Kachina Kaching!

Native Americans won't tolerate fake snow, what about all those beaded things MADE IN CHINA?

    SAN FRANCISCO - A ski area on a northern Arizona mountain may not use treated wastewater to make snow because that would violate the rights of American Indian tribes that consider the peak sacred, a federal appeals court has ruled.

    The Arizona Snowbowl on the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff wanted to add a fifth chair lift, spray man-made snow and clear about 100 acres of forest to extend its ski season.

   However, the Navajo Nation and a dozen other Southwest tribes filed suit to block the project, arguing that it would violate their religious freedom. The lawsuit also said the government did not adequately address the environmental effect of using wastewater, which would be pumped up a pipeline from Flagstaff.

   In a decision Monday, Judge William A. Fletcher of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the snowmaking scheme violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and would be akin to using wastewater in Christian baptisms. Full story

   Setting aside the heart attack inducing spectre of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals citing ANYTHING Christian to substantiate their finding, this story has some interesting angles. If you haven't been there in the last decade, outside of every podunk town in Northern Arizona is at least one horribly garrish, neon-fired and continuously packed Indian casino. I used to live down there and I had NO IDEA there were so many tribes in the area. It's a wonder there was ever room for 'em all way back when. And on every road that goes into or out of the Navajo Reservation, there are countless vendors on the roadside selling everything 'Injun' and it's almost all MADE IN CHINA. As in F.A.K.E. So the argument that the snow is fake doesn't wash. And if you take the Native Americans at their word, everything the eye can see is sacred and deserves reverance or blackjack tables. Northern Arizona was settled relatively early in the days of the Wild West and because of this, the Indians got screwed royally. All the good stuff was 'bought' by white settlers from the unsuspecting natives - or it was stolen. The Meteor Crater, the Grand Canyon, and any land that had mineral wealth was 'purchased'. And it has stayed in private hands since. So most of the really popular tourist places are not owned by the neighborhood tribe. Welp, that pissed them off to no end. It's not enough that they keep planting those ugly-ass casinos all over the place, now they want the revenue from skiing, too. Now this wouldn't be so big a deal except, the ski resort in question just happens to be home for the U.S. Winter Olympic Training facility. And just happens to be in the running for a Winter Olympic bid very soon. So, as much as I support the Navajos and the other tribes, I have to call 'BULLSHIT' on this decision.

It has nothing to do with anything sacred, unless it's the almighty dollar being worshipped. 

Comments

[Bomb-a-rama]

A ski area on a northern Arizona mountain may not use treated wastewater to make snow because that would violate the rights of American Indian tribes that consider the peak sacred, a federal appeals court has ruled.

One question: if the mountain where this dispute is occurring is sacred, why are people being allowed to ski on it???

[Jim Mcfalls]

In South America I heard El Presidente W was to visit some Incan ruins and some local said that they wer going to cleanse the ruins after he left. I watch a lot of news but never heard any one say if the ruins would be cleansed by human sacrafice.

[Mouse]

When I bought title insurance on my property there is a claim on the land by the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Apparently they want a casino built, or money. It is amazing what they have learned from the white man. As they were moved from their home to a reservation quite far away from their roots, I think they deserve some kind of compensation. The white man seems to love feeding quarters into those preprogrammed to be random (heh) machines. Although a lot of them use paper these days.

[Phoenix]

Do they drink that treated wastewater? If so, then I suppose they don't consider themselves very sacred. I smell a phony scheme.

Jim,

I heard about them having to come in and do some mojo to get rid of bad Bush spirits. That disgusted me so I felt like screaming. We should go down there and do a few human sacrifices on that oh-so-holy temple of theirs. Idiots.

[Phoenix]

Why didn't the Indians assimilate into our culture?

[OINK]

And another Native American group complained when one of the Apollo Program managers' ashes were deposited on the Moon -- because the Moon was sacred to them
Tough shit, it was sacred to that guy, too.

[Phoenix]

What did those Indians want NASA to do? Go back up there and get the guy's ashes?

ugh....