WASHINGTON ? After talk of a BIA initiative to protect sacred lands, a mid-level Interior Department official went before a newly organized coalition of tribal leaders meeting in the DOI building and offered more stringent sentencing guidelines for convicted desecrators.
Although the gesture fell short of expectations, some attendees said they would welcome it.
The Native American Sacred Lands Forum brought together leaders of the main Indian lobbying organizations, such as the National Congress of American Indians and the United South and Eastern Tribes, activists and native intellectuals, including Keynote speaker Vine Deloria Jr. It was coordinated by the Sacred Lands Protection Coalition. Assistant Secretary of Interior Neal McCaleb was invited but begged off, citing a scheduling conflict.
In McCaleb’s place, Jim Pace from Interior’s Office of the American Indian Trust announced that the U. S. Sentencing Commission had just adopted a resolution increasing penalties for the desecration of “Cultural Heritage Resources.” The guidelines would make sure that repeat or organized offenses and severe damage would be punished at a felony level.
The resolution offered a definition of sacred objects that appeared to cover most sensitive pre-Contact sites, including “pre-Columbian material or architectural sculptures or murals.” It was not clear, however, whether “murals” covered pre-historic petroglyphs.
At a panel discussion featuring Deloria’s sarcastic wit and an impassioned outburst from NCAI President Tex Hall, speakers expressed a consensus that the native sacred lands protection effort should remain informal, to avoid “meddling” from the BIA.
“One of the problems in communicating with federal agencies is that you can’t define ‘sacred’, so we back away from it,” said Deloria. “We can’t leave the meaning of ‘sacred’ to personal preference. How are we going to present the sacred to a society that has no idea of the sacred?”
Hall, taking off his trademark cowboy hat, warned, “The protection of sacred sites has to be tribally driven.” He called for a pan-tribal effort. “There must be unity or they’re going to pick us off,” he said. “We just can’t think of ourselves any more.”
The weeklong series of Washington meetings is intended to launch a grass root Sacred Lands Protection Coalition, called for by an NCAI resolution. Several delegates scheduled a meeting with U. S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., to discuss the draft of a sacred land protection bill.
“Every year, our sacred sites are being destroyed,” said Hall. “For hundreds of years our people have fasted and performed Sun Dances and other ceremonies at sites throughout this country. These sites are sacred to us and integral to our Creation stories and religions. It is our hope that this forum will start raising awareness in the nation’s capital about the importance of our sacred lands, the well-being of our cultures, and the health of the earth.”