Protect the Peaks said they will continue to resist the destruction of San
Francisco Peaks.
Navajos and supporters said that more than one hundred people,
including families with children and elders, marched through downtown
Flagstaff on Sunday in protest of the destruction and desecration of the
San Francisco Peaks by Arizona Snowbowl.
"Demonstrators first gathered at Wheeler Park where they were
immediately ordered to leave the public park by the Flagstaff Police
Department. As the march wound through downtown Flagstaff demonstrators
were met with positive responses and support while dozens of police –
many out of uniform -- harassed the demonstrators," Protect the Peaks
said in a statement.
"Police cars drove alongside the marchers. As the protesters passed
out flyers and carried banners through Flagstaff’s Southside, police
violently disrupted the march, grabbing those who were closest to the
street and arresting them. As six marchers were handcuffed, the
remaining demonstrators continued to yell demands for an end to the
Peaks’ destruction."
“As long as Arizona Snowbowl, the Obama Administration’s Forest
Service and the City of Flagstaff continue this ecocide and cultural
genocide, we will not stop,” said Klee Benally (Dine’), one of the
arrested marchers. “We will pray, march, protest, and take whatever
action is necessary to ensure that our basic human rights, dignity and
environment are safeguarded. Today’s unjustified force from the
Flagstaff Police Department demonstrates that they are not on the side
of justice or healthy communities. The Forest Service and City of
Flagstaff are on the side of corporate interests that are destroying our
communities.”
Since May 25, 2011, the owners of Arizona Snowbowl, with the
support of the U.S. Forest Service and the Flagstaff City Council, have
laid over five miles of a 14.8 mile wastewater pipeline and have
clear-cut over 40 acres of rare alpine forest. A current lawsuit against
the Forest Service, focusing on human health impacts of wastewater
snowmaking, is still under appeal in the 9th Circuit Court. The
individuals at today’s march are separate from the Coalition involved in
the lawsuit.
Sunday’s march joins four decades of sustained resistance to
desecration of the Holy Peaks. Over the past three weeks since Snowbowl
began clear-cutting, dozens of protest camps have been established on
the mountain.
“The Week of Action is a
culmination of efforts to directly address the lack of political will of
the Forest Service and City Council to safeguard the community, public
health and cultural rights,” said Nadia Del Callejo who was arrested
while simply video taping the incident.
“The same profit driven push that has desecrated the Peaks, is the
same sickness that has lead to the militarization of the border and is
now trying to desecrate South Mountain, which is sacred to all O’odham.”
said Alex Soto (Tohono O‘odham ) who was also arrested, “Sacred sites
are under attack, but today we said no. Our solidarity in these
struggles is re-establishing our traditional networks of support ”
Demonstrators invite everyone to join them Monday, August 8, 12:30
pm at the United States Coconino National Forest Service Office at 1824
S. Thomson St, Wednesday, 12:30pm at High Desert Investment at 504 E
Butler Ave and Wednesday, 4:00pm at Flagstaff City Hall.
Protesters vowed to not stop until
the desecration of the Peaks stops. “I am not afraid of what will
happen to me if I protest, what I am more afraid of is what will happen
if I do not stand up for what the Peaks are,” Del Callejo said.
More info at:
[email protected]
www.truesnow.org
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2011/08/flagstaff-police-attack-and-arrest-san-francisco-peaks-marchers#.Tj8vqksoO6U.facebook
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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