The heart of genuine sadness: astronomers, politicians, and federal employees desecrate the holiest mountain of the San Carlos Apache

Whole Earth, Winter, 1997 by Peter Warshall

Manufacturing an Authentic Double

The century-long subversion of the Apache sense of what it means to be human in a meaningful world -- an attack aimed straight at the value of sacredness -- attempted, again and again, to peel ethics and theology off the landscape. Ethics and theology were assumed to be Universal, not an embedded land-based practice. During the 1880s, forced internment with other bands of Apache disrupted links between San Carlos Apache lands and their world view. Internment camp inter-marriages and household relocations began to blur the integrity of each band's traditional sacred geography. In distant boarding schools, forced to speak English, Apache Icids lost contact with elders and missed opportunities to participate in the lengthy apprenticeships required for song sequences and ceremonials. Franklin Stanley, the ga'an leader, says that twenty of twenty-eight San Carlos ceremonies are completely lost. As property fell into Anglo-European and government hands, Apache opportunities to consecrate and re-consecrate specific peaks have been incrementally denied.

But the real crown of successful conquest is the manufacture of denial among the conquered people themselves. The astronomical consortium supported Apaches (e.g., non-traditional, non-religious, from mixed marriage with other bands, opportunistic) who would say publicly that the peaks were not sacred. The University and the local Chamber of Commerce, for instance, supported Buck Kitcheyan, a former tribal chairman who later served time for embezzling funds. As tribal chairman, he wrote a glowing letter on the sacredness of Mt. Graham. During his trial, he reversed himself Other members of the Kitcheyan family then received funds to visit the Vatican. They were photographed with the Pope as the "real" Apaches who did not mind the leveling of the peaks. Tribal Chairman Harrison Talgo ran for office defending the sacredness of Mt. Graham, then lost his re-election. Disappointed, he accepted a University offer to become a crew foreman at the telescope site. The University had another Apache who proclaimed that "sacredness" was passe, an obsolete fossil of pre-modern Apaches.

In quiet moments, some traditionals will say that these individual astronomers and Apaches cannot, ultimately, desecrate the mountain. They primarily desecrate themselves. Hundreds, if not thousands of years can come and go, but sacred areas stalk humans, and the grandchildren will return to these ruined holy grounds to rejoin and rejuvenate them.

Clinton's Sacred Cow

In 1996, it appeared that the Apaches and enviros finally had power. The University goofed up its astro-data and tried to switch the location of its biggest and only "cutting edge" telescope. This time the Mt. Graham Coalition prepared for the University's second attempt to gain Congressional exemption from all federal laws. We met with the Office of Management of Budget (which reconciles House and Senate bills), the Council of Environmental Quality, and Leon Panetta (advisor to Clinton). Mt. Graham was now one of sixteen riders on the Appropriations Bill. After the meeting, aides told us we had been effective. Since we were only asking for proper studies, we were reasonable.