Mount Graham
Seen Mount Graham Safford
The Mount Graham ( Dzil Nchaa Si An, " Large sitting Mountain" in the language of the Apache Indians ) is a 3267 m high mountain in Graham County in southeastern Arizona.
In 1993 the observatory of the Vatican (it. Specola Vaticana ) their new observatory ( VATT ) in operation. The new building had become necessary because the light pollution in their current locations no longer permits a scientific work. It was the first observatory of a total of three planned.
Since 2004, there arises a large telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope, are involved in the German under other five research institutes. The construction of this telescope is violently criticized and fought, who consider the Mount Graham as a holy mountain and building artificial structures on the mountain as incompatible with the religious beliefs of the Apaches of native Apaches. Dzil Nchaa Si An is comparable in importance to the religious imagination of the Apaches with Mount Sinai: Here the Apaches received once the " 32 songs of life" by their Creator God.
Mount Graham is a unique on the American continent habitat and ecosystem, and is often compared to the Galapagos Islands. Some endangered species are native to the mountain, such as Mount Graham red squirrels ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis, English Mount Graham Red Squirrel ). Although they are provided by the laws of the United States under protection, bypassed the federal government in Washington, DC, in cooperation with the U.S. Congress and the University of Arizona, the relevant animal protection laws exemptions so as to enable the construction of telescopes.
The existence of the red squirrel has become a significant recovery since the beginning of the astronomical use of the mountain, who went to one end of the previous hunting and camping operation associated.
Holy Mountain Apache
Opponents of the telescope project complain that important laws were (environmental protection, protection of endangered species, right to free exercise of religion of the Indians ) tricky bypassed or set by shall cease to apply in order to facilitate the construction.
From the outset, the San Carlos Apaches continued against the construction of the telescopes to fight back. They received support from other American Indian tribes, tribal cross Indian organizations as well as by numerous environmental organizations in the United States. In 1990, the "Apache Survival Coalition " (ASC ) was established by the Apache Ola Cassadora Davis to make the resistance more effectively. There was also a second organization, "Apache for Cultural Preservation " ( AFCP ), launched by Wendsler nosie and Ernest Victor Jr., two former tribal council members.
Numerous resolutions of the Tribal Council and a petition of the Council of medicine men and women turn clearly against the telescope project; they reflect the opinion of the majority of the San Carlos Apaches again. In connection with the protest against the telescopes on their holy mountain of the Apaches have even broken their principle that religious matters are not discussed in public.
Initially, the project was interested North American partners, such as Harvard University, Michigan State University, University of Toronto, among others have dropped due to the great pressure by the resistance of the Apaches and environmentalists.
In November 1997, U.S. President Clinton stopped using its veto right funds in the amount of $ 10 million, which had already been approved by Congress for astronomical projects. A large part of this was provided for the LBT. Clinton justified his veto so that, among other things, the LBT would apply techniques that are in Hawaii, for example, in an observatory already exists. The Tribal Council of the Apaches took up the message positive.
In Italy is the protest of the Apaches against the telescope project wide support. 1998 signed a petition to their government, the Large Binocular Telescope co-finance only if another location than the Mount Graham is elected 83 members of the Italian Parliament.
In March 1999, the Tribal Council of the San Carlos Apache again appealed to the German and Italian governments to withdraw from funding the observatory project on Mount Graham. In April 1999, traveled Wendsler nosie Germany and Italy in order to draw attention to the fact that traditional and religious concerns of Apache are not observed as before. He made it clear that the resistance of Apache is unbroken, that their goal - stop the project and degradation of ready-made installations - there is still. One of his main concerns in Germany was to meet parliamentarians and make them aware of the reasons for the resistance of the Apaches to like in Italy, to open up possibilities of parliamentary support.
Since 1992 Wendsler nosie organized together with friends of AFCP and ASC annual Sacred Run - a saint run - which leads from the San Carlos Reservation to the summit of Mount Graham. On this run, which underlines the protest of the Apaches against the telescope project, members of other tribes and supporters from European countries participate.
The importance of the mountain is nevertheless itself controversial among the Apaches. So said a 1992 from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn Invited Apache delegation, the construction of telescopes not hurt religious feelings.