26.6.08

Protecting Mount Taylor


P.O. BOX 7440 WINDOW ROCK, AZ 86515 ! (928) 871-7000 ! FAX: (928) 871-4025
CONTACT: GEORGE HARDEEN
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
OFFICE – 928-871-7917
CELL – 928-309-8532
pressoffice@opvp.org

Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly (second from right) joined tribal leaders joined to commend the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee’s June 14 decision to place Mount Taylor on the Emergency Listing of the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties. From left to right is Hopi Tribal Chairman Benjamin Nuvamsa, Laguna First Lt. Governor Richard Luarkie, Zuni Governor Norman Cooeyate,
and Acoma First Lt. Governor Mark Thompson.

Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly joins tribal leaders
to commend cultural property protection for Mount Taylor

ACOMA, N.M. – Navajo Nation Vice
President Ben Shelly joined four other tribal
leaders during to commend the June 14
decision of the New Mexico Cultural
Properties Review Committee to place Mount
Taylor on the Emergency Listing of the New
Mexico Register of Cultural Properties.
“The Navajo people are tied to the land and
sky through prayers and songs that were
sung by the Holy People during the creation
of the mountains and the world,” the Vice
President said. “Our sacred mountains give
the Navajo people strength, and through the
role of Nahat’á – leadership and planning,”
said Vice President Shelly.
Joining the Vice President was Zuni Governor
Norman Cooeyate, Hopi Chairman Benjamin
Nuvamsa, Acoma First Lt. Governor Mark
Thompson, and Laguna First Lt. Governor
Richard Luarkie.
“Traditional Navajo people have always looked
to these mountains for guidance and leadership for the
Navajo people and the Navajo Nation Government,” Vice
President Shelly said. “Each mountain is honored and
respected by Navajo people daily through offering song
and prayer.”
The five nominating tribes, including the Pueblos of
Acoma, Zuni, and Laguna, the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo
Nation, pushed for the designation of areas above 8,000
feet on Mount Taylor and the top of Horace Mesa as a
traditional cultural property, or TCP, which is an area
deemed important to maintain the cultural identity of a
community.
“Sacred shrines, trails and offering places maintain great
cultural and religious significance,” Zuni Governor
Cooeyate said. “These properties are imbued with life
and spiritual forces that have been blessed by our creator
since time immemorial before their use, and once
blessed, they are blessed in perpetuity.”
The temporary one-year listing of Mount Taylor to the
New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties provides a
layer of protection by requiring adverse development
within the TCP area be reviewed by the New Mexico
Historic Preservation Office.
“Mount Taylor is known and remembered in our songs,
ceremonies, and shrines,” Hopi Chairman Nuvamsa said.

THE NAVAJO NATION
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT & VICE PRESIDENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 24, 2008
P.O. BOX 7440 WINDOW ROCK, AZ 86515 ! (928) 871-7000 ! FAX: (928) 871-4025

“The Hopi Tribe provided documentation to the committee
in our petition establishing cultural associations with
Mount Taylor, and demonstrating that 28 Hopi deities and
other religious personages, 36 Hopi clans, and a number
of Hopi religious societies have close cultural connections
with Mount Taylor.”
Within one year, the nominating tribes must prepare a
permanent designation application and must go before
the committee to seek a permanent designation.
“We believe in sustaining life on the mountain,” Laguna
First Lieutenant Governor Luarkie said. “This means
protecting the water resources. We have great concerns
that unimpeded development could affect the water
resources.”
He said the headwaters for several of Laguna
communities are located within the TCP area for which
the tribes seek designation. Without healthy water, many
forms of life will cease to live, he said.
Arvin Trujillo, executive director of the Navajo Nation
Division of Natural Resources, Alan Downer, director of
the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department, and
deputy director Steven Begay assisted with Navajo
Nation testimony.
The Historic Preservation Department will collaborate
with area tribes to responsibly and respectfully manage
our Navajo cultural resources, especially Mount Taylor,
Mr. Begay said.
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