Burial Sites Not For Development
By Jean Bedell-Bailey
In an article printed on the front page of the Lakota Journal July 23-30, the article read “Burial mounds distributed at development site”. I am appalled at big money developers who still encroach on our burial sites around the country with such disrespect.
If our oppressors are not still taking thousand acres from the Shoshone people, then they are wanting to cement over our burial sites or put a golf course. I believe we, as Native nations, are the endangered species along with the American eagle who other non- Indians assume is no longer endangered.
Maybe the reason is some high corporate interest in lowering and controlling eagle habitats, so other species needed on the consumer food change can survive. The thing is, we, are not a valued commodity and we, as Native people, need to rally together across this nation against people who wish to destroy our grandfathers and grandmothers resting places. What if we as Native people were to build a condominium complex over one of their burial sites?
Please call South Dakota senator Daschle or write your congressman to put a stop to developers on the north bay of Lake Albert in Hamlin County, South Dakota and other sites like the stronghold in the Badlands. Please call the States Attorney Justin Hyde of Hamlin County.
According to this current situation at this proposed development site, even the South Dakota historical society in South Dakota informed the developers that the site contained burial mounds.
According to the article (Ernestine Chasing Hawk and Waylon Pretends Eagle, Lakota Journal Staff writers): “The developer was told not to develop the site, but he walked right into it himself and did it anyways,” said Mike Fosha, an archaeologist with the South Dakota State Historical Society.
After putting a stop to the using of an old mission cemetery being advertised as a tourist attraction on a reservation, I was really saddened to know people and even some of our people need to know that “The resting place of our grandfathers and grandmothers represents who we are as Indian people. Their resting place is our self-identity and a representation that we as Native people exist and we’re the real caretakers of this turtle island before open non-native expansion began, it is a sacred place”.
What we need to do is to form a signature list against developing this area and request the federal government or the State of South Dakota to preserve this area or let the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe manage the area. Another possibility is for carbon data testing of the burial site, which would validate this area as a burial site.
NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.
In an article printed on the front page of the Lakota Journal July 23-30, the article read “Burial mounds distributed at development site”. I am appalled at big money developers who still encroach on our burial sites around the country with such disrespect.
If our oppressors are not still taking thousand acres from the Shoshone people, then they are wanting to cement over our burial sites or put a golf course. I believe we, as Native nations, are the endangered species along with the American eagle who other non- Indians assume is no longer endangered.
Maybe the reason is some high corporate interest in lowering and controlling eagle habitats, so other species needed on the consumer food change can survive. The thing is, we, are not a valued commodity and we, as Native people, need to rally together across this nation against people who wish to destroy our grandfathers and grandmothers resting places. What if we as Native people were to build a condominium complex over one of their burial sites?
Please call South Dakota senator Daschle or write your congressman to put a stop to developers on the north bay of Lake Albert in Hamlin County, South Dakota and other sites like the stronghold in the Badlands. Please call the States Attorney Justin Hyde of Hamlin County.
According to this current situation at this proposed development site, even the South Dakota historical society in South Dakota informed the developers that the site contained burial mounds.
According to the article (Ernestine Chasing Hawk and Waylon Pretends Eagle, Lakota Journal Staff writers): “The developer was told not to develop the site, but he walked right into it himself and did it anyways,” said Mike Fosha, an archaeologist with the South Dakota State Historical Society.
After putting a stop to the using of an old mission cemetery being advertised as a tourist attraction on a reservation, I was really saddened to know people and even some of our people need to know that “The resting place of our grandfathers and grandmothers represents who we are as Indian people. Their resting place is our self-identity and a representation that we as Native people exist and we’re the real caretakers of this turtle island before open non-native expansion began, it is a sacred place”.
What we need to do is to form a signature list against developing this area and request the federal government or the State of South Dakota to preserve this area or let the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe manage the area. Another possibility is for carbon data testing of the burial site, which would validate this area as a burial site.
NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.
posted by Bobbie Hart O'Neill @ 3:12 PM
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