I've been away - now i'm back! Mike Davis called this morning to update
the site (see posting below). Much is happening down there - they are
currently considering several options etc. Here's the scoop. See
supporting info on the ASC site i.e. recent Clinton bill, background, at
http://www.teleport.com/~amt/planetpeace/mt_graham/ .
In the Spirit of Friendship,
Andrea
Web-Diva, Planet Peace
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Apache Survival Coalition
Mike & Ola Cassadore Davis
P.O. Box 1237, San Carlos, AZ 85550
520-475-2543; 520-294-1863
"Historic Meeting at San Carlos in Support of Apache Religious Freedom"
June 6, 1996
For Immediate Release
In an event unprecedented in southern Arizona, several pastors from Tucson
churches were invited by traditional Apache spiritual leaders to attend a
Holy Ground Summer Blessing ceremony last weekend, May 25 - 27, 1996. The
ceremony took place at the Bylas Holy Grounds on the San Carlos Apache
reservation. Its purpose was to renew the call to support for religious
freedom and the rights of the San Carlos Apaches, which are being violated
by the University of Arizona's telescope project on Mt. Graham.
The Blessing is an annual Holy Grounds event, an integral part of Apache
spiritual life. This year it brought together around 150 Apaches from
Bylas, San Carlos, Cibecue and Whiteriver, and some 50 non-Apaches, mostly
from Tucson; also including three members of the National Council of
Churches' Racial Justice Working Group from New York, North Carolina and
Los Angeles. Holy Ground medicine man and outspoken critic of the
observatory project Franklin Stanley, who led the ceremony, said it was
the largest gathering at a Blessing in recent times, indicating a
resurgence of traditional Apache religious practice. this year's Summer
Blessing was co-sponsored by the Mt. Graham/Sacred Sites Inter-Faith
Alliance, the Apache Survival Coalition and the Holy Grounds, and was also
the occasion of the Inter-faith Alliance's "First Gathering in support of
Apache religious freedom." It rained during that evening.
On April 26, while President Clinton was signing a bill approving the
University of Arizona's construction of a third telescope on Mt. Graham,
a fire raced through the Coronado National Forest to within a mile of the
observatory. This fire destroyed 6,317 acres on Mt. Graham. Plans for
the University of Arizona (UA) to go ahead with the telescope construction
before the fire's effects have been evaluated is totally irresponsible.
Mount Graham is home to an endangered subspecies of red squirrel found
only on the mountain. It is predicted that the squirrel population will
be found to have decreased by at least 50 percent.
And despite Judge Alfredo Marquez's decision May 31, to lift his
injunction on construction of the "Large Binocular telescope" (a decision
to be taken before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals), a movement is
growing within the religious community to support the protection of Native
American sites, of which Mt. Graham is one of the most hotly contested.
These sties are, in the words of noted Lakota scholar Vine Deloria, "the
foundation of all other beliefs and practices because they represent the
presence of the Sacred in our lives." On May 24, President Bill Clinton
signed an Executive Order to protect Indian sacred sites on federal land.
This Order was long-awaited by protection advocates, who have waited in
vain for Congressional action as they have witnessed a series of court
decisions undermine Native American religious freedom.
The religious community expressed its profound regrets at not having come
sooner to the aid of the San Carlos Apaches, and for the historic failure
of the church to speak out and act in defense of Native American tradition
and culture. Michael Davis, Apache Survival Coalition said: "Apaches and
Religious communities/leaders gathering represents an awareness of the
U.S. government's lack of real commitment to fully protect basic human
rights of Indian people to practice their traditional religion on their
sacred sties. Regardless of government actions which are increasingly
bringing their laws into line with human rights standards and public
pronouncements of those rights, they are at the same time, through their
actions, exposing their own laws and words to be a cynical facade."
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1996 Planet Peace, amt@teleport.com
URL:http://www.teleport.com/~amt/planetpeace/
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Andrea Thein "Nothing REAL Can be Threatened.
Director, Planet Peace Nothing UNREAL Exists."
Native American Community Internet Project
http://www.teleport.com/~amt/planetpeace/ E-mail: amt@teleport.com
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