Tohono O’odham Indians have long gazed up at the
soaring tower of Baboquivari Peak, southwest of Tucson, Ariz., with
mingled reverence and consternation.
They have
never accepted a 1917 boundary survey that placed the east side of
the tribe’s most sacred mountain on federal land, outside their
main reservation. Now, the tribe hopes the dispute will be resolved
when Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Phoenix, introduces legislation in Congress,
perhaps this summer, to repatriate the entire 7,734-foot mountain.
Lots of people in southern Arizona are sympathetic. They see the
transfer of the peak’s east half along with the 2,065-acre
Baboquivari Peak Wilderness Area as a fitting
restoration.
But nervousness has also broken out,
particularly among non-Indian environmentalists and rock-climbers,
who worry that the O’odham could restrict access to or weaken
conservation there.
Climbers such as Jason
Mullins, owner of Tucson’s Rocks & Ropes climbing gym, fear the
tribe would ban the sport from “Babo’s’ 1,000-foot upper pillar – a
regional mecca that was one of Supreme Court Justice William O.
Douglas’ favorite climbs. At the same time, some environmentalists
term “too vague” the requirements in the draft bill that the tribe
adhere to the same environmental rules the Bureau of Land
Management follows now.
Critics say the tribe’s
lands are in deplorable shape from overgrazing, and they fear the
tribe might allow cattle on slopes where a rare jaguar was
photographed in 1996, and where the endangered Kearny blue star
plant grows.
“I haven’t heard them making any
commitments not to graze, and that’s not good,” says Dale Turner of
the Sky Island Alliance in Tucson.
Tribal leaders
dismiss such anxieties and look forward to the day when they
reclaim the mountain where their creator, I’itoi, resides in a
cave. “I don’t think grazing is the correct issue,” declares
Frances Manuel of the Tohono O’odham Legislative Council. “The
important thing is God gave us this mountain, all of it, and we
should be able to protect it ourselves.”
*Mark
Muro
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Tribe seeks its key peak.
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