University of Arizona has made history with these actions
To date, in order to promote and secure its telescopes on Mt. Graham, the University of Arizona has made history as:
- the first University to oppose federal protection of an Endangered Species, the Mount Graham Red Squirrel (Koffler, 7/21/86),
- the first University to lobby for, and to secure, not one, but two congressional legislative riders exempting itself UA from all environmental, religious and cultural laws (1988 and 1996),
- the first University to argue in court that extinction of an endangered species is acceptable and permissible to allow their telescope project to proceed (12/13/90). According to the UA attorney, the telescope’s "importance was such" that accepting extinction "is taken care of" by the University's legislative Riders (12/13/90),
- the first University to promote a project whose biological basis, the 1988, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biological Opinion on the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel, is fraudulent (1/11/90, 1/12/90, 4/16/90, 4/26/90, 5/14/90, 5/17/90, 5/30/90, 5/31/90),
- the first University to litigate against the rights of Native Americans to practice their religion (12/13/90, 4/7/92, 4/9/92, 5/8/92),
- the first University to produce and implement a plan to destroy the religion and culture of a Native people (10/23/91, 12/16/92, 1/6/93, 7/1/03),
- the first University to arrest a Native American returning from prayer on his ancestral Sacred Grounds (8/30/97),
- the first University to require a prayer permit for Native Americans to pray on their ancestral Sacred Grounds 98/15/88),
- the first University to worsen the fate of an Endangered Species, the Mount Graham Red Squirrel, by pressuring and convincing U.S. Forest Service firefighters to needlessly burn 40% (250 acres) of the summit’s remaining spruce-fir on July 8, 2004 (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/mount-graham-red-squirrel-12-22-2010.html).