Special Blog Series: Why the Reclaimed Water Arizona Snowbowl Uses to Make Artificial Snow is Wrong
By Darrell Marks from the Navajo Tribe.
A lot of people enjoy coming to Arizona Snowbowl to ski. But do you know where all that snow comes from?
To extend its ski season, Arizona Snowbowl has used reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow and spray it on land that 14 Tribes, including my people, the Navajo, consider sacred.
Some toxins, hormones, and other things cannot be pulled out from the reclaimed water. And even if they say the amount is minimal, it becomes more concentrated and abundant over time. That is what is being sprayed on the San Francisco Peaks, an essential place of the cultural and religious heritage of different Tribes throughout the southwest region.
What this corporation is spraying on the top of the mountain is also going through its volcanic porous rock and draining down into the groundwater system, affecting all of the communities around Flagstaff that benefit from that vital water source.
Imagine what will happen to you if you're drinking that every day. Imagine what's happening already to the animals that only take that water.
Is making money more important than protecting our future and the future of our children? When the water is gone and destroyed, you cannot get it back. People must understand that.
As an Indigenous person, this issue is very personal to me. In Navajo, there are certain things that we can and cannot do.
A couple of years ago, I lost my youngest brother. He lived in Flagstaff with his family. His heart stopped. I remember clearly when my mom called me and asked me to contact the medical examiner to ensure nothing was done to his body.
When I called, I was informed that my brother's body was opened to find the cause of death. In Navajo culture, and as in many other Indigenous cultures, the way that you're brought into this world is the same way that you're supposed to go out. That's our belief. We didn't need to know the cause of death. We just wanted him to go the same way he came into this world. But that was not possible.
After his death, his clothes were removed, and his body was washed as part of the hospital process. As normal as this procedure was to the medical examiner, this was so painful for all of us in my family.
When my mother gave birth to my brother, and she held him for the first time, he had his own smell. Every day of his life since he was a child, he had a distinct smell. Sometimes that smell changes over time with the chemicals we put in our bodies, but after a while, we smell again like ourselves.
In Navajo, we talk about smell and sweat as being the essence of our life. My brother's essence was washed off of his body, and it went down the sewage. Now his essence is part of the reclaimed water being sprayed on the mountain by Arizona Snowbowl, desecrating this sacred place and causing deep pain to our family. When we buried my brother, part of him was missing, and now people are skiing and recreating over his essence.
I do not run, ski, recreate, or drive on the top of a cemetery or anybody's church, but that's what is being done in the church of 14 different tribes.
I ask Arizonans to respect this holy mountain and support our efforts to stop Arizona Snowbowl from using reclaimed water and expanding. They want to build a Disneyland of outdoor recreation in the San Francisco Peaks, but they must do it somewhere else, not on our sacred mountain. Not in our church.