The following message and map-photo showing the proposed location of this resort on Mount Adams were prepared by Darryl Lloyd.
Attached is a photo and graphics to show the approximate extent of the proposed resort. Feel free to forward.
Please let Darryl know if you'd like a 6x9 high-res print, or digital file to reproduce.
Yesterday's Oregonian had the article below about the proposal.
Yakama tribe gets proposal for Mount Adams ski resort
Mt. Hood Meadows outlines an 11,000-acre project that would include a casino, housing, golf courses and cultural museum
Thursday, September 23, 2004
MARK LARABEE
Mt. Hood Meadows Development Corp. is proposing a destination resort on tribal land on Mount Adams in rural south-central Washington that would have 10 ski lifts and three 18-hole golf courses.
As presented to the Yakama Indian Nation, the 10,000-member tribe that owns the land, the resort would encompass 11,000 acres near Bird Creek Meadows. It's a popular area now used by campers, climbers, backcountry skiers and hikers.
Meadows' proposal includes eight chairlifts, a gondola and a tram that would take skiers as high as 11,100 feet above sea level from 5,400 feet -- the biggest vertical rise for any ski area in North or South America. It also proposes three golf courses, a spa, a casino and 2,500 housing units -- a mix of hotel rooms, condominiums and single-family homes. There also would be ski lodge and golf clubhouse buildings, plus a small village with restaurants and shops.
Meadows has struggled to build destination resorts at Government Camp and Cooper Spur on Mount Hood.
Dave Riley, Meadows general manager, said the project also would include the Yakama Nation Institute of Learning, which is envisioned as an interpretive center for classes and a museum to highlight the tribe's history and culture. He said everything from the building design to food would incorporate Yakama culture.
Although acknowledging opposition from environmental groups, Riley said Meadows will use cutting-edge building practices that focus on sustainability and environmental ethics.
"It's clear that if this resort is developed, the Yakama Nation will insist that it will be the most environmentally sensitive development in the history of resorts," Riley said. "At the end of the day, they are going to do what they think is right for their resources and their people."
At 12,276 feet, Mount Adams is the second-highest peak in Washington after 14,411-foot Mount Rainier. Its massive girth makes it the second-largest Cascade volcano in volume behind 14,162-foot Mount Shasta in California. But Adams is far from major towns, and a resort there would require significant road improvements to handle traffic, Riley said.
Ownership dispute
The mountain is not without controversy. For nearly five decades, the Yakama tribe battled with the U.S. government over its ownership. The tribe said boundary lines were incorrectly drawn after a surveying error. President Richard Nixon ended the dispute in 1972 when he signed over half the mountain to the tribe.
Tribal leaders acknowledge that such an aggressive development would drastically change the character of the mountain they hold sacred.
"Our understanding, even in a contemporary setting, is that if it was not for Mount Adams, the watershed would not be there to provide the nourishment for our timber, and all the food and medicine for our people," said Jerry Maninick, Yakama tribal chairman. "That's part of the commitment the mountain made to the Creator for all of eternity. Her task would be to take care of us and provide for us."
Maninick said some tribal members think the resort proposal fits within that cultural belief. He agrees with Riley that the resort would be a financial boon for the economically struggling tribe. Today, tribal members rely on forest products, a small casino in Toppenish, a juice company, a land-holding company and farms for income.
Benefits for Yakamas
Riley said the proposal would be a partnership in which the tribe would own the land while Meadows would build and run the resort. Tribal members would get jobs and a share of the profits, he said.
Maninick said the tribal council has formed a committee to look at whether such a development is feasible and in its best economic and cultural interest.
Meadows has not yet released its proposal to the public. But similar proposals in the past have gone nowhere, and the tribe shut down a small ski resort on the land after it regained ownership.
So far, Maninick said tribal members seem to be split over the idea. Eventually, all voting members will be asked to weigh in -- a vote Maninick expects to come by year's end. Maninick said the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs also would review the proposal and take testimony.
The resort proposal is drawing critics outside the tribe.
"We will fight the Meadows proposal with everything that we have," said Brent C. Foster, a Hood River attorney with the Gifford-Pinchot Task Force, an environmental group focused on reducing clear-cutting and road density, and preserving wildlife habitat. "This is incredibly important habitat, and the idea of putting thousands of luxury vacation units up there is an outrage, to put it mildly."
Opposition on Hood
Meadows' proposal to build a similar resort on Mount Hood's Cooper Spur continues to have fierce opposition from environmental groups and some Hood River Valley residents who rely on the watershed for drinking and irrigation. The ski company and opponents are in mediation over the plan.
Riley reluctantly acknowledges the political fight ahead. He said many people will try to tell the Yakama Nation what to do.
"Central Oregon has 25 golf courses," Riley said. "Some people think that's a great thing in terms of quality of life, and others would say Central Oregon would be better off it if didn't have any. This is the Yakama Nation's decision, not the Sierra Club's."
Maninick said although he's undecided, he's intrigued by the long-term economic prosperity the resort promises. Even so, he said, the tribe might not be ready to take such a drastic step.
"One of the areas our people have difficulty in is economics," he said. "It's almost always difficult for us to adjust ourselves to the contemporary setting. It's a high-risk area for our people, and they're a little gun-shy."
Mark Larabee: 503-294-7664; marklarabee@news.oregonian.com
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The first report of it appeared in the Yakima Herald-Republic on 9/13.
Destination or Desecration?
By PHILIP FEROLITO
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Despite having the potential of bringing in millions of dollars, putting a resort offering one of the highest ski lifts in the country on Mount Adams would be a desecration to Mother Earth, some tribal members say.
Recently, Mount Hood Meadows Development Corp., which owns Mount Hood Ski Resort in northern Oregon, approached the Yakama Nation with a proposal to construct a massive four-season resort, which would put 11 ski lifts reaching the 11,100-foot level on the south side of the mountain. It would also include three 18-hole golf courses, a mid-sloped restaurant, casino, night club, and 2,500 lodging units.
The corporation is calling the project an "eco-resort," meaning it would incorporate the Yakama heritage in theme and design and offer a summer camp for tribal youth with year-round educational courses on Yakama culture, said Dave Riley, vice president of Mount Hood Meadows.
"Because of our local experience, we understand and appreciate northwest tribal interests and rights, and the importance of the Treaty of 1855," Riley added.
Developers pitch such ski resort and other outdoor recreation projects to the nation every few years, but the tribe isn't rushing into anything, said Yakama Nation tribal Secretary Davis Washines, who goes by his traditional name Yallowash.
The full tribal council has yet to hear the proposal, and it would have to be approved at General Council, where voting tribal members decide on major decisions and elect the 14-member tribal council, which oversees daily operations of the Yakama Nation.
But the idea of putting any kind of development on the mountain located in the closed section of the Yakama reservation has some tribal members up in arms, said Regina Jerry, assistant minister of the White Swan Shaker Church.
"I feel that that would be a terrible violation of our people if they open that up," said Jerry. "(Tribal leaders) were sworn to an oath to protect the things that are sacred to our people."
The closed area consists of more than 600,000 acres of wildlife and natural habitat stretching from Ahtanum Ridge to below Satus Pass, and reaching to Mount Adams. There, only enrolled Yakama tribal members are allowed to practice sacred food gatherings, such as berry picking, root digging, and hunting and fishing. Outsiders need tribal permission to enter and must be accompanied by a tribal member.
Guarded by four main gates, the tribe closed the reservation during the 1950s to protect wildlife and the natural habitat. The only structures there are a fire and ranger station and Camp Chaparral, which consists of a few living dorms and a dining hall.
"That's the last place we can go and camp and try to get back to our traditional ways," Jerry said.
The tribe engaged in a 49-year boundary dispute with the federal government before President Richard Nixon in 1972 returned half of Mount Adams to the Yakama Nation.
Today, remains of a former ski resort are still present on the mountain's south side, where Mount Hood Meadows wants to build. The tribe kicked the resort off after reclaiming the sacred mountain, said tribal council chairman Jerry Meninick.
The more than 12,000-foot-tall volcano is much more than a mountain to the Yakama, he says.
"It tells us of the many different disciplines ... reminders of our existence," he said.
Yakama legends describe the mountain as a living being that's responsible for taking care of the people below, said Johnson Meninick, cultural resources manager for the Yakama Nation.
"You can't get a queen and climb all over her and dance on her," he added.
The mountain, like everything else in the arms of Mother Earth, is part of an unwritten law patterned after the natural resources that the tribe has lived on for thousands of years, Johnson Meninick said.
"The resources don't belong to us, we belong to the resources," he added. "Resources are the giver of life."
However, the earning potential of such a resort — which tribal members would receive a share in its profits — has some tribal officials weighing cash against culture, Jerry Meninick said.
"We're talking a multimillion-dollar industry," he said. "It's something that needs to be taken very seriously."
But the resort would be a hard sell to the tribal membership, Meninick admits.
"It would be very difficult to present this to General Council and have them pass this resort," he said. "If the tribe didn't have the values on its religious beliefs, according to the feasibility (of the proposal), it probably would have been done by now."
Though creating more income for the tribe is important, tribal officials don't want to give the impression they're moving ahead with the proposal or ignoring the cultural aspects of Mount Adams, Yallowash said.
"Even myself, I get up in the morning and that mountain is the first thing I see, and I have these same concerns," he said.
Also, the legalities of allowing non-Indians into the closed section and getting building permits approved would require legal research since federal law supports the closure, Jerry Meninick said.
"Do we go back to U.S. Supreme Court and get a clarification?" Johnson Meninick asked hypothetically.
Questioning who would actually own the resort, Johnson Meninick noted that tremors in the area have been increasing the past five years.
"Who's going to be responsible for the lives that would be lost in an avalanche?" he asked. "We don't have anyone stepping forward to say, 'This is my project.'"
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Let me clear up some inacuracies in Philip Ferolito's initial news story.
There was never a "former ski resort" on the south side, just a little hill near Wickey Creek that had a rope tow and the 3-sided "Wickey Creek Shelter." It was put in by the USFS around 1939 and taken out during WWII. The shelter is still there, next to FS 8240 Road at 3,600 ft., and is well inside the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. I know of nothing that was halted or removed from the 21,000-acre "Tract D" area after it was returned to the Yakama Nation in 1972
You may be interested to know of the Tribe's continuous wilderness management on Mt Adams since 1972. The policy came from "Yakima Tribal Council Resolution T-13-71" (passed by unanimous vote on September 8, 1970), which addressed the 21,000-acre area prior to Nixon's Executive Order. It's quite lengthy, but one sentence says: "(The Tribe)... will continue to recognize the dedication of that portion included in the Mt. Adams wilderness use..."
The "portion" referred to is about 10,000 acres of Mount Adams Wilderness that would be placed in trust for the Yakama Tribe. President Nixon, in his Executive Order signed on May, 20, 1972, said: "I am equally pleased to note that the Yakima Tribe itself has pledged by Tribal Resolution to 'maintain existing recreation facilities for public use' and to 'recognize the dedication of that portion included in the wilderness use.' "
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