Native Tribes Get A Break...

for now. Thanks to a ruling in favor of their religious rights. The battle is not over for them though, and it never is. But hey, maybe all those skiers would welcome someone spraying poop on their churches, and then I guess it would be all fair.

Full Article

An Arizona ski resort's plan to use treated sewage to make snow on a mountain sacred to several Native American tribes violates religious freedom laws, a U.S appeals court ruled on Monday.

The decision on Arizona Snowbowl was a victory for Native American tribes after years of setbacks in their fight to bar the resort from using waste water on the federally owned mountain 150 miles north of Phoenix.

"It's like stomping on the scriptures in the world of Christianity," Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said in a telephone interview. "This is my essence, the essence of who I am."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the tribes that the treated waste water should be barred under the U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which says the federal government may not "substantially burden a person's exercise of religion."