'Snowbowl Effect' screening set

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

FORT DEFIANCE — The Navajo Nation Museum and Indigenous Action Media will host a special premiere screening of "The Snowbowl Effect," a documentary exploring the controversy surrounding a proposed expansion of the ski resort in Flagstaff.

The screening, which is free and open to the public, will be in two showings beginning at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Friday, at the Navajo Nation Museum Auditorium in Window Rock. A panel discussion will be sandwiched between the two shows and is set for 6 p.m.

The discussion will feature film director/editor, Klee Benally, who is also project director of Indigenous Action Media. Tribal representatives and individuals featured in the film also will be on hand for this special screening.

"The Snowbowl Effect" explores the proposed expansion of the ski resort and use of wastewater on the sacred San Francisco Peaks to make snow. Native American tribal officials and spiritual leaders, Forest Service officials, and concerned citizens are featured in the documentary and discuss the issues: sacred lands protection, public health concerns associated with groundbreaking studies on wastewater, economic misconceptions, threats to the environment, global warming and a small community caught in the conflict.

Today, the San Francisco Peaks are part of public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which includes winter recreation in its mission by leasing out 777 acres of the mountain to the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort.

The film features comments from biologists, economists, tribal officials and traditional practitioners, ski resort representatives, environmentalists and a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

Information: www.savethepeaks.org/snowbowleffect