A group of seven Navajos and environmentalists joined together to protest former governor Bruce Babbitt's book signing Friday night at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.
Babbitt, who was governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987 and Secretary of the Interior under President Clinton, gave a speech and signed copies of his book "Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America."
During his speech, three environmentalists jumped on stage holding a banner reading "boycott Snowbowl" while yelling, "He's poisoning the city of Flagstaff."
The protesters also asked those in attendance to sign a large pair of underwear to "air Bruce's dirty laundry."
Babbitt is a lawyer for the Snowbowl ski resort as it battles several American Indian tribes, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Flagstaff Activist Network in a lawsuit over the right to expand the resort that lies on the San Francisco Peaks outside Flagstaff.
The trial begins Wednesday in Prescott.
The peaks are held as sacred ground by 13 American Indian tribes, Katie Shanker said. Shanker traveled to Tempe from Prescott to protest Babbitt.
"We've taken so much from Native Americans," she said. "We've taken their most holy place and desecrated it, it's cultural genocide."
The tribes that hold the peaks as sacred are the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Tewa, Havasupai, Yavapai, Tonto Apache, White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, San Juan Southern Pauite, Fort McDowell, Mohave Apache and Acoma
Shanker said the group is focusing on Babbitt because members feel he has been hypocritical in his position on the resort.
In 2000, Babbitt had an integral part in closing a mine that was destroying all of the vegetation, she said.
Shanker believes Babbitt changed his position because he believes the public wants the resort to be expanded.
"He's two-faced," she said. "He's not as green as he looks."
Many fans of Babbitt hoping to get his autograph and speak with him for a few minutes had no idea he was a part of the lawsuit.
"It's going to be interesting to see how the lawsuit goes," Phoenix resident Barbara Colton said.
Colton said she was not particularly surprised with the protest.
"The subject is very volatile, especially with kids and Navajos," she said.
But the lawsuit didn't change Colton's opinion on Babbitt.
"I've always liked him," she said. "Everyone is entitled to his or her opinions."
One audience member was second-guessing her opinion on Babbitt after learning about the lawsuit.
"I'm very surprised to hear he's supporting [the expansion]," Phoenix resident Kathy Kruse said. "It makes me curious to find out more about his part in it."
Kruse said she was a little disheartened when Babbitt responded with "I'm old fashioned -- I don't comment," when audience members asked about the lawsuit.
"It's a shame that he didn't say anything to them," she said.
Reach the reporter at kristi.eaton@asu.edu.
