Desecrating Sacred Sites
Written by: Allisia Joyce
For decades, countless Native American nations have existed.
These Native nations were acquired by the United States Government for land and
resources. Today, federal actions have taken a place in order to redress these
actions and provide Native Americans with their previously owned land and
sacred sites. Now that these unjusts have been nullified, the Natice American’s
sacred sites are now being desecrated. For years, Native American sacred sites
are now being desecrated for religious, economical, and educational reasons.
Some Native American sites have been destroyed in the name
of science. An example of this is Native American burial ground at Strawtown
Koteewi Park in Noblesville, Indiana. Here, an archaeologist team had
discovered human bones during an extravasation. After a discovery like this,
the law is to notify the Native American tribes but “Instead, they studied,
cataloged and boxed up the bone fragments. And for the next 10 years, Indiana
University-Purdue University Fort Wayne's archaeological team and the Hamilton
County Parks & Recreation Department continued digging aggressively — never
notifying tribal leaders.”1 Their actions destroyed the sacred site
and continued to weaken the relationship between Native Americans and the
government. Though this blatant ignorance for the law, the archaeologists
discovered over 500,000 items 90,000 being artifacts and 200 human bones.
In addition to the archaeological reasons, Native American
sacred sites have also been destroyed for economic reasons. Archaeological
significant sites have been demolished in order for development projects for
companies like WalMart. WalMart has been behind many contrevisoarl destruction
of sacred sites in order for their developments numerous times since the 1990s.
“Doing a little digging of our own, Facing South discovered that what happened
in Oxford and Fenton were not isolated instances. There have been numerous
cases involving destruction of Native American burial grounds and other
culturally significant sites by Wal-Mart.”2 In multiple instances, artifacts and remains
discovered while demolishing for developments were tossed aside, disregarded,
and the sites were dug less carefully. Cultural heritage sites are protected
and are supposed to be protected by federal laws. Unfortunately, there are not
particular legal rites for specific locations to not be destroyed. Though these
sacred and archaeologically significant sites are disregarded when they are
established, when the development sites are known to have remains and they are
approved to continue their development, they are asked to take precautionary
measures for the preservation of any artifacts and remains discovered.
Lastly, religious reasons have been ruled on the reasoning
behind the destruction of sacred Native American lands. Native Americans have
always tried to be persuaded to convert their faiths to other religions like
Christianity. Within Christiantiy, this religious group has invaded and
exploited sacred sites of Native Americans in the name of their religion. For
example, in Ohio, Native Americans clashed with a christianity group over the
exploitation of their historical site. There, the Christianity group took a
group to pray at the Great Serpent Mound. After learning of their plans, the
American Indian Movement of Ohio's executive director Philip Yenyo stated, “You
have no right and no business doing this on this sacred site where our
ancestors are buried."3The Serpent Mound is a national historic
landmark built by Native Americans and is no doubt that it is a sacred Native
American Indian site. Though, thousands of individuals have visited this site
from different religions as a way to share the site in appropriate ways.
The Native Americans nations have had their sacred sites
destroyed and exploited numerous times. This explanation has been done in
thought of being beneficial for educational , archaeological, and religious
purposes. Though, these reasons were only justified by those not a part of the
Native American tribes. The Native American tribes felt that the reasons behind
these wrong doings were not justified. It has taken decades for the Native
Americans to receive justice for the past’s negative actions towards Native
Americans. Now that they have received their lands back and laws to protect
them, they are now being desecrated for religious, archlegical, and economical
reasons.
Sources:
1. Rahman, Khaleda. “Native Americans Clash with Christian
Prayer Group at Ohio Sacred Site,” December 22, 2020. https://www.newsweek.com/native-americans-clash-christian-prayer-group-sacred-site-1556635.
2. Sikich, Chris. “How a Native American Burial Site Was
Desecrated in Hamilton County.” The Indianapolis Star. IndyStar, November 11,
2016. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/2016/11/05/native-american-graves-strawtown/91913202/.
3. Sturgis, Sue. “Wal-Mart's History of Destroying Sacred
Sites.” Facing South, June 9, 2016.
https://www.facingsouth.org/2009/09/wal-marts-history-of-destroying-sacred-sites.html.
4. Ohio History. “Serpent Mound.” Home, 2015.
https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museum-and-site-locator/serpent-mound.
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