Leaders address Mount Taylor
cultural listing, threats

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

ACOMA — Leaders of the five tribes behind the recent Mount Taylor listing on the state Register of Cultural Properties gathered in the Pueblo of Acoma Thursday

Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly, First Lt. Gov. Richard Luarkie of the Pueblo of Laguna, First Lt. Gov. Mark Thompson of  the Pueblo of Acoma, Hopi Chairman Ben Nuvamsa and Pueblo Gov. Cooeyte spoke in turn expressing the views of their individual tribes and their concern for the future not only of Mount Taylor, but of the area in general.

The leaders represent the work group that will develop a proposal for a permanent listing on the register for the mountain when the temporary designation runs out in one year.

Many of the points the leaders made are familiar, but in the presentations at the Sky City Hotel put more stress on water, sharing information, serving the next generation and their responsibility to all people in looking after the property all New Mexicans and many others enjoy.

“What are we giving the next generation?” Shelly said of the designation.

Also new was the emphasis on unimpeded development and archaic laws controlling both mining and other kinds of development.

“Life is out of balance,” Nuavamsa said. He said we need new laws to address the growth of development and said he wants to reassure the public the committee made the right decision in awarding the temporary designation.

Thompson said that the way the work group handled the problem of increasing development and its impact on lands sacred to all New Mexicans needs to be changed.

“(We will) set out to define culture in away the general public can define (concerns),” he said. Thompson added that a reactive approach, such as hurrying to get a temporary control in place, was the wrong way to go about addressing the threats to water, soil, and clean resources we all share.

Underlying much of the concern for the mountain is the threat not only to clean water but to water at all. Water as the     base of life is an increasingly visible aspect of the Mount Taylor TCP question.

“Lands, water, wildlife are for all people,” Thompson said. He added that he has seen a big change Mount Taylor in the last 20 years. In a telephone interview later, Thompson said that cattle now graze where ducks, geese and osprey used to dive and swim and the river he swam in as a child is now just a trickle in the bottom of the riverbed.

Luarke also addressed unimpeded development and water. Referring to contaminated water and damage to the health of many near the old uranium sites, he said, “Unimpeded development affects water. We have learned the lessons of unimpeded development.

The work group will continue to meet and to clarify the issues and the intent of the nomination for the TCP listing.