FOR MORE INFORMATION: Burnette Rope or Roger Featherstone (202)
544-9219
SAN CARLOS APACHE TRIBAL COUNCIL MEMBERS ANNOUNCE OPENING OF NEW
FRONT IN EFFORT TO PROTECT SACRED MOUNTAIN
Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribal Council will hold a press
conference on June 26, 1992 at 1:00 PM at the National Press Club.
The press conference will detail results of three days of meetings
with members of Congress, foreign Embassies and the Catholic
Church. The San Carlos Tribal Council has come to Washington to
ask members of Congress and representatives of the Italian
government, the German government and the Vatican to help their
fight to protect Mt. Graham a mountain most sacred to the Apache.
Native people and environmentalists have been fighting an
international consortium of partners which have been constructing
an observatory on the top of Mt. Graham a biologically unique
mountain sacred to the Apache people. The consortium includes the
Max Planck Institute from Germany, the Arcetri Observatory from
Italy, the Vatican, and the only US partner, the University of
Arizona.
The San Carlos Tribal Council has long been active in fighting the
project and has come to Washington to ask Congress to legislate to
protect the mountain. Washington is new territory for the Tribal
Council on the Mt. Graham issue which has thus far confined its
influence to Arizona.
Members of the Tribal Council will reveal new approaches in the
effort to stop construction of the Mt. Graham telescopes.
"This is the first time the Tribal Council has come to Washington
to fight for the mountain," said Burnette Rope a tribal
councilman. "Three times we have passed resolutions against the
project, now the tribal council needs to speak publicly. We are
fighting for the safety of the mountain and for the people . The
spirit can go so far, then the mountain will go farther. We are
here to warn the people first, before they place something on the
mountain, and before the university goes too far. We want to
solve the problem in a way that the spirit will be satisfied .
The backers of the project don't realize that what is good for the
mountain is good for everyone."
The Tribal council delegation will be joined by environmental
activists who are working alongside the Tribe in passing
corrective legislation.
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