Elizabeth Brandt Mount Graham Papers

Elizabeth Brandt is a retired Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at Arizona State University.

The ASU Directory provides a summary of her work: “Elizabeth Brandt specializes in collaborative work with Native American communities in the U.S. Southwest. She has worked in the New Mexican Pueblo communities of Taos, Picuris, Sandia, Isleta, San Felipe and Zia in the areas of land use, environmental protection, sacred site protection, traditional cultural properties, land claims, educational programs and programs of language renewal. She has also worked in the area with the Navajo, the Western Apache and the Yavapai. Her training is in sociocultural anthropology and linguistics. She also works with Spanish colonial history using primary texts on the Pueblos and oral history with communities. Much of her research is strongly focused to applied community needs and environmental issues... Brandt teaches courses in linguistics, ethnographic methods, the Southwest and gender. She is an advisory board member of American Indian Studies and a faculty affiliate of Women's Studies.”

Starting in 1989, Elizabeth Brandt was voluntarily involved with the Apache Survival Coalition and the San Carlos Apache Tribe to oppose the University of Arizona’s goal to build telescopes on Mount Graham, a sacred Apache site. The Apache Survival Coalition was founded on February 5, 1990 by Ola Cassadore Davis to fundraise in opposition to telescope construction. Ola Cassadore Davis asked anthropologists Elizabeth Brandt and Keith Basso to document the Apache case and help make a case for preserving Mount Graham.

Elizabeth Brandt and Keith Basso found written evidence from a variety of sources and time periods, including Spanish historic documents that stated Native people lived in Mt. Graham area until they were forcibly removed by U.S. military in the 19th century. They also researched the work of Western Apache ethnographer Greenville Goodwin who collected oral histories from Apache elders in the early 1930s. These elders mentioned that Mount Graham was sacred, and that military engagements took place there. Greenville Goodwin’s papers were ironically part of University of Arizona’s collection, however the University did not acknowledge them even after Brandt and Basso informed U of A of his work.

Mount Graham was difficult to prove sacred because the Apache opposition was only supported by donation, and Native Americans could not disclose some confidential information related to their religion. Meanwhile, the University of Arizona astronomers had an abundance of resources, millions of dollars in research grants, and many lobbyists and public officials on their side. However, the Apache opposition was not small. The telescopes were opposed by all major Indian organizations in United States, including the Racial Justice Committee of National Council of Churches and the National Congress of American Indians, as well as many indigenous rights groups in Europe.

In 1988, the Supreme Court deemed American Indian Religious Freedom Act non-binding. Therefore only a few environmental laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, could be used to protect Native American sacred sites. It was not certain that these policies would protect Mount Graham because they were under attack by Congress.

The Apache opposition argued that there was evidence of legal misconduct in the construction of the telescopes. The General Accounting Office revealed that scientific fraud was committed by encouraging biologists to alter their opinions on endangered species. In 1988, lobbyists persuaded U.S. Congress to pass the AZ-Idaho Conservation Act, which allowed telescopes to be built on specific locations defying all applicable U.S. environmental and cultural protection laws. Elizabeth Brandt published articles highlighting the legal misconduct committed by the University of Arizona and the difficulties Apaches faced in fighting against the telescope construction.

Apaches started to publicly protest Mount Graham in 1989, and when the University of Arizona wouldn’t listen, Apache Survival Coalition filed a lawsuit in 1991.

The Apache Survival Coalition 1991 federal lawsuit was unsuccessful. Despite Native and environmental group’s opposition to the telescopes, the Mount Graham International Observatory began to be built in 1989. There are currently three telescopes on the mountain. The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope and the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope were the first to operate in 1993. The Large Binocular Telescope began operating in 2004.

Sources: Brandt, Elizabeth A. “Fight For Dzil Nchaa Si An, Mt. Graham: Apaches And Astrophysical Development In Arizona.” Cultural Survival Quarterly 19.4 (1996): 50–57.

"Elizabeth Brandt." ASU Directory Profile. ASU, n.d. Web. 2017. https://webapp4.asu.edu/directory/person/10185