Protesters meet with editor and publisher to vent charges of racism

By Lisa Rayner
Tea Party Publisher

On Feb. 22, the Arizona Daily Sun published an official, unsigned editorial entitled “Tribal sovereignty over Peaks a stretch.” The editorial stated that tribal activists have no legal standing to oppose Arizona Snowbowl’s proposal to make snow with reclaimed water. The editorial made several derisive statements concerning tribal religious beliefs, such as, “The Peaks are simply part of a natural landscape that native peoples have elevated to unnatural stature and to which they have attempted to extend a religious sovereignty.”

According to participants, the editorial distorted Native Americans’ objections to the proposed snowmaking at the ski area and displayed ignorance and intolerance toward tribal cultural and spiritual traditions concerning the San Francisco Peaks.

Native American and environmental activists organized a rally held March 1 in front of the Sun offices on Thompson Street off west Route 66. Calling for increased cultural sensitivity in the Daily Sun’s coverage, participants requested a formal written apology from the Sun’s editor, Randy Wilson. A number of demonstrators also asked that the writer be fired. Furthermore, rally organizers expressed a desire for the Daily Sun to host a forum on indigenous cultural beliefs for staff and concerned members of the community.

In a press release distributed prior to the rally, Klee Benally, a Navajo resident of Flagstaff and one of the rally’s organizers, said, “It is disheartening to feel such disrespect and insensitivity towards our beliefs.” Benally added, “It is completely insulting for a newspaper to tell us our beliefs belong only on the reservation, and not here, where we live and pray.”

In the same press release, Roxane George of the Flagstaff Activist Network added, “The Daily Sun dismisses the importance of the Peaks as a cultural property and sacred site to 13 tribes in the region, and denies the rights of tribal members to influence management decisions; fortunately, the laws of this country and the Traditional Cultural Property nomination process begun for the Peaks completely contradict the Sun’s position.”

Between 40 and 50 protestors demonstrated for about an hour, holding signs such as “Why is it white men can only see green,” “Wilson, Callaway and Pulitzer, an Axis of Insensitivity” and “Reclaim Respect,” among others

Flagstaff Tea Party Editor Dan Frazier, and Tea Party Publisher Lisa Rayner were among the rally participants. Though neither Frazier nor Rayner initiated the rally, most of the signs used at the rally were created by Frazier.

Daily Sun Managing Editor Randy Wilson and Sun Publisher Roy Callaway invited participants inside the Daily Sun offices for a meeting. At first, Callaway proposed to limit the meeting to 20 people. However, he relented on this point, and allowed all of the protesters to attend. He insisted that there be no photography during the meeting. He gave no reason for the prohibition against photography. A plain-clothes police officer attended both the rally and the meeting.

During the meeting, which lasted about two hours, Wilson and Callaway mostly listened as tribal members, activists, medicine men and others expressed their concerns.

A number of people asked who wrote the editorial. Wilson declined to name the writer, saying the Sun had a longstanding policy of not naming its editorial writers. “All I can say is, as the editor, I will take full responsibility for the editorial,” said Wilson.

Navajo Medicine Man Jones Benally said, “My people have lived here — right here — a long time.” He asked that the Sun staff work together with Native peoples, especially young people, to achieve greater understanding and harmonious relations with one another.

Navajo Leonard Gilmore said, “We’re not minorities, we’re majorities. … This is all still Indian country. … You have to design with nature here … with the plants, with the animals.”

Several Native American men and women said that members of the Sun staff appeared to have little understanding of Native American religious beliefs and practices. They asked for greater staff diversity training.

Callaway countered by saying, “I am not insensitive to what you people are saying.” He added that he was sensitive to charges of racism because his own children had experienced racism while living on the Hawaian island of Kauai, where they were part of the white minority population.

Hopi tribal members said that Katsinas live on the Peaks. “We send prayers back to them,” said one Hopi. “Reclaimed water is desecrating to our spirits.”

Wilson and Callaway were asked if they considered themselves to be religious men. Wilson declined to comment, but Callaway indicated he was a religious person.

 Local writer Mary Sojourner said, “I am very concerned about issues of accountability. ... That editorial was ignorant. … (It) was appalling to me. … (and) dismissive and insulting to archeologists” who work on the Peaks.

An archeologist who is familiar with archeological sites on and near the Peaks said she was appalled that the editorial falsely claimed that the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Protection Act do not consider cultural and religious values.

Ginger Jervey said that the editorial was offensive to all people, not just Native Americans — “What you do to one of us, you do to all of us.”

Sierra Club organizer Andy Bessler asked the Sun staff to take the moral high ground on related issues in the future.

Toward the end of the meeting, Wilson said he was humbled by the comments he had heard and indicated that the Sun would try harder to frame issues in a more sensitive way. He also said the Feb. 22 editorial was not intended to be racist.

Wilson added that the Sun would publish two pages worth of letters to the editor the following Sunday and an official editorial apologizing for the Feb. 22 editorial. Wilson also said his Sunday column, “Between the lines,” would discuss the offending editorial. However, the Sunday newspaper only contained about half a page of letters and Wilson’s column, but no official Sun editorial on the subject. The Sun did however publish two guest editorials by activists and additional letters to the editor in the weeks following the protest.

The Daily Sun editorial, “Tribal sovereignty over Peaks a stretch,” may be read on the Daily Sun's Web site.