Associated Press
Feb. 16, 2003 12:00 AM
FLAGSTAFF - The Hopi Tribe opposes plans for more development at Arizona Snowbowl and wants a moratorium on further commercial development of the San Francisco Peaks, the tribal chairman said.
In the tribe's first formal response to the ski area expansion proposed by Snowbowl, Hopi Tribe Chairman Wayne Taylor said the sacred relationship of the mountains to the Hopi people makes it impossible to support any upgrade of the ski area.
"Nuvatukyaovi is sacred to the Hopi, and we cannot allow it to be further desecrated," wrote Taylor in a Feb. 7 letter to the Coconino National Forest, which owns the land Snowbowl leases.
Nuvatukyaovi, which in Hopi means Place of Snow on the Peaks, contains clan and society shrines and several significant gathering areas for medicinal and religious use, Taylor said.
The Navajo Nation recently called for the ski area's removal.