Protect the Peaks, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011. The ongoing efforts are to halt the desecration of sacred San Francisco Peaks.

Photos by Protect the Peaks/Censored News
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Navajo Klee Benally chained himself to heavy equipment on Snowbowl Road on Saturday, in the ongoing effort to halt desecration of sacred San Francisco Peaks. Benally was cited for disorderly conduct and released.
Flagstaff author Mary Sojourner and Protect the Peaks police liaison Rudy Preston were arrested at the scene. Preston was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of trespassing. Sojourner’s booking is now in progress at the Sawmill Road Jail.
Klee Benally chained himself to an excavator after a prayer gathering on the sacred mountain Saturday.
Klee Benally is internationally know as the lead singer of the Navajo family band Blackfire and longtime organizer of efforts to save San Francisco Peaks from destruction.
Mary Sojourner is the author of two novels, Sisters of the Dream and Going Through Ghosts; the short story collection, Delicate; essay collection, Bonelight: ruin and grace in the New Southwest; memoirs, Solace: rituals of loss and desire and She Bets Her Life.
Before today’s action, 17 people were arrested in the past eight days, as Navajo, Hualapai, Hopi, O’odham and other Native Americans have been protesting the destruction of the sacred mountains.
The Arizona Snowbowl plans to make snow for tourists on the sacred mountain which 13 area Native American Indian Nations hold sacred. Medicine men gather healing plants and conduct ceremonies on the mountain.
Already, there is clearcutting of the old growth forests for the pipeline and tourist developments. Native American youths have been willing to be arrested to halt the destruction.
Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011.