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White Mountain Council passes unanimous resolution. Calls on Forest Service to obey Presidential Order No. 13007.

Ft. Apache, AZ - The Tribal Council of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, based in Fort Apache, Arizona, passed a unanimous resolution July 15, 1999 urging the United States Forest Service to honor its duties to protect the physical integrity of Mount Graham and its "long- standing and ongoing historical, cultural, and religious importance to many Apaches."

The mountain range called Mt. Graham was within the original Apache reservation lands and is traditionally known to Apaches as Dzil nchaa si' an. The range is now part of the Coronado National Forest.

The San Carlos Apache Tribal Council and the National Congress of American Indians have passed multiple resolutions opposing telescope construction.

Mt. Graham is currently the site of telescope construction being sponsored by the University of Arizona in a private consortium that includes Ohio State University, the Max Plank Institute of Germany, Arcetri of Italy, and the Vatican.

Last year, University of Arizona police arrested a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Wendsler Nosie, Sr., for praying at the top of the mountain. A state judge later dismissed the charges against Nosie, finding that Arizona had violated his constitutional rights to religious freedom.

The controversial telescope project is the subject of an investigation by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights because of the harms caused to Apache religious life and culture and the religious intolerance demonstrated in the sitting and management of the project.

In its recent Resolution, The White Mountain Tribe reminds the Forest Service that Presidential Executive Order 13007 requires the Forest Service "to accommodate access to and ceremonial use of Indian sacred sites by Indian religious practitioners and avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sacred sites." The Tribe also urged the Forest Service to promptly acknowledge that Mt. Graham is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, noting that: "elders and cultural specialists representing many tribes have asserted the moral and legal mandate for the Forest Service to respect and protect Dzil nchaa si' an and to consult with the Apache tribes on a government-to-government basis in all decisions affecting the mountain range."

For over three years, the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has also been seeking Forest Service compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act on Mt. Graham. The President's Council has become aware of the traditional cultural and religious uses of the mountain by the Apaches and other Indian tribes. This past June, the President's Council wrote to Forest Supervisor John McGee that: "The Council remains concerned that the Forest Service's ongoing activities and management of Mt. Graham have the potential to affect the integrity of this possible historic property."

Most of the major Native American, U.S. and international environmental organizations oppose the location of the telescope project on Mt. Graham due to harms to rare and endangered species, Native American cultural rights and their religious freedom. The project is proceeding under a permit issued for free to the University of Arizona by the Forest Service.

Project opponents are advocating that all further construction at this sacred mountain be stopped and the project be relocated, and that the permit be rescinded by the Secretary of Agriculture "in the public interest" as provided in permit condition 17 because of national public interest concerns for endangered species, historic preservation and Native American human rights.