Post by Okwes on Jul 2, 2006 16:02:27 GMT -5
It's time for Congress to allow Native peoples to protect sacred
places
Posted: June 16, 2006
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today
Native American sacred places are under attack. Now.
Not in the distant past. Not when it's too late to do anything about
it.
Now.
Sacred places are being desecrated and damaged today.
When something can be done about it.
The problem is that Native Americans cannot go through the door of
the First Amendment to defend sacred places. The Supreme Court
slammed that door and locked it 18 years ago..
Congress has the power to make a new key.
In fact, the Supreme Court said, if Congress wants to protect Native
American sacred sites, it needs to enact a statute to do so.
What has Congress done to make that key? It's thought about it. For
18 years.
Talk about your deliberative body.
The churches of non-Native peoples in the United States are
protected under the First Amendment, even if they are located on
public lands.
These sacred places are Native American churches.
But, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment does not
provide a right of action for Native peoples to defend Native
natural churches.
That case pitted a Native sacred place in northern California
against a U.S. Forest Service logging road. The loggers won.
The Supreme Court threw the Indian policy question to Congress in
1988.
And Congress is still thinking.
Federal agencies pretend to scratch their heads, too, even in those
cases where they have existing laws to keep them from harming
historic, environmental, archaeological and burial areas, and to
authorize them from preventing others from doing the injuries.
State agencies and other interests ignore the existing legal
authorities because they are aware that the feds are looking the
other way.
It seems that no one is breaking a sweat to use the threads of
present law while Congress is contemplating the entire fabric.
If Congress enacted a simple, no-frills right of action allowing
Native peoples to get into the courthouse, sacred places would begin
to receive the attention they need and deserve. Native peoples would
be part of serious determinations.
Federal, state and private interests would use the laws they are
more familiar with, in order to avoid the new law from being used.
But, Congress is still thinking about that right of action.
In the meantime, Hickory Ground in Wetumpka, Ala., is being
desecrated and damaged. The orange sandy earth of its ceremonial
grounds is being dug up today - along with millennial evidence of
Muscogee (Creek) and other peoples - and being readied for a
fantasyland casino in the name of Creek culture.
And Congress is thinking.
The Cheyenne, Lakota and other Native peoples who hold traditional
ceremonies at Bear Butte are about to have a biker bar and rock
concerts move in next door. The surrounding county of Meade in South
Dakota - home of the annual Sturgis motorcycle roundup - is about to
grant liquor and amphitheater licenses and doesn't seem to care
about the effect of loud music and drunken drivers on the sanctuary
of this holy mountain.
And Congress is thinking.
The Maze in southern California is being desecrated today. Mount
Graham and the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona are being desecrated
today.
Native peoples who revere these holy places are begging agencies and
courts and the public to help now.
All of these sacred places are in peril:
* Etowah Mounds in Georgia.
* Little Creek Mountain in Tennessee.
* Medicine Lake Highlands in northern California.
* Ocmulgee Old Fields in Georgia.
* Petroglyphs in New Mexico.
* Snoqualmie Falls in Washington.
* Wakarusa Wetlands in Kansas.
These sacred places are running out of time.
In 2002, the National Congress of American Indians identified other
endangered places: Indian Pass, which was named on the 2002 list of
America's Most Endangered Historic Places; Coastal Chumash lands in
the Gaviota Coastal region in southern California; Yurok Nation's
salmon fisheries in the Klamath River; Berry Creek, Moore Town and
Enterprise rancherias' lands; the sacred Puvungna of the Tongva and
Acjachemen peoples; and the sacred Katuktu (Morro Hill) of the San
Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.
Others that are not out of danger are the Hualapai Nation landforms
in Truxton and Crozier canyons of Arizona; the Boboquivari Mountain
of the Tohono O'odham Nation; the Carrizo/Comecrudo lands flooded by
Amistad Lake and Falcon Dam in Texas; the Badlands, Black Hills,
Medicine Wheel and Missouri River in the Plains; the Pipestone
National Monument and Cold Water Springs in Minnesota; and the Elwha
and Tulalip burial grounds in Washington.
These sacred places need and deserve attention now.
It is long past time for Congress to stop thinking and to act.
Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of
the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for
Indian Country Today.
places
Posted: June 16, 2006
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today
Native American sacred places are under attack. Now.
Not in the distant past. Not when it's too late to do anything about
it.
Now.
Sacred places are being desecrated and damaged today.
When something can be done about it.
The problem is that Native Americans cannot go through the door of
the First Amendment to defend sacred places. The Supreme Court
slammed that door and locked it 18 years ago..
Congress has the power to make a new key.
In fact, the Supreme Court said, if Congress wants to protect Native
American sacred sites, it needs to enact a statute to do so.
What has Congress done to make that key? It's thought about it. For
18 years.
Talk about your deliberative body.
The churches of non-Native peoples in the United States are
protected under the First Amendment, even if they are located on
public lands.
These sacred places are Native American churches.
But, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment does not
provide a right of action for Native peoples to defend Native
natural churches.
That case pitted a Native sacred place in northern California
against a U.S. Forest Service logging road. The loggers won.
The Supreme Court threw the Indian policy question to Congress in
1988.
And Congress is still thinking.
Federal agencies pretend to scratch their heads, too, even in those
cases where they have existing laws to keep them from harming
historic, environmental, archaeological and burial areas, and to
authorize them from preventing others from doing the injuries.
State agencies and other interests ignore the existing legal
authorities because they are aware that the feds are looking the
other way.
It seems that no one is breaking a sweat to use the threads of
present law while Congress is contemplating the entire fabric.
If Congress enacted a simple, no-frills right of action allowing
Native peoples to get into the courthouse, sacred places would begin
to receive the attention they need and deserve. Native peoples would
be part of serious determinations.
Federal, state and private interests would use the laws they are
more familiar with, in order to avoid the new law from being used.
But, Congress is still thinking about that right of action.
In the meantime, Hickory Ground in Wetumpka, Ala., is being
desecrated and damaged. The orange sandy earth of its ceremonial
grounds is being dug up today - along with millennial evidence of
Muscogee (Creek) and other peoples - and being readied for a
fantasyland casino in the name of Creek culture.
And Congress is thinking.
The Cheyenne, Lakota and other Native peoples who hold traditional
ceremonies at Bear Butte are about to have a biker bar and rock
concerts move in next door. The surrounding county of Meade in South
Dakota - home of the annual Sturgis motorcycle roundup - is about to
grant liquor and amphitheater licenses and doesn't seem to care
about the effect of loud music and drunken drivers on the sanctuary
of this holy mountain.
And Congress is thinking.
The Maze in southern California is being desecrated today. Mount
Graham and the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona are being desecrated
today.
Native peoples who revere these holy places are begging agencies and
courts and the public to help now.
All of these sacred places are in peril:
* Etowah Mounds in Georgia.
* Little Creek Mountain in Tennessee.
* Medicine Lake Highlands in northern California.
* Ocmulgee Old Fields in Georgia.
* Petroglyphs in New Mexico.
* Snoqualmie Falls in Washington.
* Wakarusa Wetlands in Kansas.
These sacred places are running out of time.
In 2002, the National Congress of American Indians identified other
endangered places: Indian Pass, which was named on the 2002 list of
America's Most Endangered Historic Places; Coastal Chumash lands in
the Gaviota Coastal region in southern California; Yurok Nation's
salmon fisheries in the Klamath River; Berry Creek, Moore Town and
Enterprise rancherias' lands; the sacred Puvungna of the Tongva and
Acjachemen peoples; and the sacred Katuktu (Morro Hill) of the San
Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.
Others that are not out of danger are the Hualapai Nation landforms
in Truxton and Crozier canyons of Arizona; the Boboquivari Mountain
of the Tohono O'odham Nation; the Carrizo/Comecrudo lands flooded by
Amistad Lake and Falcon Dam in Texas; the Badlands, Black Hills,
Medicine Wheel and Missouri River in the Plains; the Pipestone
National Monument and Cold Water Springs in Minnesota; and the Elwha
and Tulalip burial grounds in Washington.
These sacred places need and deserve attention now.
It is long past time for Congress to stop thinking and to act.
Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of
the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for
Indian Country Today.