News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, January 6th 2009
Contact: Klee Benally - Save the Peaks Coalition
Email: indigenousaction@gmail.com
Website: www.savethepeaks.org
Tribes & Environmental Groups Petition Supreme Court in Appeal to Protect Religious Freedom & Environmental Integrity of Sacred Mountain
FLAGSTAFF, AZ – On Monday, January 5th 2009, Tribes & environmental groups in Arizona filed a unified petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeals in a precedent setting legal battle to protect religious freedom and the ecological integrity of the holy San Francisco Peaks.
The slopes of the holy San Francisco Peaks, located in Northern Arizona, have been at the center of a historical and lengthy battle that has pitted economic interests on public lands against environmental integrity, public health and cultural survival. Arizona Snowbowl, a small private ski business that leases land from the U.S. Forest Service, is attempting to expand current development and use millions of gallons of recycled sewage water to make fake snow.
"This is an important case for the Supreme Court to hear. The Supreme Court, in a split decision, previously deprived Native Americans of First Amendment rights vis-à-vis sacred sites under the control of the federal government." said Howard Shanker, who represents Navajo Nation, Havasupai Tribe, White Mountain Apache Nation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. "This case represents the last, best chance for Native Americans to have some substantive protection of sites that they hold holy or sacred through application of existing law." stated Shanker.
"In a country that supposedly values the free exercise and accommodation of all religion, it is unconscionable that Native American religious and cultural beliefs have essentially been relegated to second-class status by the federal government. The Supreme Court now has an opportunity to right this wrong." Shanker said.
Tribes' primary arguments have focused on religious freedom issues by utilizing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which they had hoped would provide the necessary legal protection where other laws such as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act have failed.
"The proposed development at Snowbowl, particularly the use of treated sewage effluent for snowmaking, would have profound effects upon the ability of several tribes to engage in vitally important religious practices at the sacred San Francisco Peaks." said Jack Trope of the Association on American Indian Affairs who is working together with DNA Legal Services, representing the Hualapai Tribe, Navajo medicine practitioner Norris Nez and Hopi spiritual practitioner Bill Preston. "The en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit's narrow interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in this case, which rejected the claims of the tribal plaintiffs, conflicts with the intent of Congress and the interpretation of the law by other Circuits. For these reasons, we have asked the Supreme Court to review this case in order to clarify the law and interpret it in a manner that would require the government to show a compelling interest in this case (and similar cases) before it can implement its land management decision. We do not believe that the government can show that approval of the Snowbowl development is in fulfillment of a compelling governmental interest." Trope said.
The Forest Service manages the San Francisco Peaks as public land and has faced multiple lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, Hualapai, and Havasupai tribes, as well as the Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network, Center of Biological Diversity, and others after it initially approved the proposed ski area development in 2005.
In a recent ruling, a 9th Circuit Court "en banc" panel overturned another 9th Circuit decision protecting the holy place. The divided en banc panel found that using recycled sewer water to make snow for skiing on an admittedly sacred site posed no 'substantial burden' on the Plaintiffs' exercise of religion in this case. According to the Court, the "only effect of the proposed upgrades is on the Plaintiffs' subjective, emotional religious experience. That is, the presence of recycled wastewater on the Peaks is offensive to the Plaintiffs' religious sensibilities…the diminishment of spiritual fulfillment – serious though it may be – is not a 'substantial burden' on the free exercise of religion." The Court dismissed Plaintiffs' religious beliefs as calling them mere "damaged spiritual feelings."
It is not clear on when the Supreme Court will decide whether it will hear the case or not. Pending a decision, Snowbowl is legally barred from development on the holy mountain.
While the current appeal focuses on RFRA, many citizens and environmental organizations continue to be concerned with potential health implications of the use of recycled sewage water upon the fragile mountain ecosystem and the untested impacts that would occur if humans ingested the artificial effluent snow.
"This case should concern everyone who values religious freedom, human rights, public health and environmental integrity." said Klee Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "This issue also isn't just about one mountain, there are a number of sacred places located on public lands that are being threatened by development right now; Mt. Tenabo in Nevada, Medicine Lake in Northern California, Bear Butte in South Dakota, Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, for example. We are asking for everyone to call their Congressional representatives to hold hearings and to enact new legislation that guarantees protection for Native American sacred places."
The City of Flagstaff still maintains a contract with the ski area to sell up to 180 million gallons of treated sewage effluent during the winter seasons. Without the contract for the treated sewage effluent, it would not be possible for the business owners of Snowbowl to attempt their desecration.
"A ski area should know better than to attempt to make fake snow from treated sewage effluent and dominate Mother Nature in the high desert, especially in the face of global warming. It's not only unsustainable, it's insane." said Rachel Tso, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The question is, what do we value more: a healthy community, ecological integrity and the cultural survival of more than 13 Indigenous Nations, or the interests of a single for profit private ski business?"
For more information and to read the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Preservation concerns at Colorado sacred site
Preservation concerns at Colorado sacred site
By Carol Berry, Today correspondent
Story Published: Jan 13, 2009
BOULDER, Colo. – “What makes a sacred site sacred?” was the question posed to visiting scholars from South America and the U.S. in a workshop at Native American Rights Fund in Boulder.
The answers came from a number of participants in the event, which was part of a study of lands in the post-colonial North American West conducted Dec. 5 by colleges of law at the University of Denver and Georgia State University, and by nonprofit Latina & Latino Critical Legal Theory, Inc.
But none of the answers were definitive. The consensus was that sacred sites in North America were defined by the indigenous peoples living where they were located, and were often locations where vision quests or similar rituals were held, traditional healing or ceremonial plants were gathered, or certain other events had occurred.
“Sacred places are hard to generalize,” said Steve Moore, a NARF senior staff attorney who has worked for many years on the protection of sacred places. “It’s the land that speaks to the people and the power of the place speaks to the people.”
He told participants about Valmont Butte, a volcanic formation that juts upward from the plains east of Boulder to face the Rocky Mountains to the west.
Cheyenne and Arapaho people had large encampments there in the 1800s, and the butte was also familiar to Ute, Lakota, and other Native nations. During tribal consultation, the Valmont Butte Heritage Alliance was told the butte “has always been considered a sacred place, a place of prayer, contemplation and reverence for all life that surround it, and all that it provides for the people.” Until recently, sweat lodge ceremonies were held there.
But sacred sites are part of a history of dispossession that may come to increasingly include places in South America, as well as those found today in North America.
What occurred in North America over the last 400 years is “replaying itself in parts of South America,” Moore said, terming the workshop a focus on “indigenous issues – often a neglected voice.”
National historic preservation laws and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act have been used with some success in preserving sacred places, but it is difficult to protect places “that have meaning” because legal standards do not relate to indigenous concepts.
“‘Legacy’ just has no meaning,” he said. Indigenous history may go back 10,000 years but 100 years of western thought may not encompass ‘the meaning of the place.’ Or critics may say ‘the Indians just made up those claims (that sites are sacred).’”
When reservations were created in North America, “little thought was given to what was sacred,” he said. Treaties were a “series of sham transactions” to enable western expansion by ending aboriginal title to tribal homelands, including obligations to the Cheyenne and Arapaho that encompassed the Valmont Butte area.
Ties to off-reservation sacred land forms were sometimes severed years after reservations were established, because it was against the law for Indian people to leave those reservations, he said.
But in the last 30 to 40 years – and NARF has been part of that, Moore noted – there has been “a greater renaissance among Indian people to reconnect with their cultures and traditions.”
Valmont Butte preservation is a part of that, because it “still speaks to them (Native nations) very profoundly,” he said.
In discussions with Cheyenne and Arapaho people, elders remembered the butte but couldn’t recall its original place name, although Arapaho leader Niwot had a settlement nearby at the confluence of two forks of Boulder Creek, he said.
Valmont Butte Heritage Alliance formed ties to the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming and a pow wow was held at the University of Colorado as a welcoming-back ceremony to honor their connection to Boulder Valley.
Seminar participants were told that the future of the butte – contaminated in some areas by years of industrial use and radioactive mill tailings – is uncertain. The city of Boulder owns approximately one-third of the area as open space, and the alliance hopes for possible tribal or other beneficial ownership of the remainder, subject to environmental cleanup.
The alliance’s tribal consultation yielded a recommendation that Valmont Butte be allowed to “rest and heal.”
The non-profit alliance works in partnership with the Trust for Public Lands, Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, NARF, and tribal nations, with support from the Native American Journalists Association.
The seminar at NARF included participants from university law faculties in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, as well as from several North American states.
Brazil wants to develop the Amazon and there is growing pressure on indigenous tribes that are being marginalized, although there is also a growing indigenous movement, several conferees noted, adding that the best protection for indigenous peoples may be large reservations where development can be kept at bay.
“But when you start to put people on reservations, you’re going to have to place a culture of 20,000 years on a fraction of their land, and will it begin a process of tearing that culture apart?” Moore questioned. “You’re making a choice to protect them, but at what cost?”
One South American national forest law was ruled invalid because it failed to include the participation of indigenous peoples in forest planning in what was termed “a multicultural issue and a property issue,” pitting individual rights against cultural rights and, at times, individual versus collective rights.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/37348384.html
By Carol Berry, Today correspondent
Story Published: Jan 13, 2009
BOULDER, Colo. – “What makes a sacred site sacred?” was the question posed to visiting scholars from South America and the U.S. in a workshop at Native American Rights Fund in Boulder.
The answers came from a number of participants in the event, which was part of a study of lands in the post-colonial North American West conducted Dec. 5 by colleges of law at the University of Denver and Georgia State University, and by nonprofit Latina & Latino Critical Legal Theory, Inc.
But none of the answers were definitive. The consensus was that sacred sites in North America were defined by the indigenous peoples living where they were located, and were often locations where vision quests or similar rituals were held, traditional healing or ceremonial plants were gathered, or certain other events had occurred.
“Sacred places are hard to generalize,” said Steve Moore, a NARF senior staff attorney who has worked for many years on the protection of sacred places. “It’s the land that speaks to the people and the power of the place speaks to the people.”
He told participants about Valmont Butte, a volcanic formation that juts upward from the plains east of Boulder to face the Rocky Mountains to the west.
Cheyenne and Arapaho people had large encampments there in the 1800s, and the butte was also familiar to Ute, Lakota, and other Native nations. During tribal consultation, the Valmont Butte Heritage Alliance was told the butte “has always been considered a sacred place, a place of prayer, contemplation and reverence for all life that surround it, and all that it provides for the people.” Until recently, sweat lodge ceremonies were held there.
But sacred sites are part of a history of dispossession that may come to increasingly include places in South America, as well as those found today in North America.
What occurred in North America over the last 400 years is “replaying itself in parts of South America,” Moore said, terming the workshop a focus on “indigenous issues – often a neglected voice.”
National historic preservation laws and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act have been used with some success in preserving sacred places, but it is difficult to protect places “that have meaning” because legal standards do not relate to indigenous concepts.
“‘Legacy’ just has no meaning,” he said. Indigenous history may go back 10,000 years but 100 years of western thought may not encompass ‘the meaning of the place.’ Or critics may say ‘the Indians just made up those claims (that sites are sacred).’”
When reservations were created in North America, “little thought was given to what was sacred,” he said. Treaties were a “series of sham transactions” to enable western expansion by ending aboriginal title to tribal homelands, including obligations to the Cheyenne and Arapaho that encompassed the Valmont Butte area.
Ties to off-reservation sacred land forms were sometimes severed years after reservations were established, because it was against the law for Indian people to leave those reservations, he said.
But in the last 30 to 40 years – and NARF has been part of that, Moore noted – there has been “a greater renaissance among Indian people to reconnect with their cultures and traditions.”
Valmont Butte preservation is a part of that, because it “still speaks to them (Native nations) very profoundly,” he said.
In discussions with Cheyenne and Arapaho people, elders remembered the butte but couldn’t recall its original place name, although Arapaho leader Niwot had a settlement nearby at the confluence of two forks of Boulder Creek, he said.
Valmont Butte Heritage Alliance formed ties to the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming and a pow wow was held at the University of Colorado as a welcoming-back ceremony to honor their connection to Boulder Valley.
Seminar participants were told that the future of the butte – contaminated in some areas by years of industrial use and radioactive mill tailings – is uncertain. The city of Boulder owns approximately one-third of the area as open space, and the alliance hopes for possible tribal or other beneficial ownership of the remainder, subject to environmental cleanup.
The alliance’s tribal consultation yielded a recommendation that Valmont Butte be allowed to “rest and heal.”
The non-profit alliance works in partnership with the Trust for Public Lands, Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, NARF, and tribal nations, with support from the Native American Journalists Association.
The seminar at NARF included participants from university law faculties in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, as well as from several North American states.
Brazil wants to develop the Amazon and there is growing pressure on indigenous tribes that are being marginalized, although there is also a growing indigenous movement, several conferees noted, adding that the best protection for indigenous peoples may be large reservations where development can be kept at bay.
“But when you start to put people on reservations, you’re going to have to place a culture of 20,000 years on a fraction of their land, and will it begin a process of tearing that culture apart?” Moore questioned. “You’re making a choice to protect them, but at what cost?”
One South American national forest law was ruled invalid because it failed to include the participation of indigenous peoples in forest planning in what was termed “a multicultural issue and a property issue,” pitting individual rights against cultural rights and, at times, individual versus collective rights.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/37348384.html
Friday, January 9, 2009
Tribes & Environmental Groups Petition Supreme Court in Appeal to Protect Religious Freedom & Environmental Integrity of Sacred Mountain
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, January 6th 2009
Contact: Klee Benally - Save the Peaks Coalition
Email: indigenousaction@gmail.com
Website: www.savethepeaks.org
Tribes & Environmental Groups Petition Supreme Court in Appeal to Protect Religious Freedom & Environmental Integrity of Sacred Mountain
FLAGSTAFF, AZ – On Monday, January 5th 2009, Tribes & environmental groups in Arizona filed a unified petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeals in a precedent setting legal battle to protect religious freedom and the ecological integrity of the holy San Francisco Peaks.
The slopes of the holy San Francisco Peaks, located in Northern Arizona, have been at the center of a historical and lengthy battle that has pitted economic interests on public lands against environmental integrity, public health and cultural survival. Arizona Snowbowl, a small private ski business that leases land from the U.S. Forest Service, is attempting to expand current development and use millions of gallons of recycled sewage water to make fake snow.
"This is an important case for the Supreme Court to hear. The Supreme Court, in a split decision, previously deprived Native Americans of First Amendment rights vis-à-vis sacred sites under the control of the federal government." said Howard Shanker, who represents Navajo Nation, Havasupai Tribe, White Mountain Apache Nation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. "This case represents the last, best chance for Native Americans to have some substantive protection of sites that they hold holy or sacred through application of existing law." stated Shanker.
"In a country that supposedly values the free exercise and accommodation of all religion, it is unconscionable that Native American religious and cultural beliefs have essentially been relegated to second-class status by the federal government. The Supreme Court now has an opportunity to right this wrong." Shanker said.
Tribes' primary arguments have focused on religious freedom issues by utilizing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which they had hoped would provide the necessary legal protection where other laws such as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act have failed.
"The proposed development at Snowbowl, particularly the use of treated sewage effluent for snowmaking, would have profound effects upon the ability of several tribes to engage in vitally important religious practices at the sacred San Francisco Peaks." said Jack Trope of the Association on American Indian Affairs who is working together with DNA Legal Services, representing the Hualapai Tribe, Navajo medicine practitioner Norris Nez and Hopi spiritual practitioner Bill Preston. "The en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit's narrow interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in this case, which rejected the claims of the tribal plaintiffs, conflicts with the intent of Congress and the interpretation of the law by other Circuits. For these reasons, we have asked the Supreme Court to review this case in order to clarify the law and interpret it in a manner that would require the government to show a compelling interest in this case (and similar cases) before it can implement its land management decision. We do not believe that the government can show that approval of the Snowbowl development is in fulfillment of a compelling governmental interest." Trope said.
The Forest Service manages the San Francisco Peaks as public land and has faced multiple lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, Hualapai, and Havasupai tribes, as well as the Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network, Center of Biological Diversity, and others after it initially approved the proposed ski area development in 2005.
In a recent ruling, a 9th Circuit Court "en banc" panel overturned another 9th Circuit decision protecting the holy place. The divided en banc panel found that using recycled sewer water to make snow for skiing on an admittedly sacred site posed no 'substantial burden' on the Plaintiffs' exercise of religion in this case. According to the Court, the "only effect of the proposed upgrades is on the Plaintiffs' subjective, emotional religious experience. That is, the presence of recycled wastewater on the Peaks is offensive to the Plaintiffs' religious sensibilities…the diminishment of spiritual fulfillment – serious though it may be – is not a 'substantial burden' on the free exercise of religion." The Court dismissed Plaintiffs' religious beliefs as calling them mere "damaged spiritual feelings."
It is not clear on when the Supreme Court will decide whether it will hear the case or not. Pending a decision, Snowbowl is legally barred from development on the holy mountain.
While the current appeal focuses on RFRA, many citizens and environmental organizations continue to be concerned with potential health implications of the use of recycled sewage water upon the fragile mountain ecosystem and the untested impacts that would occur if humans ingested the artificial effluent snow.
"This case should concern everyone who values religious freedom, human rights, public health and environmental integrity." said Klee Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "This issue also isn't just about one mountain, there are a number of sacred places located on public lands that are being threatened by development right now; Mt. Tenabo in Nevada, Medicine Lake in Northern California, Bear Butte in South Dakota, Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, for example. We are asking for everyone to call their Congressional representatives to hold hearings and to enact new legislation that guarantees protection for Native American sacred places."
The City of Flagstaff still maintains a contract with the ski area to sell up to 180 million gallons of treated sewage effluent during the winter seasons. Without the contract for the treated sewage effluent, it would not be possible for the business owners of Snowbowl to attempt their desecration.
"A ski area should know better than to attempt to make fake snow from treated sewage effluent and dominate Mother Nature in the high desert, especially in the face of global warming. It's not only unsustainable, it's insane." said Rachel Tso, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The question is, what do we value more: a healthy community, ecological integrity and the cultural survival of more than 13 Indigenous Nations, or the interests of a single for profit private ski business?"
For more information and to read the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, January 6th 2009
Contact: Klee Benally - Save the Peaks Coalition
Email: indigenousaction@gmail.com
Website: www.savethepeaks.org
Tribes & Environmental Groups Petition Supreme Court in Appeal to Protect Religious Freedom & Environmental Integrity of Sacred Mountain
FLAGSTAFF, AZ – On Monday, January 5th 2009, Tribes & environmental groups in Arizona filed a unified petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeals in a precedent setting legal battle to protect religious freedom and the ecological integrity of the holy San Francisco Peaks.
The slopes of the holy San Francisco Peaks, located in Northern Arizona, have been at the center of a historical and lengthy battle that has pitted economic interests on public lands against environmental integrity, public health and cultural survival. Arizona Snowbowl, a small private ski business that leases land from the U.S. Forest Service, is attempting to expand current development and use millions of gallons of recycled sewage water to make fake snow.
"This is an important case for the Supreme Court to hear. The Supreme Court, in a split decision, previously deprived Native Americans of First Amendment rights vis-à-vis sacred sites under the control of the federal government." said Howard Shanker, who represents Navajo Nation, Havasupai Tribe, White Mountain Apache Nation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. "This case represents the last, best chance for Native Americans to have some substantive protection of sites that they hold holy or sacred through application of existing law." stated Shanker.
"In a country that supposedly values the free exercise and accommodation of all religion, it is unconscionable that Native American religious and cultural beliefs have essentially been relegated to second-class status by the federal government. The Supreme Court now has an opportunity to right this wrong." Shanker said.
Tribes' primary arguments have focused on religious freedom issues by utilizing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which they had hoped would provide the necessary legal protection where other laws such as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act have failed.
"The proposed development at Snowbowl, particularly the use of treated sewage effluent for snowmaking, would have profound effects upon the ability of several tribes to engage in vitally important religious practices at the sacred San Francisco Peaks." said Jack Trope of the Association on American Indian Affairs who is working together with DNA Legal Services, representing the Hualapai Tribe, Navajo medicine practitioner Norris Nez and Hopi spiritual practitioner Bill Preston. "The en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit's narrow interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in this case, which rejected the claims of the tribal plaintiffs, conflicts with the intent of Congress and the interpretation of the law by other Circuits. For these reasons, we have asked the Supreme Court to review this case in order to clarify the law and interpret it in a manner that would require the government to show a compelling interest in this case (and similar cases) before it can implement its land management decision. We do not believe that the government can show that approval of the Snowbowl development is in fulfillment of a compelling governmental interest." Trope said.
The Forest Service manages the San Francisco Peaks as public land and has faced multiple lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, Hualapai, and Havasupai tribes, as well as the Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network, Center of Biological Diversity, and others after it initially approved the proposed ski area development in 2005.
In a recent ruling, a 9th Circuit Court "en banc" panel overturned another 9th Circuit decision protecting the holy place. The divided en banc panel found that using recycled sewer water to make snow for skiing on an admittedly sacred site posed no 'substantial burden' on the Plaintiffs' exercise of religion in this case. According to the Court, the "only effect of the proposed upgrades is on the Plaintiffs' subjective, emotional religious experience. That is, the presence of recycled wastewater on the Peaks is offensive to the Plaintiffs' religious sensibilities…the diminishment of spiritual fulfillment – serious though it may be – is not a 'substantial burden' on the free exercise of religion." The Court dismissed Plaintiffs' religious beliefs as calling them mere "damaged spiritual feelings."
It is not clear on when the Supreme Court will decide whether it will hear the case or not. Pending a decision, Snowbowl is legally barred from development on the holy mountain.
While the current appeal focuses on RFRA, many citizens and environmental organizations continue to be concerned with potential health implications of the use of recycled sewage water upon the fragile mountain ecosystem and the untested impacts that would occur if humans ingested the artificial effluent snow.
"This case should concern everyone who values religious freedom, human rights, public health and environmental integrity." said Klee Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "This issue also isn't just about one mountain, there are a number of sacred places located on public lands that are being threatened by development right now; Mt. Tenabo in Nevada, Medicine Lake in Northern California, Bear Butte in South Dakota, Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, for example. We are asking for everyone to call their Congressional representatives to hold hearings and to enact new legislation that guarantees protection for Native American sacred places."
The City of Flagstaff still maintains a contract with the ski area to sell up to 180 million gallons of treated sewage effluent during the winter seasons. Without the contract for the treated sewage effluent, it would not be possible for the business owners of Snowbowl to attempt their desecration.
"A ski area should know better than to attempt to make fake snow from treated sewage effluent and dominate Mother Nature in the high desert, especially in the face of global warming. It's not only unsustainable, it's insane." said Rachel Tso, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The question is, what do we value more: a healthy community, ecological integrity and the cultural survival of more than 13 Indigenous Nations, or the interests of a single for profit private ski business?"
For more information and to read the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
###
Lac du Flambeau Tribal Historic Preservation Officer wins prestigious award
Lac du Flambeau Tribal Historic Preservation Officer wins prestigious award
Kelly Jackson receives equivalent of Emmy award for historic preservation
By Brenda Austin, Today correspondent
Story Published: Jan 5, 2009
Story Updated: Jan 5, 2009
LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. – Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Kelly Jackson was presented with the first Secretary of the Interior Historic Preservation Award.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne presented the awards to four government and tribal employees at the department’s headquarters in Washington.
The award program was created to recognize outstanding contributions in the area of historic preservation by employees of Federal, State and Tribal Preservation Offices and Certified Local Governments. The Secretary’s award focuses on individual accomplishments instead of programs or projects.
“For me this award is really a reflection of the success and commitment on the part of our community. In 1996 Lac du Flambeau was one of the first 12 tribes to have a tribal historic preservation office,” Jackson said. “Over the years our community has been able to grow and build the program into a resource that has been used not only by our tribe, but by other tribes in our region. I think of this award as a milestone for this community as a whole – and of those community members who make historic preservation an important element of our tribe.”
As a winner of the Secretary’s award, Jackson was recognized for her contributions, creativity and expertise which exemplified the overall goals of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
Assisting in national efforts to enhance the relationship between tribes and the U.S. government, she was an active panelist on the Preserve America Summit held in New Orleans in October 2006 and helped write a position paper on the best practices – or a better approach – to working with tribes and making them a full partner in the National Historic Preservation Program.
Jackson, vice-chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s Native American Advisory Group, was honored in 2007 with the U.S. Forest Service’s “Connecting Citizens to the Land, Indigenous Earth Walker Award.” She received the award in recognition of her assistance to the Forest Service in the acquisition of the 240-acre area known as Indian Farms by the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin.
She also assisted Rebecca Maki, Lac du Flambeau tribal member, in the development of a guide to help Indian country “See the value of building historic preservation programs and assume the functions of the state and the jurisdictional benefits of assuming states functions within the boundaries of reservations,” she said. The guide, published by the Great Lakes Indian Law Center, University of Wisconsin Law School, is called “What is Tribal Historic Preservation, A Guide to Tribal Historic Preservation in Indian Country.”
Jackson also serves as the chief grant administrator for the Native American Graves Repatriation Act and is active nationally in the Native American Tribal Historic Preservation Officers organization as a board member and treasurer.
“Historic preservation seems like a dry word for what I do,” she said. “I don’t think what I do is about preserving something old. This is really about protecting who we are as Native people, continuing a life way and making sure resources are available for anyone interested in learning more about where they come from and passing that knowledge on from one generation to the next. I think what has always motivated me in this work is the fact that in seven generations my children’s children will continue to see the value in our culture and teachings – and will continue to pass them on.
“There are mechanisms within the NHPA to allow tribes to have a direct role in interpreting what is historically significant and important to protect. I think the NHPA encourages agencies to engage with tribes on a government-to-government basis. We have been battling for centuries to protect burial sites and sacred places and I think the NHPA gives us one of many tools to do that,” said Jackson. “Probably the most frustrating part of the process has always been the fact that tribes are constantly fighting agencies to protect places of importance rather than engaging in dialog to be partners in interpreting American history.
“One of the greatest things about preservation is that it is very diverse,” she said. “Locally we are working on a wonderful project called “A Legacy of Survival.” We are restoring one of the government boarding school buildings in Lac du Flambeau. It was a boy’s dormitory and was listed on the national register in 2005 as a nationally significant property.
“It is a challenging project because the boarding school era is an extremely difficult era for many of us and yet we felt it was critical to share the survival of history, tradition and culture – despite the governments attempt to eradicate native people and native connections with cultural identity,” she said.
The restoration project is currently in the final design phase and includes plans for an interpretative center, an archival storage facility for research and records storage with temperature and humidity control, and teaching traditional and cultural skills such as reed mat making, ricing and other gathering activities.
“The first phase of the project is complete – which was taking off the modern influence in the building and bringing the property back to it 1906 footprint. We are hoping to break ground for the restoration project in early spring with a grand opening by summer.
“We continue to do review and compliance, perhaps not as beautiful as a restoration project or an interpretative center, but it is the foundation of these programs. So we continue to work with state, federal and local agencies to ensure that historic places, sacred sites and traditional cultural properties are considered and protected as a matter of policy and procedure within our ceded lands,” she said.
More information about the Secretary of the Interior Historic Preservation Award can be found at www.doi.gov/initiatives/preservation.html.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/greatlakes/37105074.html
Kelly Jackson receives equivalent of Emmy award for historic preservation
By Brenda Austin, Today correspondent
Story Published: Jan 5, 2009
Story Updated: Jan 5, 2009
LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. – Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Kelly Jackson was presented with the first Secretary of the Interior Historic Preservation Award.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne presented the awards to four government and tribal employees at the department’s headquarters in Washington.
The award program was created to recognize outstanding contributions in the area of historic preservation by employees of Federal, State and Tribal Preservation Offices and Certified Local Governments. The Secretary’s award focuses on individual accomplishments instead of programs or projects.
“For me this award is really a reflection of the success and commitment on the part of our community. In 1996 Lac du Flambeau was one of the first 12 tribes to have a tribal historic preservation office,” Jackson said. “Over the years our community has been able to grow and build the program into a resource that has been used not only by our tribe, but by other tribes in our region. I think of this award as a milestone for this community as a whole – and of those community members who make historic preservation an important element of our tribe.”
As a winner of the Secretary’s award, Jackson was recognized for her contributions, creativity and expertise which exemplified the overall goals of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
Assisting in national efforts to enhance the relationship between tribes and the U.S. government, she was an active panelist on the Preserve America Summit held in New Orleans in October 2006 and helped write a position paper on the best practices – or a better approach – to working with tribes and making them a full partner in the National Historic Preservation Program.
Jackson, vice-chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s Native American Advisory Group, was honored in 2007 with the U.S. Forest Service’s “Connecting Citizens to the Land, Indigenous Earth Walker Award.” She received the award in recognition of her assistance to the Forest Service in the acquisition of the 240-acre area known as Indian Farms by the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin.
She also assisted Rebecca Maki, Lac du Flambeau tribal member, in the development of a guide to help Indian country “See the value of building historic preservation programs and assume the functions of the state and the jurisdictional benefits of assuming states functions within the boundaries of reservations,” she said. The guide, published by the Great Lakes Indian Law Center, University of Wisconsin Law School, is called “What is Tribal Historic Preservation, A Guide to Tribal Historic Preservation in Indian Country.”
Jackson also serves as the chief grant administrator for the Native American Graves Repatriation Act and is active nationally in the Native American Tribal Historic Preservation Officers organization as a board member and treasurer.
“Historic preservation seems like a dry word for what I do,” she said. “I don’t think what I do is about preserving something old. This is really about protecting who we are as Native people, continuing a life way and making sure resources are available for anyone interested in learning more about where they come from and passing that knowledge on from one generation to the next. I think what has always motivated me in this work is the fact that in seven generations my children’s children will continue to see the value in our culture and teachings – and will continue to pass them on.
“There are mechanisms within the NHPA to allow tribes to have a direct role in interpreting what is historically significant and important to protect. I think the NHPA encourages agencies to engage with tribes on a government-to-government basis. We have been battling for centuries to protect burial sites and sacred places and I think the NHPA gives us one of many tools to do that,” said Jackson. “Probably the most frustrating part of the process has always been the fact that tribes are constantly fighting agencies to protect places of importance rather than engaging in dialog to be partners in interpreting American history.
“One of the greatest things about preservation is that it is very diverse,” she said. “Locally we are working on a wonderful project called “A Legacy of Survival.” We are restoring one of the government boarding school buildings in Lac du Flambeau. It was a boy’s dormitory and was listed on the national register in 2005 as a nationally significant property.
“It is a challenging project because the boarding school era is an extremely difficult era for many of us and yet we felt it was critical to share the survival of history, tradition and culture – despite the governments attempt to eradicate native people and native connections with cultural identity,” she said.
The restoration project is currently in the final design phase and includes plans for an interpretative center, an archival storage facility for research and records storage with temperature and humidity control, and teaching traditional and cultural skills such as reed mat making, ricing and other gathering activities.
“The first phase of the project is complete – which was taking off the modern influence in the building and bringing the property back to it 1906 footprint. We are hoping to break ground for the restoration project in early spring with a grand opening by summer.
“We continue to do review and compliance, perhaps not as beautiful as a restoration project or an interpretative center, but it is the foundation of these programs. So we continue to work with state, federal and local agencies to ensure that historic places, sacred sites and traditional cultural properties are considered and protected as a matter of policy and procedure within our ceded lands,” she said.
More information about the Secretary of the Interior Historic Preservation Award can be found at www.doi.gov/initiatives/preservation.html.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/greatlakes/37105074.html
Thursday, January 1, 2009
American Indian cremation pit discovered on Georgia island
American Indian cremation pit discovered on Georgia island
By Russ Bynum
Associated Press / December 21, 2008
SAVANNAH, Ga. - Exposed by erosion at the edge of a crumbling bluff, the pit discovered beneath 2 feet of sandy dirt at first appeared to be a grave just long and deep enough to bury a human body.
Excavation by archeologists on Ossabaw Island revealed something more puzzling: just a few small bones, apparently from fingers or toes, mixed with charcoal, bits of burned logs, and pottery shards predating the arrival of the first European explorers by at least a century.
The find has led researchers to suspect American Indians used the ancient pit to burn bodies of the dead, making it a rare example of cremation among the early native inhabitants of the southeastern United States.
"It's a special sort of burial," said Tom Gresham, an Athens archeologist who worked on the excavation and serves on Georgia's Council on American Indian Concerns. "The way Indian tribes over time buried their dead varied tremendously. But cremations are fairly rare."
Located 6 miles off the Savannah coast, Ossabaw Island remains one of Georgia's wildest barrier islands. Hogs, deer, armadillos, and Sicilian donkeys roam the state-owned island's 11,800 acres of wishbone-shaped uplands. Live oaks tower above the remains of slave plantations and ancient Indian burial mounds.
Researchers have found evidence that humans came to Ossabaw more than 4,000 years ago. It's believed Indians at first may have used the island as a winter camp to feed on shellfish before moving inland in the spring.
Burial mounds on Ossabaw typically hold intact human remains, said Dave Crass, Georgia's state archeologist. Archeologists said yesterday that carbon dating on charcoal from the pit place it between 1290 and 1420 AD.
Archeologists initially thought the pit could be 1,000 to 3,000 years old, based on pottery shards they found. Though carbon dating revealed it to be more recent, the find is still considered prehistoric because it predates the arrival of the first European explorers in Georgia in 1520.
Crass said other prehistoric graves on Ossabaw tend to be bodies buried intact, in a near fetal position, in shallow bowl-shaped pits. "What makes this particular site unusual is that the individual was apparently cremated and then the remains were presumably taken from this pit and interred somewhere else," Crass said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/12/21/american_indian_cremation_pit_discovered_on_georgia_island/
By Russ Bynum
Associated Press / December 21, 2008
SAVANNAH, Ga. - Exposed by erosion at the edge of a crumbling bluff, the pit discovered beneath 2 feet of sandy dirt at first appeared to be a grave just long and deep enough to bury a human body.
Excavation by archeologists on Ossabaw Island revealed something more puzzling: just a few small bones, apparently from fingers or toes, mixed with charcoal, bits of burned logs, and pottery shards predating the arrival of the first European explorers by at least a century.
The find has led researchers to suspect American Indians used the ancient pit to burn bodies of the dead, making it a rare example of cremation among the early native inhabitants of the southeastern United States.
"It's a special sort of burial," said Tom Gresham, an Athens archeologist who worked on the excavation and serves on Georgia's Council on American Indian Concerns. "The way Indian tribes over time buried their dead varied tremendously. But cremations are fairly rare."
Located 6 miles off the Savannah coast, Ossabaw Island remains one of Georgia's wildest barrier islands. Hogs, deer, armadillos, and Sicilian donkeys roam the state-owned island's 11,800 acres of wishbone-shaped uplands. Live oaks tower above the remains of slave plantations and ancient Indian burial mounds.
Researchers have found evidence that humans came to Ossabaw more than 4,000 years ago. It's believed Indians at first may have used the island as a winter camp to feed on shellfish before moving inland in the spring.
Burial mounds on Ossabaw typically hold intact human remains, said Dave Crass, Georgia's state archeologist. Archeologists said yesterday that carbon dating on charcoal from the pit place it between 1290 and 1420 AD.
Archeologists initially thought the pit could be 1,000 to 3,000 years old, based on pottery shards they found. Though carbon dating revealed it to be more recent, the find is still considered prehistoric because it predates the arrival of the first European explorers in Georgia in 1520.
Crass said other prehistoric graves on Ossabaw tend to be bodies buried intact, in a near fetal position, in shallow bowl-shaped pits. "What makes this particular site unusual is that the individual was apparently cremated and then the remains were presumably taken from this pit and interred somewhere else," Crass said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/12/21/american_indian_cremation_pit_discovered_on_georgia_island/
Feds focus on artifact trade
Feds focus on artifact trade
S.D. men charged in sale of historical Indian items
December 28, 2008
Josh Verges
jverges@argusleader.com
The federal indictments of three men accused of trafficking in Native American artifacts reveal a lucrative trade centered on the illegal harvesting of a culture's buried history.
U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley said the indictments - the first of their kind in his two and a half years on the job - are partly a response to his conversations with tribal members.
"When I travel to Cheyenne River and Standing Rock ... this is very important to their culture and their tradition," he said.
Jackley said the investigation continues with the possibility of more indictments, and those already filed involve a "significant number of artifacts."
Brian Ekrem, 28, of Selby and Richard Geffre, 49, of Pierre allegedly sold three copper arm bands in violation of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act and were involved in the collection of many other artifacts, including beads, arrowheads and bone tools.
Scott Matteson, 60, of Fort Pierre is accused of buying red stone discs, arrowheads and a sandstone scraping tool, all of which had been removed from public and Indian lands.
Each man pleaded not guilty earlier this month in Pierre and was released without bond until his next court appearance. In each case, court records do not specify how the items were obtained or to which tribe they probably belonged.
Matteson said last week that he bought the items from an artifacts dealer and he did not know their origins. He said that transaction of less than $300 has resulted in what he hopes is only a temporary loss of his artifact museum.
He said federal agents recently confiscated his 38-foot trailer filled with Native American arrowheads, pots and other relics, which he has collected during the past 50 years.
"I scoured the country for those arrowheads. I put my life into this. I built this museum to go to schools to teach and show kids," Matteson said.
He said he began collecting arrowheads as a child when he would get farmers' permission to search their cornfields and keep an eye out while fishing with his father. When the Archaeological Resource Protection Act of 1979 restricted the collection of artifacts from riverbeds - navigable waterways are public land - he turned to auctions and gun shows to build his collection.
Looting on tribal lands
Federal laws prohibit the removal of human remains, funerary items and other sacred items from Indian land and public land and prohibits anyone from knowingly buying those items. The law does not stop landowners from digging or collecting those items on their own property, Jackley said.
At the Prairie Star art store in downtown Sioux Falls, owner Linda Boyd said she always is conscious of the federal laws, so she buys only modern items.
"We just deliberately don't buy old things," Boyd said. "It's something that we're always aware of."
Donna Rae Petersen, cultural programs administrator for Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said despite the laws, looting is common.
"We've got photos of where people actually go in from the side of the river banks" to take artifacts, Petersen said. "There's quite a market for those, and I know people sell those on eBay."
In a way, the federal laws are atonement for the mistakes of the past.
The damming of the Missouri River in the 1950s and 1960s flooded the valley, disrupting the burial places of many generations of Sioux tribes, USD anthropologist Brian Molyneaux said. The reservoirs covered the homelands of their ancestors and eroded the higher banks.
"This slow and steady destruction of the banks by wave action and ice gouging exposes traces of the old occupations - and tempts artifact collectors to loot the sites," Molyneaux said in an e-mail.
"As tribes hold every place and every remnant of the past as part of a living legacy - central to their religions and histories - each act of looting is yet another in a very long line of aggressive attacks against them, when they only want to live at peace in their own land."
Past prosecutions of illegal removal
Jackley said his predecessors have prosecuted a handful of cases under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act.
In a 2002 case, Vernon Cuny Jr. of Oglala removed shell beads from a thousand-year-old skeleton and discarded the remains, Jackley said.
Walter Digmann of Rapid City admitted that in 2004, he carved initials - his own, his daughter's and his dog's - alongside ancient petroglyphs and pictographs at Craven Canyon near Edgemont.
But those previous cases were not on the scale of the current prosecution.
Peterson is encouraged by the recent indictments. She said that with only one enforcement officer for more than 3 million acres of land, the Cheyenne Sioux have been unable to arrest looters on their own. Meanwhile, she worries, collectors are profiting off the sacred items of the tribe's ancestors.
She said she's found people selling amulets that contain parts of Native American children's umbilical cords.
"To think about someone trying to sell that, it's very disconcerting," she said.
Reach Josh Verges at 331-2335.
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20081228/NEWS/812280303/1001/news
S.D. men charged in sale of historical Indian items
December 28, 2008
Josh Verges
jverges@argusleader.com
The federal indictments of three men accused of trafficking in Native American artifacts reveal a lucrative trade centered on the illegal harvesting of a culture's buried history.
U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley said the indictments - the first of their kind in his two and a half years on the job - are partly a response to his conversations with tribal members.
"When I travel to Cheyenne River and Standing Rock ... this is very important to their culture and their tradition," he said.
Jackley said the investigation continues with the possibility of more indictments, and those already filed involve a "significant number of artifacts."
Brian Ekrem, 28, of Selby and Richard Geffre, 49, of Pierre allegedly sold three copper arm bands in violation of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act and were involved in the collection of many other artifacts, including beads, arrowheads and bone tools.
Scott Matteson, 60, of Fort Pierre is accused of buying red stone discs, arrowheads and a sandstone scraping tool, all of which had been removed from public and Indian lands.
Each man pleaded not guilty earlier this month in Pierre and was released without bond until his next court appearance. In each case, court records do not specify how the items were obtained or to which tribe they probably belonged.
Matteson said last week that he bought the items from an artifacts dealer and he did not know their origins. He said that transaction of less than $300 has resulted in what he hopes is only a temporary loss of his artifact museum.
He said federal agents recently confiscated his 38-foot trailer filled with Native American arrowheads, pots and other relics, which he has collected during the past 50 years.
"I scoured the country for those arrowheads. I put my life into this. I built this museum to go to schools to teach and show kids," Matteson said.
He said he began collecting arrowheads as a child when he would get farmers' permission to search their cornfields and keep an eye out while fishing with his father. When the Archaeological Resource Protection Act of 1979 restricted the collection of artifacts from riverbeds - navigable waterways are public land - he turned to auctions and gun shows to build his collection.
Looting on tribal lands
Federal laws prohibit the removal of human remains, funerary items and other sacred items from Indian land and public land and prohibits anyone from knowingly buying those items. The law does not stop landowners from digging or collecting those items on their own property, Jackley said.
At the Prairie Star art store in downtown Sioux Falls, owner Linda Boyd said she always is conscious of the federal laws, so she buys only modern items.
"We just deliberately don't buy old things," Boyd said. "It's something that we're always aware of."
Donna Rae Petersen, cultural programs administrator for Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said despite the laws, looting is common.
"We've got photos of where people actually go in from the side of the river banks" to take artifacts, Petersen said. "There's quite a market for those, and I know people sell those on eBay."
In a way, the federal laws are atonement for the mistakes of the past.
The damming of the Missouri River in the 1950s and 1960s flooded the valley, disrupting the burial places of many generations of Sioux tribes, USD anthropologist Brian Molyneaux said. The reservoirs covered the homelands of their ancestors and eroded the higher banks.
"This slow and steady destruction of the banks by wave action and ice gouging exposes traces of the old occupations - and tempts artifact collectors to loot the sites," Molyneaux said in an e-mail.
"As tribes hold every place and every remnant of the past as part of a living legacy - central to their religions and histories - each act of looting is yet another in a very long line of aggressive attacks against them, when they only want to live at peace in their own land."
Past prosecutions of illegal removal
Jackley said his predecessors have prosecuted a handful of cases under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act.
In a 2002 case, Vernon Cuny Jr. of Oglala removed shell beads from a thousand-year-old skeleton and discarded the remains, Jackley said.
Walter Digmann of Rapid City admitted that in 2004, he carved initials - his own, his daughter's and his dog's - alongside ancient petroglyphs and pictographs at Craven Canyon near Edgemont.
But those previous cases were not on the scale of the current prosecution.
Peterson is encouraged by the recent indictments. She said that with only one enforcement officer for more than 3 million acres of land, the Cheyenne Sioux have been unable to arrest looters on their own. Meanwhile, she worries, collectors are profiting off the sacred items of the tribe's ancestors.
She said she's found people selling amulets that contain parts of Native American children's umbilical cords.
"To think about someone trying to sell that, it's very disconcerting," she said.
Reach Josh Verges at 331-2335.
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20081228/NEWS/812280303/1001/news
Sunday, December 21, 2008
ACJACHEMEN SACRED SITE PANHE SAVED! U.S. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT SAYS TOLL ROAD NOT IN NATIONAL INTEREST
You can download the decision at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20081218_tca.html
For Immediate Release
December 18, 2008
Contact: Rebecca Robles rebrobles1@gmail.com
Angela Mooney D'Arcy angela.ucpp@gmail.com
www.savepanhe.org
ACJACHEMEN SACRED SITE PANHE SAVED! U.S. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT SAYS TOLL ROAD NOT IN NATIONAL INTEREST
PANHE, San Clemente, CA—Members of the Acjachemen Nation, the United Coalition to Protect Panhe (UCPP), and our allies in the environmental and social justice movements celebrate a tremendous victory today. The Native American sacred site Panhe and San Onofre State Park will remain protected thanks to a decision from the U.S. Department of Commerce issued earlier this morning. The Secretary of Commerce upheld the California Coastal Commission decision regarding the Transportation Corridor Agency's proposal to build a six-lane toll road in a popular state park and camp ground and one of the most historically significant sacred sites of the Acjachemen people.
"Our hearts are filled with gratitude today. I am grateful for the support of UCPP members and our allies. This victory would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of our tribal community members, Tribal Nations, and our allies such as the Native American Heritage Commission, The City Project, the Sierra Club, California State Parks Foundation and others," said Rebecca Robles, UCPP co-founder and co-director.
Angela Mooney D'Arcy, co-director for UCPP said, "Today is a significant day for Panhe, the Ancestors, the Acjachemen people, San Onofre, and the millions of people who enjoy this state park and camp ground every year. However, this process is not over. On behalf of the United Coalition to Protect Panhe, we call upon the TCA to suspend all litigation and federal lobbying activities and instead focus its resources on studying reasonable alternatives to the toll road."
Louis Robles, Jr., Acjachemen tribal member said of the decision, "The voices of our Ancestors have been heard. This is an incredible victory for Panhe and for Indigenous peoples everywhere."
Background:
UCPP is a grassroots coalition of Acjachemen people dedicated to the protection of our sacred sites. Panhe is an Acjachemen sacred site and is listed on the California Sacred Lands Inventory maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission, is eligible for listing as a Traditional Cultural Property, and is part of the San Mateo Archaeological District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. San Onofre remains one of the most popular state parks and is visited by nearly 2.5 million people every year. The toll road would have devastated Panhe and San Onofre. In February 2008, the California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 to block a toll road that would have caused severe and irreparable harm to Panhe and destroyed San Onofre, the fifth-most visited park in California. When explaining her decision before the crowd of over 3,000, Coastal Commissioner Mary Shallenberger said that the impacts of the proposed toll road on the Acjachemen people were reason enough to deny the road.
To obtain a copy of NOAA's press release on the Commerce Department Decision go to http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20081218_tca.html
For Immediate Release
December 18, 2008
Contact: Rebecca Robles rebrobles1@gmail.com
Angela Mooney D'Arcy angela.ucpp@gmail.com
www.savepanhe.org
ACJACHEMEN SACRED SITE PANHE SAVED! U.S. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT SAYS TOLL ROAD NOT IN NATIONAL INTEREST
PANHE, San Clemente, CA—Members of the Acjachemen Nation, the United Coalition to Protect Panhe (UCPP), and our allies in the environmental and social justice movements celebrate a tremendous victory today. The Native American sacred site Panhe and San Onofre State Park will remain protected thanks to a decision from the U.S. Department of Commerce issued earlier this morning. The Secretary of Commerce upheld the California Coastal Commission decision regarding the Transportation Corridor Agency's proposal to build a six-lane toll road in a popular state park and camp ground and one of the most historically significant sacred sites of the Acjachemen people.
"Our hearts are filled with gratitude today. I am grateful for the support of UCPP members and our allies. This victory would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of our tribal community members, Tribal Nations, and our allies such as the Native American Heritage Commission, The City Project, the Sierra Club, California State Parks Foundation and others," said Rebecca Robles, UCPP co-founder and co-director.
Angela Mooney D'Arcy, co-director for UCPP said, "Today is a significant day for Panhe, the Ancestors, the Acjachemen people, San Onofre, and the millions of people who enjoy this state park and camp ground every year. However, this process is not over. On behalf of the United Coalition to Protect Panhe, we call upon the TCA to suspend all litigation and federal lobbying activities and instead focus its resources on studying reasonable alternatives to the toll road."
Louis Robles, Jr., Acjachemen tribal member said of the decision, "The voices of our Ancestors have been heard. This is an incredible victory for Panhe and for Indigenous peoples everywhere."
Background:
UCPP is a grassroots coalition of Acjachemen people dedicated to the protection of our sacred sites. Panhe is an Acjachemen sacred site and is listed on the California Sacred Lands Inventory maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission, is eligible for listing as a Traditional Cultural Property, and is part of the San Mateo Archaeological District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. San Onofre remains one of the most popular state parks and is visited by nearly 2.5 million people every year. The toll road would have devastated Panhe and San Onofre. In February 2008, the California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 to block a toll road that would have caused severe and irreparable harm to Panhe and destroyed San Onofre, the fifth-most visited park in California. When explaining her decision before the crowd of over 3,000, Coastal Commissioner Mary Shallenberger said that the impacts of the proposed toll road on the Acjachemen people were reason enough to deny the road.
To obtain a copy of NOAA's press release on the Commerce Department Decision go to http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20081218_tca.html
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