Rage over Mt. Taylor —
Rumors of closure fly
Large crowd turns up for Mount Taylor comment

[photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — More than 200 people packed the Cibola County Convention Center to give voice to concerns and feelings about Mount Taylor and the recent decision to temporarily list parts of the sacred mountain as a cultural property.

The Cibola County Commission called for the special meeting of the commission to allow time to the large number of people who wished to speak to the issues raised when the New Mexico State Historical Preservation Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs held an emergency meeting Feb. 22.

Citizens from the Cibola area expressed outrage that they were not notified of the pending decision. Only one person in the Cibola County area received notification that an emergency meeting to was scheduled to hear a request that the top of Mount Taylor be given, according to a spokeswoman from Responsible Energy.

Star Gonzales of the New Mexico Mining Museum was contacted about the meeting by telephone. Gonzales attended the meeting and asked that the review be postponed, but the request was denied, said the energy spokeswoman, who was present at the SHPO review.

Ben Chavez of the Cubero Land Grant said land grant residents east of the mountain had never been notified of the meeting.

Neither of the newspapers in wide circulation in Cibola County was given notice of the meeting. KDSK/KMIN radio in Grants first heard of the meeting in a news release announcing the decision, after the event.

Katherine Slick of SHPO assured the group that the decision did not affect privately owned property. She said that her office was led to believe that there were not privately held properties in the area above 8,000 feet that is designated in the decision, but in addition, the language of the decision excludes any private deeds from influence of the ruling.

Several landowners stood before the group to say they had property in the designated area and they had never been notified of the pending designation or of the emergency meeting.

But the overriding and nearly universal feeling in the room was anger at not being kept in the loop. And the message was one of putting a foot down.

The tribes previously put a collective foot down when Hopi, Navajo, Acoma, Laguna and Zuni sought to get the temporary cultural properties designation, because they felt decisions were bypassing input from the tribes.

At this meeting, the county commission, landowners with property on the mountain, recreational users and others put their feet down because they felt this decision to list parts of the mountain bypassed them as stakeholder and the ones closest to the mountain.

The commission passed a four to one vote in favor of a resolution urging the New Mexico Attorney General to vacate the improperly noticed meeting and the cultural properties committee’s actions resulting from the meeting, including the traditional cultural properties temporary designation and the U.S. Forest Service determination that Mount Taylor is eligible for the National Historic Properties register.

What the decision means to the county now is that new development above 8,000 feet on Mount Taylor will have to go through one more review for the next ten months. It also means that citizens have 10 months to take their concerns to SHPO and provide feedback about the possible permanent designation.

Hunting is not affected by the decision. Camping, fence fixing, grazing on private land, wood gathering, hiking, vehicular travel and all other activities that do not involve development, mining, exploratory drilling and similar disruptions remain as they have been.

Governor Sanchez of the Pueblo of Acoma stressed that no one is taking the mountain from anyone and the ruling prohibits nothing; it does add an additional review for development but not even mining is prohibited.

He added that the tribes did not request the meeting. The February emergency meeting was scheduled by the Department of Cultural Affairs.