Police used excessive force on San Francisco Peaks defenders

19.6.11
Protest Halts Snow­bowl Waste water Pipeline Con­struc­tion End Destruc­tion and Des­e­cra­tion of Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Nava­jos and oth­ers defend­ing sacred San Fran­cis­co Peaks said police used exces­sive force on those tak­ing action to defend the Peaks from the use of sewage water for snow­mak­ing on the moun­tain. Native Amer­i­can med­i­cine men con­duct cer­e­monies on the moun­tain, and gath­er herbs for heal­ing cer­e­monies, on the Peaks, long sacred to 13 area Amer­i­can Indi­an Nations.

“Those who cut us out endan­gered our well being ignor­ing the screams to stop. They treat­ed our bod­ies the way they’re treat­ing this holy moun­tain. If they had their way, we wouldn’t even exist. There is more dan­ger in doing noth­ing. To idly stand by and allow this destruc­tion and des­e­cra­tion is to allow cul­tur­al geno­cide,” said one of the young woman who locked down.

At sun­rise on Thurs­day, June 16, 2011, more than a dozen peo­ple stopped ski area con­struc­tion on the Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks. Six indi­vid­u­als used var­i­ous devices to lock them­selves to heavy machin­ery and to each oth­er inside the waste water pipeline trench, the six arrest­ed said in a state­ment released Sun­day, June 19.

Kristo­pher Bar­ney, Dine’ (Nava­jo) and one of the six who locked him­self to an exca­va­tor stat­ed, “This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of years of prayers and resis­tance. It is our hope that all Indige­nous Peo­ples, and all oth­ers, through­out the North, East, South and West come togeth­er to offer sup­port to the San Fran­cis­co Peaks and help put a stop to Snow­bowl’s plan to fur­ther destroy and des­e­crate such a sacred, beau­ti­ful and pris­tine moun­tain!”

“What part of sacred don’t they under­stand? Through our actions today, we say enough! The destruc­tion and des­e­cra­tion has to end!” said Mar­lena Tere­sa Gar­cia, 16, a young Diné woman and one of the six who chose to lock down. “The Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks is home, tra­di­tion, cul­ture, and a sanc­tu­ary to me, and all this is being des­e­crat­ed by the Ari­zona Snow­bowl Ski Resort. So now I, as a young Diné woman, stand by Dook’o’osliid’s side tak­ing action to stop cul­tur­al geno­cide. I encour­age all indige­nous youth to stand against the des­e­cra­tion that is hap­pen­ing on the Holy San Fran­cis­co Peaks and all oth­er sacred sites,” said Gar­cia after being arrest­ed and released.

Those arrest­ed decribed the action and exces­sive police force in their state­ment released Sun­day:

A ban­ner was hung on the side of the trench that read “Defend the Sacred!” where two pro­test­ers were locked togeth­er. Over the half mile of open con­struc­tion, the group chant­ed, “Pro­tect Sacred Sites, Defend Human Rights!”, “No des­e­cra­tion for recre­ation!” “Stop the cul­tur­al geno­cide! Pro­tect the Peaks!” and “Human health over cor­po­rate wealth.”

“This waste water pipeline will poi­son the envi­ron­ment and to chil­dren who may eat snow made from it. Snow­bowl plans to spray mil­lions of gal­lons of waste water snow, which is filled with can­cer caus­ing and oth­er harm­ful con­t­a­m­i­nants, as well as clear-cut over 30,000 trees. The Peaks are a pris­tine and beau­ti­ful place, a frag­ile ecosys­tem, and home to rare and endan­gered species of plants and ani­mals,” said Evan Haw­bak­er, one of the pro­test­ers who locked them­selves to the exca­va­tor.

“The U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, the U.S. For­est Ser­vice, the City of Flagstaff May­or and Coun­cil, and the Ari­zona Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty are all respon­si­ble for per­mit­ting Snow­bowl to endan­ger pub­lic health, destroy the envi­ron­ment, and des­e­crate the Holy Peaks,” said Nadia del Calle­jo, one of the pro­test­ers who locked them­selves in the trench.

“Through­out his­to­ry, acts of resis­tance and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence have been tak­en by young and old against injus­tices such as this. This action is not iso­lat­ed but part of a. con­tin­ued resis­tance to human rights vio­la­tions, to colo­nial­ism, to cor­po­rate greed, and destruc­tion of Moth­er Earth,” added Del Calle­jo.

A sep­a­rate group of sup­port­ers, some wear­ing haz­mat suits, “quar­an­tined” the entrance to Snow­bowl Road. Ban­ners were stretched across the road that read “Pro­tect Sacred Sites” and “Dan­ger! Health Haz­ard — Snow­bowl.”

Short­ly after ini­ti­at­ing the action, a Snow­bowl secu­ri­ty guard spot­ted two peo­ple locked to an exca­va­tor. By 6:00 a.m. more than 15 armed agents, includ­ing the Coconi­no Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment, City of Flagstaff Police, and the FBI stormed the moun­tain.

At approx­i­mate­ly 7:30 a.m., the Flagstaff Fire Depart­ment, assist­ed by Coun­ty Sher­iffs, start­ed aggres­sive­ly cut­ting two peo­ple from the exca­va­tor.

“We took every pos­si­ble mea­sure to ensure our safe­ty. Our actions were tak­en to safe­guard Indige­nous Peo­ples’ cul­tur­al sur­vival, our community’s health and this sen­si­tive moun­tain ecosys­tem. Those who cut us out endan­gered our well being ignor­ing the screams to stop. They treat­ed our bod­ies the way they’re treat­ing this holy moun­tain. If they had their way, we wouldn’t even exist. There is more dan­ger in doing noth­ing. To idly stand by and allow this destruc­tion and des­e­cra­tion is to allow cul­tur­al geno­cide,” said one of the young woman who locked down.

“The police’s use of exces­sive force was in com­plete dis­re­gard for my safe­ty. They pulled at my arms and forced my body and head fur­ther into the machine, all the while using heavy duty pow­er saws with­in inch­es of my hand,” said Haw­bak­er.

After being cut out, the two were treat­ed by para­medics and arrest­ed for tres­pass­ing. The police, fire­fight­ers, and para­medics then pro­ceed­ed to cut two peo­ple locked in a near­by trench.

Extrac­tion took about forty min­utes and the two were imme­di­ate­ly seen by para­medics after being unlocked. One of the indi­vid­u­als sus­tained injuries to their arm from abu­sive force. Both were charged with tres­pass­ing, with an added charge of “con­tribut­ing to the delin­quen­cy of a minor,” for one of the indi­vid­u­als. Police pro­ceed­ed to unlock the last group who was also inside the trench near­by.

“Our only offense was resis­tance; resis­tance of the impli­ca­tions that’s Snow­bowl’s devel­op­ment exudes. The police’s defense was to imple­ment tac­tics of fear to reach a goal, essen­tial­ly to con­tin­ue con­struc­tion as soon as pos­si­ble. Our safe­ty was pri­or­i­tized sec­ond to Snow­bowl’s demands. I was one of the demon­stra­tors in the trench, locked at the neck with a part­ner. I was not aggres­sive. My lock was sawed through, inch­es away from both of our heads, secured sole­ly and reck­less­ly by the hands of a deputy. Dur­ing the process, we were repeat­ed­ly asked to chant to reaf­firm our con­scious­ness. The police’s response was hasty, tak­ing about ten min­utes in total–it was dehu­man­iz­ing,” said Haley Sher­wood, one of the last pro­test­er to be cut out.

Both women were also seen by para­medics. One was sent to the hos­pi­tal for heat exhaus­tion although she denied feel­ing dehy­drat­ed. She start­ed to faint dur­ing the extrac­tion when police, EMTs, and fire­fight­ers attempt­ed to force the pair to stand and move them from their loca­tion. Both women repeat­ed­ly expressed that they were being hurt and choked by law enforce­ment offi­cers and fire­fight­ers. Both of the pro­test­ers were arrest­ed for tres­pass­ing, with addi­tion­al charges to one of them for “con­tribut­ing to the delin­quen­cy of a minor” and “endan­ger­ment.”

Four of the pro­test­ers were tak­en to Coun­ty Jail. The two young peo­ple were tak­en to Coconi­no Coun­ty Juve­nile Deten­tion Cen­ter. FBI agents attempt­ed to ques­tion four of those arrest­ed.

As word spread about the demon­stra­tion to pro­tect the Peaks, over­whelm­ing sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty poured in from through­out the com­mu­ni­ty and inter­na­tion­al­ly.

Bail was raised short­ly after the arrests. All demon­stra­tors were released by 3:30 p.m. Three of the pro­test­ers, includ­ing Mar­lena Tere­sa Gar­cia, imme­di­ate­ly filed a report for exces­sive use of force after being released.

“How can we be tres­passers on our Holy Site?” ques­tioned Bar­ney. “I do not agree with these and the oth­er charges, we will con­tin­ue our resis­tance.”

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Press con­tact for those defend­ing San Fran­cis­co Peaks:
Con­tact: Beth Lave­ly Tel: 928.254.1064 protectpeaks@gmail.com

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Back­ground — http://www.indigenousaction.org/