Why protect Mount Taylor?
Acoma, Navajo officials address
mountain’s importance to Native Americans

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

The Navajo Nation released a statement yesterday commending the Cultural Properties Review Committee’s decision to place much of Mount Taylor on the temporary emergency listing of the New Mexico Cultural Properties and summarizing the views of the tribal leaders in the five-tribe work group who nominated the mountain.

Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly, speaking from the Navajo capitol in Window Rock, and leaders of the four other nominating tribes last week gave verbal commendations to the committee and spoke of the value of the mountain, not only to their cultures but to all people in the Mount Taylor’s shadow.

Acoma First Lt. Gov. Mark Thompson said in an interview after the five-tribe press conference at Sky City Hotel that this is the first time the tribes have come together as a working group. Tribal differences have been set aside in the past to create inter-tribal councils at the state or national level and tribes have worked on specific preservation projects in the area before, he said, but the long term five-tribe work group promoting the listing is a first for the area.

During the conference, Thompson, the Acoma speaker, made it clear that the move to nominate the mountain as a Traditional Cultural Property is not a move of self-interest or exclusiveness.

“We should not assume that the collaborative efforts of a few tribes are driven simply to benefit a few. I encourage individuals to view this as a step toward seeking balance between economic development and historic preservation,” he said. Thompson went on to say, “If we as a community claim that Mount Taylor is ‘sacred’ and important to all of us, regardless of our ethnicity, then we must seek out ways to pursue this balance.” Earlier in his address, he said, “We cannot ignore the fact that the continued pursuit of unimpeded development of Mount Taylor will, ultimately, have an effect on important cultural resources such as land, wildlife and water.”

Including community members outside the tribes, Thompson said, “I ask all members of the community, who are in support of this action, to please become active in our efforts as we move forward towards pursuing permanent listing.”
The lieutenant governor asked all parties concerned about the review committee’s decisions to “remain positive and refrain from any activity that serves simply to propagate false intentions and fracture our community any further.”

Thompson was referring to the anger and division in the Cibola Community and the circulation of statements that say if the TCP passes, only “the Indians” can use the mountain or other people will have to “ask the Indians” if they want to do anything on the mountain and similar actions in the county.

The statement released by the Navajo Nation yesterday summarizes the TCP listing as an action that adds a layer of protection by requiring adverse development within the TCP area be reviewed by the New Mexico Historic Preservation Office.