I am not a poet.. here is a poem
I am not a poet. But I wrote this poem- it is a map, a process. It traces the reclaimed water that makes fake snow and the justice/ injustice faced by Indigenous tribes in fighting for religious and sacred rights on the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, AZ. This is my first time writing something coherent to put on the internet, yikes. I am nervous but I hope the people that read this will gain something from the experience. Language is all we have and we should use it to write about what we care about. I think this issue is important and I promise the poem isn’t boring and academic! Before you read it though (which you should) I think it is important to disclose my position. I am not Indigenous and do not pretend to speak for Indigenous people. I am a young wealthy white girl trying to finish her undergrad while delving into the injustices that plague this world. This poem is the process and tracing I have begun in researching this issue and having lived in Flagstaff my whole life- sharing a protectiveness towards the mountain that I grew up on. Although this is a poem- and not an academic paper, it is still researched for all you nonbelievers that think abstract and poetic language is uninformed. My understanding also comes from talking to others and my own lived experience. I hope you read it. I hope you listen.
Reclaimed
By: Katie Giovale
Snow- in the desert
A ground of dried pine needles and cinders
the air dusty and thin
The intense sun rays practically igniting a dehydrated Earth
A burnable, flammable mountain
Any water is welcomed- rain, snow, hail or mist
However- not all snow falls from the sky-
Not all snow is a blessing
Some snow
is fake.
It’s made out of reclaimed water
Spewed out of machines into the harsh wind
sending splashes of what looks like ice from a snowcone machine at a carnival.
It meets basic criteria- it looks like snow, it’s cold, it melts, it’s water.
You could drink it, exclaims the commander of the carnival
A spectacle for profit
But don’t eat the ‘snow’, he says.
The extravaganza, the recreation, this pretend snow
It rests on the mountain at a ski resort
Arizona Snowbowl
Just outside the town of Flagstaff on the San Francisco Peaks
Which are North
The mountains are the compass of the town- our guide
Here-Man has overcome nature
Remaking, unmaking, creating, innovating
We don’t need the sky to bless this arid land with water
Climate change has weakened the snowfall we get in the winter each year
It is the snow that gradually builds and melts
ensures the survival of our trees, our plants and animals
But action is only taken when skiing is threatened
when human activities, and the profit
of this twisted attempt to turn a bipolar high desert mountain into a predictable and contained winter wonderland- is jeopardized.
When it comes to protecting the Earth people are mute
But when it comes to protecting profit they shout-
We have a solution!
Fake Snow!
Because real snow is too unpredictable- which mutters the question —
Are we being innovative-inventive-problem-solvers or
Are we playing God?
Waste and Justice meet on this sacred mountain
This fake snow is crunchy and stiff, it does not easily compact into a snowball,
It crackles under our feet, it is more like hail
Made out of reclaimed water- but where does that come from?
Basically from our toilets
Human shit, pee, vomit, and all of our biological waste
With our waste flushed down the toilet, aspects of ourselves go with it
The pills and substances we swallow,- the hormones- estrogen and progesterone, testosterone, and all the other medications catered to our individual needs and bodies
It all goes down through intricate pipes and tunnels
Then it has multiple paths to take to become ‘reclaimed’
Already a sense of ownership is engrained in the word ‘reclaimed’
As if water never belonged to the Earth herself but to be claimed and reclaimed by people
Like a dog marking his territory with urine
Then reclaiming our own waste again on the land we stole
Once arrived-
The ‘water’ that is freshly flushed, impure and dirtied with chunks of biowaste
flows through a screen to remove some of the more distasteful pieces of excrement
Organic and inorganic waste is separated
Placed in a ‘clarifier’ for more solids to float to the bottom
Far from looking like snow- this muddy, horrible smelling slush needs a lot more processing
It is then goes through “the integrated fixed-film activated sludge process”
Activated sludge? Are these feces going to be electrified?
I am not a scientist and how this is ‘activated’ into nitrogen gas is beyond my expertise
It is then cycled back to a “anaerobic digester”
First digested by humans, then redigested with no oxygen or air
Again, this is outside my field — but I am imaging a demon from Hell whose stomach is a black hole ripping all air and life out of the slurry he drinks.
The water continues through more cycles of cleaning, filtrations, disinfection, and neutralization
Now it is water
Or at least it is clear- it meets our standards of cleanliness in regards to how it looks and it meets “…all of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s requirements for high-quality reclaimed water”
Yay! We have this human waste- turned back into ‘pure’ and ‘clean’ water
Then where does it go?
There are a multitude of locations it can be hauled to- one is the Arizona Snowbowl where it is turned into fake snow. However, not all the ‘effluent’ makes its reclaimed existence to be used again by humans.
Some of this is wasted-
poured into the ‘Rio de Flag’ a puddle that has the audacity to be called a river.
But we don’t want it to be wasted- we should use this water.
This is where Justice comes into play
All the reduce reuse recycle patagonia-wearing ‘outdoorsy’ people cheer that we are being sustainable by recycling our toilet water
However, there is a chasm of justice between where the water is wasted and where it is intentionally placed.
We are forgetting that this is stolen land
That this mountain- our guide north- is sacred
Not only because it is beautiful, enchanting
The Peaks are their own world- new elevation
An entirely different ecosystem rising above a dry desolate land
It’s religious connotation is not lost- it was named by colonizers ‘San Francisco” after Saint Francis- the catholic saint
But let us not forget that over thirteen native tribes presently and historically lay claim to the sacredness of the mountains over centuries if not thousands of years
- Diné
- Acoma
- Fort McDowell
- Mohave Apache
- Havasupai
- Hopi
- Hualapai
- San Carlos Apache
- San Juan Southern Piaute
- Tonto Apache
- While Mountain Apache
- Yavapai- Prescott
- Zuni
Sacredness should not be taken lightly
The mountain holds creation stories
It is a place of healing, prayers, ceremonies and rituals
It grows herbs for medicine men
For the Hopi- It is the resting place of the Kachina spirits who live in the clouds
the spirits that bring rain for the crops,- water
Water that becomes tainted when landing on this fake snow
that carries a multitude of chemicals and hormones
Science suggests that it feminizes the frogs
It harms rare flora and fauna
It threatens the water aquifer
It bleeds into the mountain
It is the recycling of human waste being carelessly regurgitated onto a sanctuary
Imagine the havoc that would erupt if someone peed in a pool of holy water
We are supposed to be a country that idealizes religious freedom
The mountain is the church
The water is sacred
Hence, a battle was fought between Snowbowl and tribes
One side fighting for religion and protection
The other for profit and expansion
Justice takes many forms- the courts are the most privileged
The jargon of laws and treaties
Indigenous communities are not unconditioned to the broken promises engrained in these documents
The fight between the Arizona Snowbowl and Indigenous communities climbed to the 9th circuit court
The AZ supreme ruled in favor of Snowbowl
It denied the religious rights of tribes
Again, betrayed but not defeated
by a system of ‘justice’ wielded as colonial weapon
Religious freedom only goes so far until it is placed in opposition against men gaining profit
Men who desire to command a mountain
As if it could be tamed
And all this For What?
For Sport
To ski and snowboard.
Often times we are asked to make sacrifices to create change
Change is a necessary part of justice
If something is a sacrifice we are giving it up at some expense of our own
I love downhill skiing- both my parents are expert skiers who took to the slopes their whole lives
Of course being outside is thrilling
The rush of racing-
gaining momentum as you glide down the slopes is exhilarating
But I won’t go- as many other skiers in this town won’t.
We see the impunity and the destruction and expansion of Snowbowl for its corruption
Not only is it the fake snow
It’s the continued unearthing of meadows and trees
It’s blatantly ignoring tribal consultation
It’s treating the mountain like an exploitable playground
maximized for our recreation and enjoyment.
But this isn’t a park for tyrannical children
It’s a place of worship- and we need to grow up and stop our childish attempts to control the natural elements
If Justice is denied in the courts maybe it can be made in our sacrifices
Just like the mountain, steady, prevailing and unyielding
People have not stopped fighting to protect the peaks
Boycotts, protests, documentaries and debates flourish around this mountain
Some are in the media, some are more quiet
Some require us to look deeply and uncomfortably at the exclusions
The history of colonialism in our town, marking an unhealed wound
becoming actualized in the present
Snowbowl is a contusion, a laceration on the peaks
The routes are gashes scraped into the skin of the mountain
They leak and ooze
become infected, contaminated
And drain down to be swallowed by the forest
Fake snow and reclaimed water seem
At first
be a transformation of waste
An innovation that is helpful
Look closer.
on the sacred mountain it is a poison
It becomes a neutralized weapon
Altering the natural surroundings
slowly and quietly- as not to seem suspecting
It is colonialism mutating itself hideously in concealed ways
Contorting the theft of land and people to fit the present day
Stripping tribes of religious freedom
Stripping land
The mountain needs to be refilled, repaired, returned,
Reclaimed