still taking indian land

In the new york times there was an article about economics driving people to corrupt indian land. A few years ago, in the deserts of Arizona, on an indian reservation, there was a ski resort built. In recent years, the resort has not been making a great deal of revenue due to the fact that it does not really snow in the desert. The owner's solution to this problem was to make artificial snow. The Indians, however, think that this is going to corrupt their land. To the indians this is spiritual land. One of the lawyers fighting for them said that putting artificial snow on the mountains would be like "pouring dirty water on the vatican." The indians and the resort owners are now in a legal battle as to whether there can be artificial snow on the mountain or not.

Reading this article reminded me of the europeans first coming to America. They came in and treated the indians however they wanted. This meant taking their land and killing them and their cultures. Indian reservations are supposed to be places for the naticve americans that "Europeans" cannot tamper with. By building the ski resort that idea was basically thrown away. The only differences between what is happeneing with the ski resort and what happened during the exploration of America is that no one is getting killed and the indians can fight back and even win using the judicial system.