The U.S. Interior Department says Mount Graham is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property of Western Apache tribes.

The ruling is a major victory for San Carlos and White Mountain Apaches, who have fought the construction of the University of Arizona's Mount Graham International Observatory for more than a decade, said attorney Michael Nixon.

"The significance is this vindicates or proves what the Apaches have been saying all along to the Forest Service and the UA, and that is that Mount Graham is a historic site, and furthermore, a very special kind of historic site," said Nixon, who represents the Mount Graham and Apache Survival Coalitions.

By presidential executive order, the ruling requires the U.S. Forest Service to protect the physical integrity of Mount Graham, Nixon said. The Forest Service must complete a formal application process, which can take several months, for the mountain to be officially listed. Nixon said that is mostly a formality now that it's eligible.

"What this means, first of all, is no more telescopes on Mount Graham, and only those current uses that are compatible with the mountain's special status," Nixon said.

However, others said what effect the ruling and subsequent historic designation will have on the mountain is not clear. UA officials said the decision does not change their plans concerning the Mount Graham telescopes.

The 8-acre astronomical observatory was built in a spruce-fir forest, home to an endangered red squirrel, on a mountain that is sacred to traditional San Carlos and White Mountain Apaches.

Environmentalists and Apache tribes have filed numerous lawsuits in failed attempts to halt the project 100 miles northeast of Tucson.

Two Mount Graham telescopes were completed in 1994. A third telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope, considered the cornerstone of the observatory, is scheduled to be operational in 2004. A 25-mile power line to the observatory was recently completed, and the UA plans to build at least four more telescopes on the site.

The UA has yet to receive official documents from the Interior ruling made April 30, but the decision should have no bearing on the UA's plans, said Richard Powell, UA vice president of research and graduate studies.

"I don't think it's bothersome to us," Powell said. "The scientific zone for Mount Graham had sites for seven scopes, and those sites are already approved."

But Nixon said the ruling could not only halt the construction of the four additional telescopes but could also result in the removal of the power line.

"We'd like to somehow get that power line out of there," said Ramon Riley, White Mountain Apache Tribe cultural resource director and member.

"You have to be Apache to know what we're talking about when we speak of the elements of the sacredness of that mountain and our religion," Riley added.

"I really believe things are finally moving in the right direction now," said Wendsler Nosie, a spiritual leader for the San Carlos Apache Tribe. "If the Forest Service can step back and try to correct some of the things that they did wrong, I'm pretty sure the University of Arizona can do the same thing, and if that happens, you're going to see a lot of healing take place."

Safford Mayor Van Talley said instead of healing, the ruling could harm many people who have used the mountain for a variety of reasons.

Talley said what the ruling will actually do is unclear to him and many other people involved with Mount Graham, but that he fears it could eliminate some uses of the mountain that benefit people and the local economy.

"It seems to me the mountain should be managed for the use of all people, instead of putting the interests of one people over another," Talley said. "There are homes up in that area, cabins, public safety communications, church camps, tourism and picnicking. Mount Graham is important to the Gila Valley area for a lot of reasons, and this could restrict those uses in a very decisive way."

Nixon said he doubted the ruling would restrict the uses Talley mentioned. "This is not going to restrict current uses that are compatible to the Apaches," he said.

The ruling states that ethnographic research done by the Forest Service shows that the entire mountain "is associated with the traditional beliefs of Native American groups about their origins, cultural history, and the nature of the world," and is a place Apaches historically and currently use for ceremonial activities.

The document also states that not only Mount Graham but the Forest Service's Pinaleno Mountains unit is part of a larger regional landscape sacred to Western Apache tribes.

"Potentially, this larger regional landscape, or certain parts of it, may be eligible for listing with further identification, evaluation, and documentation," the document states.

Guy Lopez, a longtime observatory opponent, said the UA and the Forest Service had denied the tribal significance of Mount Graham and marginalized the views of Apaches. UA officials repeatedly claimed the mountain was sacred to only a few Apaches and that most were neutral on construction of the observatory, he said.

The UA's Powell said the university has always consulted with all of the people who have an interest in Mount Graham and will continue to do so.

"We assumed that part of the mountain would be recognized as a historic site, and now we're just going to have to sit down with the Forest Service and all the people involved like we always have and will continue to do," Powell said.

Most of the 75,000 listings on the register, administered by the National Park Service, are structures such as houses and courthouses. But the register also recognizes archaeological sites, parks and areas like Mount Graham deemed worthy of preserving.

George Asmus, district ranger of the Forest Service's Safford Ranger District, which oversees Mount Graham, would not comment on the ruling or its impact.

* Contact Thomas Stauffer at 573-4197 or at stauffer@azstarnet.com.