From: "Elizabeth B. Pollard" <beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!asnuah.asn.net!UAHEBP01>
Subject: Mt. Graham Controversy
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 15:14:00 GMT

Original-Sender: "Elizabeth B. Pollard" <asnuah.asn.net!UAHEBP01>

     On 27-Aug-92, a message from sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve
Brock) was relayed to this list from the Usenet "alt.native"
newsgroup regarding the Mount Graham Controversy. Kris, the
author of the message, wrote:

> It seems, from what I have been able to gather from others more
> closely involved in the [Mt. Graham] issue, that the folks in
> charge of the environmental impact study failed to examine
> certain documents, including the field notes of an anthro-
> pologist who had done extensive work with the Apaches and a
> large number of colonial era Spanish writings.

     It is incredible that these folks would overlook relevant
data on Western Apache adaptations to the environment of eastern
Arizona south of the Mogollon Rim. Kris goes on to say,

> ... Father Charles Polzer, S.J., curator of ethnohistory [i.e.,
> culture history] at Arizona State Museum, even went so far as
> saying that the Apaches have no perception of mountains as
> sacred. ... He also said that the Apaches made only the most
> ephemeral use of the mountains and that the notion of sacred-
> ness attached to the mountain [Mt. Graham] is about as specific
> as the sky.

     These statements show either an appalling lack of knowledge
about Apache culture and history, or a hidden agenda. Fr. Polzer
should be well aware that *all* Apache bands located between the
Pecos River in New Mexico and the Verde River in Arizona spent
most of their time at altitudes between 5,000 and 8,000 feet
above sea level, and that "the notion of sacredness attached to
[specific mountains]" is central to their traditional religion.
Kris's summary of "a personal reflection on the significance of
sacred space" he received from Father George Coyne, S.J.,
director of the Vatican Observatory, suggests that both men are
following a "party line."

> In effect he said that property rights are more important than
> Native American assertions of sacred space and that because
> Mount Graham is on National Forest Service land, it is public
> land and the Apache's claim has no validity. He said that such
> assertions of sacredness and environmental concerns should be
> suppressed with all vigor.

     The British colonial administration in East Africa took the
same attitude toward the claims of the Chagga people that Mount
Tanganyika is sacred. They wanted the mountain to develop coffee
plantations. Kris tells us that the Vatican wants Mount Graham
because light pollution has made every observatory in Italy more
or less useless for astronomical observations.

     I have refrained until now from explaining the Apache belief
in sacred mountains and the role of the Mountain Spirits who
dwell within them because (1) there is a limited amount of
information I can reveal without betraying confidences, and (2)
many Apaches fear exposure to ridicule if these beliefs become
known by "the wrong people." The controversy over Mt. Graham has
received such attention on this list, without an explanation of
the belief in its sacredness, that I feel such an explanation
must now be given.

     Anthropologists who have studied the Apaches agree that they
probably acquired the belief in a creator, whom they call Yusn
(The One Who Gives Us Our Life), through contact with Spaniards.
However, their traditional concept of a creator does not quite
follow the Judeo-Christian model. The universe is too big for one
deity to manage alone, so Yusn created the Mountain Spirits (or
Gods) to protect the Apaches from epidemics of disease, natural
disasters, surprise attack by enemies, violent quarreling among
themselves, sickness and death from witchcraft and contact with
ghosts, and the barrenness of the women - those things which
would destroy the group. The Mountain Spirits live deep within
caverns,  called "holy homes," within certain mountains on the
peripheries of the former band territories. These mountains are
the highest in the region, and they are sacred shrines in
themselves because they overlie the "holy homes."

     These "holy homes" exist in the supernatural realm (i.e.,
there may be no actual caverns within the mountains, but they are
*believed* to exist). The Mountain People who inhabit them live
in a parallel universe which is the mirror image of the world in
which aboriginal Apaches lived. There is a traditional belief
that the Mountain People can be heard singing and drumming within
the sacred mountains.

     The Mountain Spirits, who are depicted by the Crown or Fire
Dancers, are also custodians of animals. Each "holy home" is
connected by underground passages to "animal homes," where all
species found in the Apaches' environment are kept until they are
released by these custodians to populate the surface of the
earth. There is an old belief that, when game are scarce, the
Mountain Spirits have released too few deer, elk, pronghorn
antelope, and mountain sheep. It is a tenet of the traditional
religion that the dancers and the clown who accompanies them *are
not impersonators*, but are "made" Mountain Spirits in the world
of humans as the "true" Mountain Spirits are in the supernatural
world of the Mountain People. When they perform, they assure
survival in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Grosvenor Pollard
via Elizabeth Pollard

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 Elizabeth Pollard              Bitnet: uahebp01@uahvax1
 Systems Librarian              Internet: uahebp01@asnuah.asn.net
 Univ. of Ala./Huntsville       Compuserve: 72457,1560
 Huntsville, AL 35899           Phone: (205) 895-6313

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Newsgroups: alt.native