9th Circuit Court of Appeals hears case Sept. 14, events

The efforts continue to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks from ski area expansion and snowmaking with treated sewage effluent. On Sept. 14th the legal battle to save the Peaks will continue in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, CA. Support/Awareness events will be held in California and in Flagstaff.

FLAGSTAFF EVENTS:

Mobilization for Sacred Sites and Human Rights in Flagstaff

Over a thousand people expected to converge in Flagstaff to march for Sacred Sites and Human Rights on March 25th

The March for Sacred Sites and Human Rights will be held in association with the National Conference of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (Chicano/a Student Movement of Aztlan aka M.E.Ch.A.), which will be taking place at NAU during that week. The theme of the national M.E.Ch.A. conference is “Human Rights will not be Denied” and it is expected to bring over eight hundred high school and university students from throughout the US to NAU.

"Every year, M.E.Ch.A. marches on an issue that the local chapter has been engaged with," said Kesia Ceniceros female co-chair of M.E.Ch.A., "This year we have asked the Save the Peaks Coalition and other organizations to collaborate on our march to protect sacred sites and human rights of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The March will start at 3pm on March 25th at the Aquatic Center on NAU on San Francisco St. and conclude at the Flagstaff City Hall. The people will gather at City Hall to make speeches and call for the Flagstaff City Council to rescind the vote to sell reclaimed wastewater to Arizona Snowbowl. Those at the march representing the rights of immigrants want to end the dehumanization of migrants and stop anti-immigration legislation.

For more information regarding the “March for Sacred Sites – March for Human Rights” please contact Gabriel Yaiva at (928) 699-9601 or email yaiva@nativemovement.org . For more information visit the Native Movement website at www.nativemovement.org or call the office at (928) 213-9063. For More info on the M.E.Ch.A. conference visit www.nau.edu/mecha.

to view the press release in full, click here.

Arizona Independent Media Teach-In in Flagstaff on March 11

What is media justice?

Are there alternatives to corporate media?

How do I get involved in the Independent Media movement?

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BE THE MEDIA! Arizona Independent Media Teach-In

Saturday, March 11

7:00-9:00 pm

Applesauce Teahouse 213 S. San Francisco St. Flagstaff, Arizona (Near the corner of SF St. and Butler Ave.)

FEATURING:

How-To Media Workshops

Reporting, Newswriting and Interviewing 101 with Arizona Indymedia collective members from Tucson

How-To Become an IMC Editor

Radical Library / Infoshop 101

Indigenous Action Media

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MORE INFORMATION? CONTACT: new_moon@riseup.net or info@indigenousaction.org

Hearing for dismissal of charges on January 5

An evidentiary hearing to dismiss charges for the Kerry 3 has been scheduled for January 5, 2006 at 2:00 pm. It will be held at Superior Court in downtown Flagstaff (200 N. San Francisco).

The Kerry 3 are facing multiple charges that include trespassing, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and aggravated assault against a police officer – all of which stem from a snatch-and-grab operation conducted by the Flagstaff Police Department and Secret Service during a rally for John Kerry in Flagstaff Aug. 8, 2004.

The young men – Joshua Sweeney, Brent Robinson and Rudy Preston – are facing felony charges that might land them in prison for 11 ½ years, 5 years, and 3-5 years, respectively.

These are trumped up charges aimed at silencing the voices of three individuals who were exercising their first amendment rights. In the age of the Orwellian Security State, it appears that shouting “hooray for the lesser of two evils!” at a public gathering is now a crime, and being forcefully dragged though a crowd by a snatch squad is synonmous with “aggravated assault against a police officer.”

If you can help with the ongoing legal defense (this case has been ongoing for over 1 ½ years), contact Flagstaff Activist Network at (928) 213-9507 or e-mail earthhug@yahoo.com or send a tax deductible donation made out to Flagstaff Activist Network (write “legal defense” on the memo line) and send it to POB 911, Flagstaff, AZ 86002.

Please come out and lend support to the Kerry 3 on January 5, 2006!

For more information about the Kerry 3, please click here.

Tucson Opens Dry River community space, Flagstaff Infoshop To Follow

Given Arizona's perennially abysmal education rankings, the need for alternatives to the standard fare education approach is great. The compulsory, authoritarian brainwash complex known popularly as K-12, rather than nuturing a generation of conscious, compassionate young people, instead wrecks havoc on the minds and hearts of youth today. This renders many obedient and submissive to dominant materialist culture and unaware of the greater world outside Fortress America.

Fortunately, folks in Tucson and Flagstaff are respectively planting the seeds of change through the openings of new community and radical education spaces.

The Dry River community space in Tucson has been in the works for several years. The most obvious struggle has been in securing an affordable space not too far off the beaten path. It appears that this initial struggle is over; the greatest present need is community support. This Saturday, November 12, Dry River is hosting the Earth First! 25th Anniversary party. You are invited. The space will also be host to a weekly movie series. Dry River is located at 657 W. St. Mary's Road between I-10 and Granada. Hours will be Mon-Fri from 2-8pm, Sat and Sun 10am-4pm.

Up in the frigid north, the Flagstaff Infoshop Collective will be teaming up with The Hive Community Center to open a radical library in Flagstaff's Southside neighborhood. They are currently looking for all types of literature, particularly books on women's studies, queer and transgender studies, people of color/interracial studies, issues of environmental racism & environmental justice, and alternative medicine. To help out, contact hilariouslicorice@hotmail.com

Click here for more information on Dry River and here for more information on the Flagstaff Infoshop.

Sleeping banned on right of ways, property within city limits

On October 4, 2005, the Flagstaff City Council voted 4-3 in favor of a camping ban within city limits. The new city camping ban will take effect November 3, prohibiting people from sleeping in public right-of-ways, or on public property. Maximum fines for violating the new ordinance are six months in jail and/or a $2,500 fine.

The new ban is supposedly targeting long-term camping in Flagstaff, and not sleeping strictly, though Councilman Al White and opponents of the new law argue that the legal language of the ordinance is subjective. What criteria will the Flagstaff Police Department be using to ascertain what “living accommodation purposes” means? Is the vagueness of the ordinance intentional, allowing cops to be indiscriminate in how they use the law? Perhaps Flagstaff can finally rid itself of those pesty homeless folk, once again swiping at the branches instead of digging down to the root(s) of the problem of homelessness.

On Saturday, October 15, opponents of the ordinance are planning a “sleep-in” on the City Hall lawn in protest. They suggest that those interested in basic human rights, particularly those who are offended by the idea of criminalizing sleep, should attend.

For more on this issue, click here or here

Earth First! Confronts the Arizona Game and Fish Department Organized Hunt in Northern Arizona

“This ain’t hunting...it’s just shooting.”

Each year, 45,000 Gunnison’s prairie dogs are blasted away by sport hunters. On the opening day of Arizona’s 9-month hunting season, Earth First! was in the killing fields in Northern Arizona to expose the senselessness and brutality of the hunt. Apparently, however, only people who kill animals are welcome on this land. After only one day, Arizona Game and Fish Department officials informed an EF! film crew that we were being permanently banned from the ranch.

The Gunnison’s Prairie Dog (GPD) is one of five species of prairie dog that inhabit North America. This foot-long, golden brown, colonial animal can be found in Arizona’s high deserts and mountain grasslands. Like all prairie dogs, the GPD is a keystone species, creating food and habitat for countless other species with its burrowing, feeding and excreting. A healthy prairie dog population is ESSENTIAL to a healthy prairie ecosystem.

The GPD has disappeared from 90 percent of its historic range across the United States. Of the suitable habitat that remains, 30 percent of it can be found in Arizona. Within the AZ territory only, the GPD has been extirpated from 98 percent of its former range. Historically, the GPD was found across four million acres in Arizona. Today that area has been drastically reduced to 100,000 acres. These facts strongly suggest that the GPD is treading the path towards extinction.

Forest Service Decides to Desecrate Sacred Peaks

In a conference call on March 8, Coconino National Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure announced a controversial decision that will allow Arizona Snowbowl Ski Area, located in the San Francisco Peaks, to make snow using reclaimed wastewater. This decision will also allow for an additional 66 acres of new trails, a 14.8 mile pipeline to transport the wastewater from Flagstaff to Snowbowl, and a snowplay/tubing facility.

Rasure's decision to allow Arizona Snowbowl to use reclaimed wastewater on the sacred peaks drew outrage from its many long-time opponents, who vowed to stop the plan.

"Ms. Rasure's decision flies in the face of facts in their own Draft Environmental Impact Statement, respect for ancient traditions and sound ecological and economic judgment," said Save the Peaks Coalition member Klee Benally. "The Coalition will be challenging this decision in hopes that her superiors will defend the mountain's natural and cultural values."

Leaders from fourteen Southwestern tribes who hold the mountain sacred met with Rasure in February at a summit hosted by the Coalition. They expressed their opposition to Snowbowl's plans for development on the San Francisco Peaks.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr.'s remarks underscored the mountain's great cultural significance and emphasized the severe adverse impacts the Snowbowl plan would have on Native peoples throughout the region.

" We want to share with you what it means when we say, 'the Peaks are us...it is Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Acoma.'" Shirley said. "When you build on it, when you talk about putting wastewater on it, you are desecrating our life. You are chipping away at our way of life and committing genocide.