San Francisco Peaks

Several Arizona Native communities hold the San Francisco Peaks sacred in their religions. The judges wrote on behalf of the Hopi and Navajo, whose creation stories and other beliefs center on the peaks, and to a lesser extent on behalf of the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes.

The tribes objected to making snow in general as disruptive to the deities on the mountains and to the treated water in particular because it came from sewage and may even include water reclaimed from mortuaries.

"To get some sense of equivalence," Judge William A. Fletcher wrote for the panel, "it may be useful to imagine the effect on Christian beliefs and practices - and the imposition that Christians would experience - if the government were to require that baptisms be carried out with 'reclaimed water.' "

- The Arizona Republic