Tribes Again Challenging Snow Bowl Development

Despite the 1983 D.C. Circuit opinion in Wilson v. Block that permitted development of the Snow Bowl ski area on the San Francisco Peaks in the Coconino National Forest, several Native American tribes are trying again. The Arizona Daily Sun reported yesterday that the Hopi, Navajo and Hualapai are suing to protect their sacred sites by preventing Snow Bowl from making snow there with reclaimed wastewater. The tribes claim that now the Religious Freedom Restoration Act gives their religious practices greater protection that they were awarded in the 1983 case.