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Navajos turn to international commission in ski-resort fight

Chairlifts at the Arizona Snowbowl near Flagstaff, Ariz., carry skiers uphill. The Navajo Nation has argued that snowmaking violates Navajos’ religious rights on a mountain they consider sacred and that using treated wastewater will make people sick. The Navajo Nation has turned to an human-rights commission that normally deals with death-penalty cases and international justice in its effort to block a sky resort from using treated wastewater to make artificial snow at the resort.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Navajo Nation is asking an international human rights commission to weigh in on a decades-old battle over a northern Arizona ski resort.

But getting a petition considered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights could be a long shot.

Commission spokeswoman Maria Isabel Rivero says between 80 percent and 90 percent of petitions don’t meet the requirements for review. Thousands are awaiting an initial study.

Rob Williams of the University of Arizona filed the petition earlier this month. He says it’s a last-chance, desperate effort to get U.S. policymakers to take another look at the Arizona Snowbowl on the San Francisco Peaks.

U.S. courts have ruled against tribes in the fight against expansion of the ski resort and snowmaking. Tribes had argued it would desecrate the mountain they consider sacred.



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