1,200 People March for Sacred Sites and Immigrant Rights : AZ IMC

With the San Francisco Peaks looming in the distance, more than 1,200 demonstrators of the American Indian sacred sites and immigrant rights movements marched together through downtown Flagstaff to protest the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort expansion and snowmaking and the pending nationwide anti-immigrant legislation.

“People told us when we were planning this march that Chicanos and our Native American brothers and sisters wouldn’t come together because we have forgotten we are the same people,” said Jaime “Niño” Aguirre, member of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.). “Every single tribe here are immigrants too, because we all move from the north to the south, oeste a este.”

Large demonstrations nationwide in the last several weeks have threatened the effort to push through immigration reform legislation that would further criminialize undocumented immigrants and those who hire or provide them with social services, and would build a wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

The pro-immigrant sentiment merged with the American Indian movement in the Flagstaff march, uniting the themes of human rights with religious freedom. The Save the Peaks Coalition (http://www.savethepeaks.org) is appealing to the United Nations to declare the San Francisco Peaks a “Sacred Site,” a designation which could be used to stop the expansion of the ski area and the plan to use reclaimed water to make snow. The San Francisco Peaks are holy to thirteen southwest Native American tribes, and contain unique sky island ecosystems. On March 17, several grassroots organizations submitted more than 1,000 signatures to the City of Flagstaff opposing the proposal to sell reclaimed wastewater to the ski resort to make snow.

Grassroots movements (http://blackmesatrust.org) have also been fighting pumice mining on the Peaks, as well as the Peabody Coal strip mine on Black Mesa, which has decimated the mesa and depleted the aquifer that supplies water to Hopi springs.

“Diné (Navajo) is a five finger nation, which means you are all my people and my nation,” said Wahleah Johns, member of the Black Mesa Water Coalition (http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org/). “The mountains and land are our constitution…we need to shape a global consciousness to protect these sacred elements.”

Kelvin Long, executive director of Communities while Healing and Offering Environmental Support (ECHOES) and Diné activist, spoke about his personal connection to Flagstaff. “The Peaks is where we get knowledge that is passed down generation after generation. And I look around and see all the knowledge that has been lost due to colonization and corporate greed. Today we are still fighting the same struggles we have been for the last 500 years,” Long said.

The 13th Annual M.E.Ch.A. Conference (http://www.nationalmecha.org/) was held at Northern Arizona University over the weekend, and its participants from all over the country came together to support the local indigenous and immigrant rights movements.

*Sam Stoker, Matt DeLong, and Meredith contributed to this story. Thank you!