雖然已經過去了小組禱告日這個清單顯示了我們很多，需要我們的保護和祈禱的聖地。
這可能是祈禱好送離您最近的站點，並集中在該地區。
然後將您的所有其他位置的祈禱。
我們強大的.........，讓我們團結是真實的。......
讓我們團結創造平衡......謝謝你，儀
MORNING STAR學院的
611的賓夕法尼亞大道上，SE
華盛頓，DC 20003
（202）547-5531
即時發布新聞聲明
六月16號至24號設置為2012年全國聖地禱告天
華盛頓，DC（12年6月15日）將舉行紀念活動和儀式，全國的土地從6月16日至6月24日，以紀念2012年的國慶日禱告的保護美洲原住民的聖地。
遵守在華盛頓特區舉行，6月20日（星期三）上午8時30分，美國國會大廈，西線的草地上（詳情請參閱以下頁面中按字母順序排列的列表狀態下的華盛頓，DC上市）。
下面列出的某些神聖的地方，他們所面臨的威脅，以及公眾紀念活動的時間和地點的描述。
本新聞稿中的一些突出的聚會，是教育的論壇，而不是宗教儀式，向公眾開放。
其他儀式，並可能在私下進行的。
除了下面列出的，還會有其他神聖的地方，都受到了威脅，並在不危及這個時候提供的紀念活動和祈禱。
“全國土著和非土著人聚集在這個時候冬至的儀式，以紀念神聖的地方，但每個人都可以履行這些珍貴的土地和水域所有的時間尊重他們的生活，他們支持，而不是讓他們受到傷害， “說，蘇珊顯示Harjo（夏延和Hodulgee Muscogee）。
她是總統的星晨學院，舉辦全國的聖地禱告日。
“儀禮進行太多的美洲土著人民合法鬥爭與聯邦機構所從事的方與開發商危害或破壞原住民的聖地，說：”女士Harjo。
“自從美國最高法院在1988年裁決的行動捍衛原住民的聖地，是沒有憲法或法律的原因，土著美國人是唯一在美國人民沒有到法院的大門，以保護神聖的地方或網站具體的儀式，說：“女士Harjo。
“必須公平和公正的問題。
土著民族已經拼湊保護的基礎上用於其他目的的抗辯。
有些機構可能發展正在考慮允許在表的地方，但大多數都沒有，原住民不被重視，是由於機構和開發人員都知道傾向於聽取缺乏量身定制的權利的訴訟，最高法院不會出現行動“。
在2008年參加總統競選，當時的參議員奧巴馬的一部分，他的美洲原住民的宗教信仰自由，文化權利和神聖的地方保護政策平台，解決了這個問題：“美洲原住民的聖地和站點特定的儀式上受到威脅的發展，污染，和破壞。
奧巴馬支持的法律保護聖地和文化傳統，包括土著祖先的墓地和教堂。“
許多原住民贊同總統候選人奧巴馬，因為他的位置上原住民神聖的地方，但已經絕望之間不斷擴大的差距候選人支持總統的政府做了什麼神聖的地方。
林務局，土地管理局，司法部和其他聯邦機構都在積極危及神聖的地方和原住民戰鬥，誰是試圖保護神聖的地方在司法和行政程序。
美洲印第安人的歷史最悠久，規模最大的國家印度組織，呼籲全國代表大會，國會頒布一項法令，將提供行動的原因，因為總統對印度神聖的站點和森林更新和加強現有的行政命令服務，利用現有的法律和政策，以保護美國原住民神聖的地方。
同時，林務局吹捧為完成神聖的地方，其報告草案，這是嚴厲譴責在印度的國家，經修訂的報告是保密的，反政府的立場部落諮詢。
“總統已經要求直接呼籲國會創建的訴訟權，這樣我們就可以保衛我們神聖的地方，以提高印度聖地的行政命令，並停止林務局和其他機構繼續其長達數十年的攻擊對原住民的神聖的地方，說：“女士Harjo。
“我仍然樂觀地認為，總統可以和會做這些事情，即使國會無法取得進展或地區。
再次，我們祈禱，這將是在過去的一年裡，我們被剝奪了公正的行政，立法和司法部門。“
聯合國土著人民權利問題特別報告員建議美國考慮退出聯邦許可證是允許使用再生污水的私人滑雪勝地的舊金山峰之上，這是許多土著民族的神聖造雪在西南地區。
特別報告員還呼籲對美國進行磋商，並返回到原住民的聖地。
“美洲土著人民感到鼓舞的是，總統改變了美國的立場，贊同聯合國土著人民權利宣言”，並期待著將其應用到美國的法律和實踐，Harjo女士說。“
“宣言”神聖的地方包括以下語句：
“第11條，1：土著人民的權利和發揚自己的文化傳統和習俗。
這包括有權保持，保護和發展自己的文化的過去，現在和未來的表現形式，如考古和歷史遺址，文物，設計，典禮儀式，技術，視覺和表演藝術，文學。
“第11條，2：各國應提供補救措施，通過有效的機制，其中可能包括恢復原狀，與土著人民共同開發的，他們的文化，知識，宗教和精神財產，沒有他們的自由，事先和知情的同意，或違反他們的法律，傳統和習俗。“
“第12條，1：土著人民有權展示，實踐，發展和傳授其精神和宗教傳統，習俗和儀式;有權保持，保護，並有機會在他們的宗教和文化場所的隱私保護的權利;的使用和控制其禮儀的對象和他們的遺骸遣返的權利。“
“第25條：土著人民有權維護和加強其特有的精神聯繫與他們歷來擁有或以其他方式佔有和使用的土地，領土，水域，近海和其他資源，並維護他們的後代在這方面的責任。”
2012年紀念活動的全國禱告日是第十保護美洲原住民的聖地。
2003年6月20日進行了第一次全國祈禱日，在美國國會大廈和全國性強調國會需要制定一個行動的原因，以保護原住民的聖地。
這仍然存在需要。
祈禱會提供以下神聖的地方，其中包括：
羚羊山。
Apache的飛躍。
獾兩個藥。
荒蕪之地的。
熊小山。
大熊湖。
熊醫學大堂吧。
黑爾斯。
黑色高地。
藍湖。
Boboquivari山。
Bunchgrass山。
洞岩。
行政摩崖石刻。
Gaviota的海岸的的沿海丘馬什聖域。
Cocopah葬典禮的理由。
冷水泉。
科羅拉多河。
哥倫比亞河。
鹿醫藥岩。
Dzil Nchaa，姒廠（山格雷厄姆）。
老鷹岩。
沼澤地。
Fajada小山。
Ganondagan。
大塚（塚底部）。
墨西哥灣。
哈雷阿卡拉火山口。
斧山。
山核桃地。
聖山。
華拉派的國家地貌，在如織和克羅齊耶峽谷。
印度的通行證。
Kaho'olawe。
卡莎 - Katuwe。
Katuktu。
Kituwah。
克拉馬斯河。
Kumeyaay樂隊葬儀式的理由。
蘇必利爾湖。
Luiseno祖籍景觀。
莫納克亞山。
迷宮。
醫學虛張聲勢。
醫學孔。
醫學湖高地。
醫學輪。
MIGI，ZII華盛頓罪（老鷹岩）。
Mokuhinia。
Moku'ula。
沙斯塔山。
山泰勒。
安裝Tenabo。
九裡峽谷。
奧克馬爾基老油田以及國家紀念碑。
Onondaga湖。
帕洛杜羅峽谷。
岩畫的國家紀念碑。
派普斯國家紀念碑。
普吉特海灣。
Puvungna。
金字塔湖石的母親。
Quechan葬典禮的理由。
彩虹橋。
響尾蛇島。
格蘭德河。
舊金山峰。
蛇丘。
斯諾誇爾米瀑布。
香草山。
薩特孤峰。
謝白衣禪村。
TSI-的荔枝Semiahmah村。
谷院長。
維蒙特小山。
Wakarusa濕地。
走女人的地方。
伍德拉夫小山。
狼河。
尤卡山。
進念鹽湖。
所有拆下的土著民族的神聖的地方。
所有水域和濕地。
美國亞利桑那州格雷厄姆山Dzil Nchaa姒廠
格雷厄姆山是神聖的，西方的Apache人，被稱為聖卡洛斯阿帕奇Dzil Nchaa姒廠。
這是一個神聖的風景，夾岸山靈居住和祖先的Apache休息。
這是一個地方的儀式和藥用植物和瀕危山的格雷厄姆紅松鼠。
Pinaleño山或山格雷厄姆的是一個獨特的生態寶庫。
這是最高的山在亞利桑那州南部，包括6個不同的生活區域從谷底到了登峰造極的10720英尺被稱為一個“天空之島”的生態系統，森林山格雷厄姆的首腦會議上，舊的增長是亞利桑那州的熱帶雨林相當於。
提供豐富的溫泉和高海拔草地的寄託和治療Apache的人生活在沙漠中的人的來源。
山清涼濕潤的特點，培育了18種不同的植物和動物的發現在世界其他地方都沒有。
在20世紀80年代，亞利桑那州和其合作夥伴在大學的時候，包括梵蒂岡和史密森學會，選擇安裝格雷厄姆的網站被稱為哥倫布項目有7個大型望遠鏡建造的天文台。
1988年開始，亞利桑那州的國會代表團成功獲得該項目從瀕臨滅絕的物種，環境，歷史保存和其他法律的豁免。
在1989年，美國亞利桑那大學被授予20年的特殊用途許可證的科羅納多國家森林公園和美國林務局，並撥款車手保持與公共利益的項目刷新，而無需遵守聯邦法律或法規，包括聯邦印第安法律旨在保護宗教信仰自由，墓地和文化屬性。
梵蒂岡的發言人表示，格雷厄姆山不是一個宗教或神聖的地方。
職工大學和遊說團體試圖破壞Apache的宗教領袖和從業者的聲譽，並保留至少一個的聖卡洛斯部落官員作證，山是神聖的或顯著的Apache人民。
幾十年來，Apache的人民，科學家，環保主義者和大學生們抵制亞利桑那州大學決定興建的望遠鏡山的山頂上。
雖然經常雲層密布望遠鏡觀看邊際和格雷厄姆山中排名第38位，在美國一個研究天文的網站，亞利桑那州的國會代表團和大學一直堅持的項目。
今天，建設望遠鏡和聯邦關閉山的頂部的褻瀆山和其與Apache人民的不可替代的關係。
的鬥爭仍在繼續格雷厄姆山先例的大學格雷厄姆山天文台的建設所造成的破壞，保護自然和文化遺產。
文化的保護和環保組織和受影響的部落保護的神聖山格雷厄姆的努力持續下去。
現在美國亞利桑那大學的天文台沒有一個有效的特殊用途許可證。
2009年4月19日到期的20年的聯邦許可證。
Coronado國家森林大學要求新的許可證，但是，截至2012年6月，決定是否授予許可證尚未作出。
林務局決定，它需要編制環境影響報告書（EIS）來收集信息，發放新的許可證的利弊。
大學極力反對到一個新的EIS。
從什麼山理聯盟和聖卡洛斯阿帕奇部落已經學會，林務局和大學的律師是“討論”的換發許可證的過程中，以確定最終的形式。
有許多的原因，林務局否認新的許可證。
有一些失效的許可證條款和條件中違反的大學。
許多這些條件應該導致吊銷許可證，但沒有。
所有的這些違規行為需要進行研究，以確定大學是否可以按照規則的新的許可證。
山格雷厄姆的條件發生重大變化的，自許可證被授予天文台與格雷厄姆山的宗教和生態的重要性更是不兼容的。
自許可證被授予格雷厄姆山“形”已被認為是有資格的國家列表，歷史悠久的地方放置。
此外，現在的林務局承認，格雷厄姆山是一個傳統的文化財產到西方Apache的人，並已採取措施，與傳統的Apache諮詢（儘管它有一個很長的路要走）山的神聖性，以及如何保護它。
大學可能會向國會宗教自由和法律環境的另一項豁免，，迫使林務局發出新的許可證。
山格雷厄姆的支持者將是最後聽到的遊說沿著這些線路，必須時刻保持警惕，以阻止這種情況的發生。
對於這些和許多其他原因，重要的是支持的Apache人民和格雷厄姆山，要求林務局否認大學新的許可證要求，現有的望遠鏡山格雷厄姆被刪除。
經過20多年的建設，大射電望遠鏡項目仍然是不完整的，從天文的角度來看它的重要性，實用性和功能非常嚴重的問題依然存在。
什麼是沒有問題的，是西方的Apache人民持續的罪行。
同樣明顯的是格雷厄姆的原生山紅松鼠的危險狀態。
由生物學家進行的最近一次調查估計，大約只有214這個獨特的物種，發現現在還有什麼地方在地球上，保持。
生物學家已經確定為最有可能在可預見的將來，在美國滅絕的哺乳動物之一。
在過去幾年中，幾起火災摧毀了頂山格雷厄姆。
戰鬥，以保護他們的望遠鏡以上的生態系統造成的損傷程度，其結果是，做山本來是可以避免的。
林務局決定瘦身的森林和以其他方式操縱設法保護剩下的，並恢復已損壞的生態系統。
目前在東部和南部的亞利桑那州大火燃燒強化的危險，將採取進一步的行動，保護野生動物和精神價值超過的結構。
山格雷厄姆現在比以往任何時候都更需要祈禱和努力。
氣候變化和其他的破壞模式受到嚴重威脅的生態系統是有一個機會，讓林務局否認新的許可證的望遠鏡，並要求他們刪除，有一個機會，以保護現有的生態系統，恢復一些什麼已丟失。
，神聖的山格雷厄姆繼續受到挑戰，而山是能夠保護自己，支持者可以幫助保護它。
有關更多信息，請摩理聯盟總裁羅傑·費瑟斯通，在greenfire@featherstone.ws，或黛娜熊，局長，Bear6@verizon.net
美國亞利桑那州舊金山峰
舊金山峰到Apache是神聖的，霍皮族，華拉派，納瓦霍人，亞瓦派和其他土著民族。
舊金山峰是許多神聖的生物，醫藥的地方和原始站點。
無數的儀式是在那裡進行醫治，幸福，平衡，紀念，通道和世界上的水和生命週期。
舊金山峰科科尼諾國家森林公園內的聯邦土地。
事實上，美國林務局表示，超過13部落在美國西南部的舊金山峰是神聖的，神聖的。
儘管有上述規定，林務局和民營雪碗滑雪場的滑雪勝地，它位於舊金山峰，計劃擴大的滑雪區，並使用回收污水進行人工造雪。
擴張和污水雪的計劃可能造成災難性的影響為母語的宗教和人民和整個地區的水和衛生的。
幾十年來，爬行的康樂發展十分關注原住民的精神領袖和部落官員，但目前的計劃遠遠超過了過去的活動在度假勝地。
雪碗滑雪場的計劃，以明確的74畝罕見的高山棲息地，是受到威脅的物種的家園，新的滑雪運行和升降機，增加更多的停車位很多，並建立一個14.8英里的埋地管道，以運輸了180萬加侖（每季度）廢水205畝的人工造雪。
儘管目前的抗議和絕食，雪碗滑雪場已經開始建設污水管道人工造雪，由林務局和美國農業部的批准和保護。
納瓦霍國家人權委員會主席杜安H. Yazzie前參議院委員會在印第安事務局2011年聯合國土著人民權利宣言“，美國實施的聽證會作證：”整合到現有的法律宣言“將集中實質的價值而不是把不必要的負擔程序的聖地。
此外，“宣言”強調，而不是僅僅依靠國內政策的國際政策。
立法解決印度法學會修復剝奪美洲原住民的聖地。“
聯合國特別報告員的建議，“美國政府在2011年進行全面檢討有關的政策和行動，以確保它們符合國際標準，關係到舊金山峰和其他土著人民權利美洲原住民的聖地，並採取適當的補救措施......政府應重新開始或繼續進行磋商與部落的宗教實踐是在舊金山峰滑雪場業務的影響，並盡力與他們達成一致的發展滑雪場。
直至該協議可以實現，直到在這樣一個協議的情況下，由政府主管機關的書面認定，政府應認真考慮暫停許可證的修改，雪碗滑雪場的滑雪區的最終決定修改是按照美國的國際人權義務。
“特別報告員強調，以確保政府機構的行動或決定的依據，不只是國內法的需要，同時也是國際標準，保護美國本地人練習和維護他們的宗教傳統。
特別報告員意識到現有的政府方案和政策諮詢與土著人民和政府決策的聖地，考慮到他們的宗教傳統。
特別報告員敦促政府建立這些方案和政策，以符合國際標準，並通過這樣做是為了建立一個好的做法，成為世界的領導者，它可以在保護土著人民權利的。“
原住民國和環保組織試圖，保護舊金山峰在法庭上。
在2006年，區法院裁定的發展。
第九巡迴上訴法院在2007年推翻了下級法院的判決和裁定的霍皮族部落，納瓦霍族和其他。
一個第九巡迴法院的三個法官組成的小組裁定，林務局違反了宗教自由恢復法“和國家環境政策法”，讓雪碗滑雪場度假村是神聖的面積超過100畝的罕見的高山生態系統，擴大到本機人民。
聯邦政府的這一決定提出質疑，並請求第九巡迴法院全體法官重審。
這樣的請願書很少理所當然的，但這個法院批准。
有人主張在前面的11名法官全體法官小組的第九巡迴法院在2007年12月帕薩迪納的情況下。
2008年8月8日，第九巡迴法院發出的全體法官小組的決定，判決有利於發展的。
原住民聯合國提交了一份美國聯邦最高法院發出調卷令。
2009年6月8日，最高法院拒絕作出審查決定。
部落試圖與新政府達成某種行政住宿，但這些努力都沒有取得成果。
保存峰聯盟隨後提起訴訟，控告聯邦政府的的NEPA問題上，林務局沒有充分考慮到下水道再生水的攝入。
這些同樣的法律和事實，前三個法官組成的小組發現，林務局未能遵守NEPA考慮。
但是，前執政黨，使非先例的全體法官法院在納瓦霍人的情況下。
儘管第九巡迴法院的事先推理，5月穆爾吉亞的美國地區法院法官否決了保存峰對所有罪狀聯盟。
此後不久，她的第九巡迴奧巴馬任命得到了證實。
保存的峰值聯盟的裁決提出上訴。
公開的敵對第九巡迴法院的三個法官組成的小組不僅否決了該聯盟，但表示，拯救峰聯盟和他們的律師曾濫用司法程序 - 與支持，這些人的指控沒有依據的。
雪碗滑雪場是目前原告和他們的義務律師後，個人的損害賠償量的約280000美元的，。
同樣的三個法官審理雪碗滑雪場的議案。
在此期間，雪碗滑雪場是追求和平示威者的起訴，並尋求從他們的“報應”。
有些的弗拉格斯塔夫社區的成員開始絕食。
然而，作為一個法律和實際問題，雪碗滑雪場是肆無忌憚地褻瀆神聖的舊金山峰。
有關其他信息，請聯繫：M.軍刺，霍華德的凶器律師事務所，PLC，在Tempe，亞利桑那州弗拉格斯塔夫，（480）838-9433或howard@shankerlaw.net
加州溫圖部落麥克勞德河 - Winnemem準備巴拉斯科諾斯
Winnemem北加州溫圖部落巴拉斯科諾斯，準備即將到來的成人禮，儘管反對由美國森林服務。
這個部落的要求林務局關閉400碼的麥克勞德河休閒運動划船四天的儀式6月30日至7月3。
林務局聲稱，它阻礙了印度事務的聯邦承認政策局和無法靠近河流，因為沒有聯邦政府認可的部落。
部落說，聯邦承認只有一個部落民族的聯邦關係。
在加利福尼亞州，有90％未包含在很短的認可名單，這是在裡根政府不發出警告的部落。
長記錄的歷史關係與美國政府的部落 - 那些簽署未批准條約和加州的判決卷，例如 - 即使是那些被排除，識別列表。
約有30萬個傳統的人，他們的人權儀式受到影響，因為這一政策。
根據美洲印第安人的“國際宗教自由法”，所有的聯邦機構有責任保護和保存美洲原住民的聖地和儀式，並徵詢原住民的傳統宗教領袖，不論他們的聯邦或非聯邦認可資格。
根據聯合國土著人民權利宣言“第11，12和25 Winnemem溫圖部落斷言儀式的土著婦女的權利。
Winnemem的行政Caleen西斯克是為即將到來的成人禮瑪麗莎·西斯克，誰將會成為下一個Winnemem行政要求強制關閉的麥克勞德河。
，雖然Winnemem溫圖寧願把重點放在監禮人，部落說：“必須繼續尋求司法公正的漫長道路上，它是什麼，是美國傳統的教育世界。”
與林務局官員不理想的會議後，行政西斯克稱的戰舞，或H'up科諾斯，儀式進行時，沒有什麼是可以做的，除了祈禱。
超過200人來自遙遠的北方，華盛頓州奧林匹亞，南至洛杉磯，支持與非暴力的封閉的Winnemem，與划船的事實，有一個儀式，並要求他們尊重。
百分之百的休閒船艇恭恭敬敬地轉過身來。
該部落說，“唯一的干擾，這非暴力的儀式是美國森林流浪者，誰每天通過兩輛車，一個是犬科動物的單位，，嗡嗡嗡我們與他們的船，輔助海岸警衛隊的支持;第三天（林務局）簡易程序關閉的關閉工作。“
在Winnemem說，林務局否認關閉，即使有：1）種族騷擾，干擾和健康和安全危害的醉酒，超速划船誰忽略了森林服務的“自願關閉”的明確證據; 2）的農場法案that gives authority to close areas and rivers for ceremony; 3) the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 4) the California AJR 39 joint resolution, which asserts that the state of California recognizes the Winnemem Wintu and urges the US Congress to recognize the Tribe; 5) an informal poll by the local Redding newspaper, which shows that the public supports honoring the right to ceremony, as well as overwhelming internet support; and 6) resolutions of support from Indigenous leaders at the 2012 UN Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Tribe calls the show of force and the federal recognition issue “smoke and mirrors, and when the smoke clears, the Tribe suspects that the US Forest Service under the influence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs may be acting on behalf of special interests — the Bureau of Reclamation and Westlands Water, the largest water corporation in the world, which owns the area that is sacred to the Winnemem.” Westlands wants the Shasta Lake Dam Project, which will raise the dam by several feet. The Tribe says the project “will drown all of the sacred places which currently come out of the water for a few weeks each year, such as the Women's Healing Place and the Puberty Rock, and they will be lost forever.”
Chief Sisk says the Winnemem plan to “go forward with a dignified Ceremony, shored up by the War Dance prayers and backed by the promise of 300 – 400 supporters returning June 29 to close the 400 yards of the McCloud for four days for Marisa's Coming of Age. It is important for Marisa to know what she needs to do in these difficult times as a leader. The times are not peaceful, so a peaceful and dignified ceremony cannot be a lost goal. The goal is to do the best one can and never give up being Winnemem.
“The Winnemem Wintu ask for the prayers of all the good people gathered for National Prayers for Sacred Lands for the human right to ceremony without distinction between federally recognized and unrecognized, and specifically for the right for tribal women to ceremony. Women are the sacred center of life. We ask for prayers that the Shasta Lake Dam will not be further raised and for protection of our sacred Winnemem River, the sacred women's doctoring places, the Puberty Rock and the Children's Rock, as well as the safe return of the Tribe's salmon from New Zealand to their home waters above the dam. We ask for prayers that the Winnemem way of life will continue on. Hee Chala Bes-ken!”
Contact: Winnemem Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk at caleenwintu@gmail.com or Misa Joo at misa@misajoo.com
California: Medicine Lake Highlands and Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains
Medicine Lake Highlands is a critically important tribal region located northeast of Mount Shasta in the mountains of northern California. The Pit River, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk, Wintu and other Tribes revere the area for its natural healing powers and for its connections to their Tribes' longstanding histories. For example, the Pit River Tribe believes that the Creator and his son bathed in Medicine Lake after they created the earth, and the Creator imparted his spirit to the waters. Because of the Lake's sacredness, Tribes from the coast of California to the Rocky Mountains use the surrounding area as a training ground for medicine people. The Highlands is also sought after by geothermal energy companies that have applied for development permits from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service (USFS), which manage the area.
Since the 1990s, the Pit River Tribe, Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and other supporters of the protection of the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands in northeastern California have been challenging the BLM and USFS failure to undertake adequate environmental review and tribal consultation for industrial-scale energy development in the Highlands. On November 6, 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the BLM and USFS original extension of Calpine Corporation's geothermal leases in the Highlands violated both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The agencies should have prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before renewing the leases and should have included a “no action” alternative. Because the agencies violated NEPA and NHPA, both the five-year lease extensions and the subsequent 40-year extensions were undone. The Court also said that BLM and USFS violated their fiduciary duty to the Pit River Tribe by failing to complete an EIS before extending the Calpine leases.
When the case was sent back to the trial court to implement the Ninth Circuit's decision, the trial judge ruled that, notwithstanding the invalidation of the lease extensions, the 1988 leases were still intact. In response, Stanford Environmental Law Clinic (SELC) filed an appeal challenging the lower court's interpretation, which went directly against the original Ninth Circuit ruling. At the new hearing on March 10, 2010, the SELC attorneys maintained that the leases, originally issued in 1988 for a duration of five years, and renewed once, expired by their own terms when the 1998 renewals for 40 years were declared null and void by the Ninth Circuit judges.
In August 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court Order indicated that while the Fourmile Hill lease extensions and the project decision remain unacceptable, the underlying leases themselves, granted to Calpine in 1988, continue to be in force. The Federal Agencies (Forest Service and BLM) will need to do a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) involving more environmental review and consultations with the Tribe in order to evaluate whether or not these leases should be extended.
The court ruled that the agencies retain full discretion regarding the Fourmile Hill lease extensions. Therefore, all parties, the Pit River Tribe, BLM, United States Department of Justice and Cal Pine Energy Corporation continue negotiations on how a new EIS will look.
The culturally-important Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains and the surrounding lands in Traditional Pit River Indian Territory are in jeopardy of being destroyed, due to a plan to build 49 monolithic windmill energy turbines and related roads and ancillary, interconnections, operations and maintenance facilities in the heart of this region. Hatchet Ridge Wind Company, an affiliate of RES America Developments and Renewable Resources, is initiating its windmill construction project. The project would significantly and negatively alter over 100 acres of this natural region and include up to 49 turbines on steel towers with a height of up to 503 feet. Ancillary facilities would include a substation, an overhead transmission circuit, a switching/interconnection facility and a control room/operations and maintenance building. Access roads would be built, including 6.5 miles of 20-foot-wide permanent roads, and one mile of additional roads.
The project would have severe negative impact on sacred and cultural places, as well as on the winged and four-legged beings. Native people could no longer access particular ceremonial plants on Hatchet Mountain as part of their cultural practices and they do not support the project. The visual impact of the towers on the ridge destroys the integrity of the setting of this sacred area. Birds traditionally important to the local tribal culture, such as eagles, ospreys, ducks and geese, cross the ridge and would be shredded by the blades. Migration routes of deer across the ridge could be disrupted. Sound quality issues would also affect the serenity and isolation of the ridge, disrupting human experiences in the area.
Bunchgrass Mountain is just north of the area impacted by the project. An ancient trail runs along the top of the ridge top, connecting the Pit River to Goose Valley and sites downriver; in addition to regular travel, this trail is used to reach remote areas during vision quests and such quests continue among some young men. Clearly, the proposed windmill project will have severe negative impacts on the natural world, as well as the well being and cultural rights of Native peoples. Although these turbines have been built and are up and running, we are firm that this project is in violation of federal law and the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites and their allies have protested against the project, will continue to do so and will not sit idly by and allow the destruction of important sacred and cultural regions to take place.
For more information on the efforts to protect the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands and Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains from the building of massive energy power facilities, contact the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites: Radley Davis, Pit River Nation, 530-917-6064; Mark LeBeau, Pit River Nation, 916-801-4422; and James Hayward, Sr., Redding Rancheria, 530-410-2875
California: Needles – Ft. Mojave Indian Tribe, at the Topock Maze area
Saturday, June 23, 2012, at 6:00 am
The Ft. Mojave Indian Tribe remains in urgent need of prayer to protect the Maze and surrounding sacred areas along the Lower Colorado River. The Maze is both a physical manifestation and a spiritual pathway for the afterlife. It has always been, and will always be, an integral and significant part of the Mojave way of life, beliefs, traditions, culture and religion. The Mojave will observe the Prayer Day at the Topock Maze site.
Pacific Gas & Electric, by its ownership and operation of the Topock Natural Gas Compressor Station near Needles, California over the last 50 years, has polluted the groundwater under and around the Maze with hexavalent chromium, a toxic chemical that can cause numerous human and ecological health problems. PG&E, BLM and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control proceeded with Interim Measures to contain and investigate the contamination, which included the construction of a new Treatment Plant within the Maze area and the drilling of about 150 wells in California and Arizona, on either side of the Colorado River.
These, taken together, create continuing cumulative adverse impacts to the Mojave people, its sacred landscape and tribal religious beliefs.
In 2005, Ft. Mojave filed a state lawsuit seeking the removal of the plant, total restoration of the sacred area, an environmental baseline of prior to the plant's construction and any other actions that could serve to remedy the desecration. Settlement negotiations concluded in November 2006 aimed to achieve each of these goals and secure other remedies including repatriation of portions of the sacred area to tribal ownership, sensitivity training for PG&E employees and contractors, a written public apology and reimbursement of past and future Tribal costs.
In 2011, during selection of the Final Groundwater Remedy, DTSC made a finding that the Topock Cultural Area is an historic resource under state law and the BLM determined that a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) or property of traditional religious and cultural significance within a 1,600 acre Area of Potential Effect is eligible for listing on the National Register under Criterion A, as part of what tribes have identified as a larger area of traditional and cultural importance.
Yet, DTSC and BLM failed to consult with the Tribe on the final mitigation measures, assuming they knew what was best for all the Tribal Governments along the Lower Colorado River and how the sacred area could be best protected. DTSC's failure to complete a legally adequate environment document, and failure to live up to certain terms in its settlement agreement with the Tribe, is the subject of a second lawsuit brought by the Tribe under state environmental laws. In its approval of the Final Groundwater Remedy, BLM has continued to put off dealing with mitigation for the continued impacts of up to 170 new wells and related infrastructure into the Tribe's sacred area, putting the sustainability of the Tribe's cultural and spiritual practices of the Tribe at further risk for decades to come.
Prayer is needed:
1) for DTSC and PG&E to swiftly bring to conclusion their settlements with the Tribe, and recognize the sovereignty of the tribal government and the agency's public policy goals of truly inclusive and transparent decision making,
2) for BLM and DOI to follow through on promises to require meaningful mitigation for tribal cultural concerns during groundwater and soils remedy design and to improve its management of the area,
3) for additional sacred land in this area to be repatriated to the Tribe and
4) to ask for forgiveness for any continuing desecration that may occur until the offending facilities, including the interim measure treatment plant, are finally removed and until other required restoration of the landscape occurs.
This issue is national in scope: the Maze has been officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978 and is formally recognized as nationally significant. Moreover, the failure of state and federal agencies to fully consider direct, indirect and cumulative impacts to Native Sacred Places during pollution remediation activities remains a national problem requiring Congressional Oversight. Pray that this oversight occurs at the highest levels.
Contact: Nora McDowell-Antone, Tribal Topock Project Manager, at (928) 768-4475, NoraMcDowell-Antone@fortmojave.com, or Courtney Ann Coyle, Tribal Attorney, at (858) 454-8687, CourtCoyle@aol.com
California: Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, Luiseño Ancestral Origin Landscape
Pechanga is in need of urgent prayer to continue to assist it in protecting the Luiseño Ancestral Origin Landscape from the Granite Construction Company's proposed Liberty Quarry. The proposed quarry would be located on a sacred mountain within the Luiseño People's sacred place of origin. Parts of this Origin Landscape have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 as the Murrieta Creek Archaeological Area (exva Temeeku) and are also listed in the state's Sacred Lands File Inventory.
After many public hearings before the Riverside County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, the quarry was DENIED this year! However, the Board on a 3:2 margin voted to APPROVE the inadequate environmental document under CEQA, potentially laying the groundwork for Granite to come back in the near future with a revised application to mine. This unusual turn of events means that the Origin Area is still at risk.
Granite wants to blast out the mountain, home to the Kammalam (ancestors in the form of rocks), so that it can produce aggregate. The quarry could operate for 75 years and, even after reclamation, would remain a permanent scar within the sacred landscape. It would also be located at the headwaters of the Santa Margarita River, the last remaining free flowing river to reach the Pacific Ocean in southern California, and be adjacent to the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, which also includes part of the Origin Landscape.
The quarry would kill the mountain and forever disturb the sanctity of this incredibly beautiful and scenic area, located next to the reservation and at the doorstep of the City of Temecula.
In addition, the quarry would also pose environmental hazards to the Pechanga Community: air and water quality, visual and noise impacts, fire and emergency response, as well as sever a key wildlife linkage to and from the reservation. The Tribe was not consulted by the County of Riverside on these impacts during environmental review.
Pechanga respectfully requests prayer that:
1) Efforts to permanently prevent mining in any form at this location are successful and that
2) Tribal efforts to have this Origin Landscape formally recognized and protected will be successful.
For more information on the efforts to protect the Luiseño Ancestral Origin Landscape from the Liberty Quarry, contact Paul Macarro, Pechanga Cultural Coordinator at: pmacarro@pechanga-nsn.gov or (951) 770.8102 or Jacob Mejia at: jmejia@pechanga.com or (951) 770.2595.
California: Redlands – California-Pacific Committee on Native American Ministries of The United Methodist Church at the University of Redlands, Saturday, June 16, at 7:15 am
The California-Pacific Committee on Native American Ministries (CONAM) of The United Methodist Church will have prayer for sacred places on the Quad at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. The public is welcome to join on Saturday, June 16, at 7:15 am
Contact: Suanne Ware-Diaz at soozware@yahoo.com or (571) 236-7274 for more information.
California: Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians – Burial & Ceremonial Grounds –
Traditional Mourning Ceremony, Saturday, June 23, Ocotillo Area, 7:00 pm
For over two years, the Viejas Band has been waging legal, political and public relations battles to save tribal burial grounds and ceremonial sites from destruction by local and federal agencies. Viejas has positive news to report one on front and heartbreaking news to report on another.
Padre Dam Site:
Over this last year, with your help, we made much progress towards protection and repatriation of a burial ground and ceremonial site on Padre Dam Municipal Water District property, which sought to develop a reservoir and pumping station on the site.
Settlement of the litigation is close at hand in which the site would be restored, protected in perpetuity and the land repatriated to the Tribe. Viejas is deeply grateful for the support it has received from the local community, Governor of California, Native American Heritage Commission and the Courts, which have sided with the Band on many different levels.
Viejas respectfully requests prayer for:
1) An appropriate alternative location for the project to be secured by the District,
2) The soils previously taken off site by the District to be returned to the property in as gentle a manner as possible and as quickly as possible, and
3) Forgiveness that the impacts occurred and that they will never happen again.
Ocotillo Express Wind Farm:
Meanwhile, Viejas and other tribes have been forced to defend our ancestors from further attacks and potential destruction of tribal cultural resources, sacred places and burial grounds by a number of major renewable energy and other utility projects in the local mountains and deserts that would forever alter the Cultural Landscape of the Kumeyaay Nation. These include: the Sunrise Powerlink Project, Tule Wind Project, Ocotillo Wind Express Project, Eco Station Project, Imperial Solar Project and others.
Just last month, over the strong objections of Kumeyaay Bands and the Quechan and Cocopah Peoples, local community members, environmental groups, unions, recreationists and state park supporters, the massively destructive Ocotillo Wind Express Facility was approved by the County of Imperial and the BLM. Ocotillo Express (Pattern Energy) wasted no time and immediately began clearing, scraping and destroying the area and would not agree to hold off on construction until a TRO could be heard.
The so called “Refined” Project would include 112 industrial-sized wind towers up to 460 feet high, 42 miles of new roads, 81 miles of undergrounded fiber optic cable, a 31-acre substation and switchyard, operation and maintenance building and other infrastructure such as parking, ponds and laydown areas that were not part of the NEPA and CEQA documents. The project Right of Way is across about 12,000 acres of federal public land and is surrounded by designated wilderness, Cultural Preserves, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and shares a 5-mile border with Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
The project is within a valley that slopes from the mountains to the desert, and is mostly undeveloped Class L (Limited Use) lands. One ceremonial site, the Spoked Wheel Geoglyph, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2003, long before any wind project was proposed, and includes the whole viewscape from the site. The valley is ringed with sacred mountains — Coyote, Signal, Sombrero and Pinyon — and is used as a teaching area for tribal youth. Over 35,000 person hours were spent surveying and recording the massive amount of physical archaeology present at the site. The BLM relied solely on archeological values during the survey and only at the end of the NHPA Section 106 process acknowledged that the project area is a TCP within a larger TCP. Tribal Values considerations were an afterthought in the environmental documents and consultation was severely rushed due to arbitrary deadlines set by BLM to meet federal wind subsidy deadlines currently set for the end of 2012.
On June 23, Viejas and other Kumeyaay Bands will be holding a traditional Mourning Ceremony in the Ocotillo Area. The ceremony will begin at 7:00 pm and continue through the morning. The tribes will grieve for what has been lost and bring attention to efforts to save what is left of the area where the ancestors are laid to rest.
Viejas respectfully requests prayer that:
1) Preliminary Injunctions will issue to halt the destruction,
2) The BLM accepts historic human remains detection dog teams as a legitimate tool for identifying and avoiding ancestral cremation areas,
3) Subsidies and loans from federal and other entities are NOT granted for the project,
4) The Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) is NOT extended by Congress, and
5) That something good for the Tribal Peoples of our region comes out of this experience in the form of UNITY, DOCUMENTATION and RESPECT for traditional religious practices.
For more information, please contact: Robert Scheid, Viejas Public Relations Director, at (619) 659-2316 or by email at: rscheid@viejas-nsn.gov
Colorado: Boulder – Native American Rights Fund – Sunrise Ceremony, Wednesday, June 20
Please join us for a Sunrise Ceremony beginning at 7:00 am, on Wednesday, June 20, on the front lawn of the Native American Rights Fund, 1506 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado. The program and prayer service will last about one hour, followed by a potluck breakfast. Community members have been invited to speak, as well as other NARF staff. Speakers will be followed by a moment of silence to show concern for the sacred places that are being damaged and destroyed today.
In the United States, Native Americans are more closely tied to the land than any other group, yet the increasing exploitation of natural resources and population expansion has caused previously undisturbed tribal sacred places to become vulnerable to destruction. As part of its mission, the Native American Rights Fund has long advocated for sacred site protection, religious freedom efforts and cultural rights. Recently, NARF's Board of Directors has asked us to expand our efforts to protect lands that are sacred and precious to Native Americans.
Please show your solidarity for the protection of sacred places by joining us for the June 20 program. We ask you to bring food and/or beverages to share at the completion of the program.
Please join us! If you have any questions please contact Rose Cuny at 303-447-8760.
Kansas: Lawrence – Wakarusa Wetlands, Haskell Medicine Wheel – Open to the Public
Wednesday, June 20, at SUNRISE
Haskell Wetland Preservation Organization (WPO) and Save the Wakarusa Wetlands will observe National Prayer Day at SUNRISE, June 20th, beside the Wakarusa Wetlands at the Haskell Medicine Wheel, south of Lawrence, Kansas. Haskell WPO is a Native student organization. Save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Inc., is an association of local supporters, including Haskell Indian Nations University, Washburn University and Baker University alumni, students and supporters from all parts of the Lawrence community.
The ceremony will be held at the medicine wheel, where participants will erect a lodge pole at sunrise to mark the exact position of the Summer Solstice.
The event is open to all who wish to add their prayers to save this sacred place from the highway builders. Participants will ask for the protection of the Wakarusa Wetlands (aka, Haskell-Baker Wetlands), threatened by an eight-to-ten lane highway project approved by the Army Corps of Engineers, but delayed by a federal law suit filed by WPO and a consortium of supporter groups, including Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Jayhawk Audubon, Kansas University Environs, Save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Kansas Sierra Club and KU EcoJustice.
Update:
On January 20, 2012 a panel of federal appeals court judges heard oral arguments challenging the state's efforts to construct 8-10 lanes of traffic across wetlands that once served as the primary refuge for Native children resisting cultural genocide. The written opinion could come at any time, but may not be released before mid-summer. For more than two decades, Haskell students and their allies have managed to block efforts to pave this sacred place, which was “surplussed” away from Haskell during the Eisenhower termination era. More than two thirds of Haskell's campus was “given away” by BIA officials at the time.
Last year, Republican Governor Sam Brownback announced that $192 million in Kansas taxpayer funds was being allocated for completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway. The SLT began as a scheme to help local developers turn the southern edge of Lawrence into a regional shopping mecca. In recent years, the SLT project has been hijacked by trucking interests that dream of turning two nearby closed military bases into national hubs for NAFTA product distribution. Thus, the SLT has mushroomed into an eight-to-ten lane behemoth promoted as key infrastructure. This latest version of the old frontier booster fable that the metro area is destined to be “the next Chicago” has all the officials of nearby towns clamoring for completion of the SLT.
Ironically, while in Congress, then-Senator Brownback sponsored a US apology to Native Americans for past egregious actions, but it specifically prohibited Native Peoples from taking any legal action that would provide redress or remedy for any of the actions, causing many Native people to call it a “hollow apology.”
About 600 acres of the Wakarusa Wetlands were located directly south of the dorms at Haskell Institute, the nation's largest and most tribally diverse federal off-reservation boarding school. This last major remnant of the wetlands was a crucial refuge where Native children from all across the country survived sustained government efforts to exterminate their cultures. Indian students took refuge in the Wakarusa Wetlands refuge — where they could speak their languages, sing their sacred songs and conduct ceremonies and dances that were federally punishable with starvation and jail time — and refused to let school authorities “kill the Indian” in them.
Parents and other tribal leaders camped, sometimes for weeks or months, beside these wetlands on the north bank of the Wakarusa. They were awaiting permission from school officials to let them reclaim or at least visit their children. These elders used the Wakarusa Wetlands as an outdoor classroom to pass on final lessons about healing and other traditional knowledge.
The wetlands quickly became the most essential place where Haskell students could get news about family and friends. The wetlands was where they heard about what was happening back home in the crucial era of allotments and the “surplussing” of their homelands. The wetlands also provided the least censored opportunity to send messages home whenever someone speaking a related language arrived in camp. Otherwise, the children had to learn enough English to send a letter home by way of school censors, and then further screened by the Indian agent when it reached their reservation, and again modified when the interpreter read their message to parents who often could neither read nor speak English. This place is soaked in Indian history, layered with the stories of Native elders and is the last resting place of some who came to Haskell in its darkest days. Spirit release ceremonies and clandestine burials took place in these wetlands. The disappeared and runaways are remembered here.
This sacred wetland, a place between land and water, is the largest intact trace of the original Wakarusa Bottoms, an 18,000-acre prairie wetland environment. It existed for thousands of years before white school officials obtained federal funds to drain it. Before Haskell opened, this place supplied Native Peoples of the region with valuable medicinal plants, important ceremonial items, waterfowl, furbearers and other relatives central to their ways of life.
Elders have said the Creator caused the course of the Wakarusa River to go directly east toward the rising sun, in sharp contrast to the other rivers in the region, as a sign of the abundant gifts to be found there.
Despite massive efforts to drain the wetlands in the early twentieth century — and Haskell's loss of all but a few acres of this property during the termination era — the Wakarusa Wetlands, like Haskell Indian Nations University itself, has survived and flourished. The entire historic Haskell campus, including the Wetlands, is being considered for designation as a National Historic Heritage area, but should have been declared a Traditional Cultural Property long ago.
Contact: Cleta Labrie cletalabrie@gmail.com President of Haskell Wetlands Preservation Organization (WPO); Dr. Dan Wildcat (WPO faculty adviser) at dwildcat@sunflower.com; or Michael Caron at (785) 842-6293 or by email at mcaron@sunflower.com with Save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Inc. Friend the Wetlands Preservation Organization on FACEBOOK.
Nebraska: Lincoln – National Congress of American Indians, Mid-Year Session
Nebraska State Capitol Grounds, North Plaza
Tuesday, June 19, Sunrise Ceremony
The National Congress of American Indians will sponsor a Sunrise Ceremony on Tuesday morning, June 19, at the Nebraska State Capitol grounds on the North Plaza. The NCAI is conducting its 2012 Mid-Year Session in Lincoln, Nebraska, June 17-20.
The NCAI Sunrise Ceremony will be held as a part of the observances and ceremonies during the National Days of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places, from June 16 through June 24.
The public is invited to attend NCAI's respectful observance to honor sacred places, sacred beings and sacred waters, and all those who care for them and protect them from harm. Participants are asked to arrive no later than 7:00 am
For information about NCAI's Sunrise Ceremony, contact NCAI Deputy Director Robert Holden, 202.466.7767, email: rholden@ncai.org
New York: Ganondagan State Historic Site, at the Great White Pine Tree of Peace
Wednesday, June 20, at Noon
At Ganondagan State Historic Site in New York, there will be a Gahnonyoh (Thanksgiving), starting at Noon, on Wednesday, June 20, to protect sacred places and to promote world peace. “We invite spiritual leaders and the general public to join us on that day as we offer words of Thanksgiving or Gahnonyoh in Seneca,” says G. Peter Jemison (Seneca), who is the Caretaker of Ganondagan.
“We will gather before noon near the Great White Pine at the head of the Trail of Peace to offer words of Thanksgiving to the Creator,” says Jemison. “The event is open to the general public and all are welcome, but no photography, please.”
Ganondagan is the site of the seventeenth century town, once the capitol of the Seneca Nation, which was destroyed by the French in 1687. Today, it is the only historic site in New York dedicated to a Native American theme. Ganondagan is sacred to the Seneca People because nearby are the remains of Jikonhsaseh the Mother of Nations, who was the first person to accept the message of Peace brought by the Peacemaker, who united the Haudenosaunee or Five Nations: Seneca Nation, Cayuga Nation, Onondaga Nation, Oneida Nation and Mohawk Nation.
Contact: G. Peter Jemison at (585) 924-5848 or by e-mail at mailto:pjemison@rochester.rr.com
New York: New York City – Prayer of Remembrance for Sacred Places
Thursday, June 21, 1:00 pm
Hudson River at Bethune & West Streets
A Prayer of Remembrance for Sacred Places will take place on Thursday, June 21, at 1:00 pm The group will gather at the Hudson River in New York City at Bethune and West Streets.
The event is sponsored by Spiderwoman Theater, The Silvercloud Singers and the American Indian Community House.
Contact: Murial Borst-Tarrant at mborst1@msn.com or 551-208-3536.
Ohio: Peebles – Serpent Mound, Wednesday, June 20, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Newark – Newark Earthworks, Great Circle entryway, Thursday, June 21, 6:00 am/8:00 pm
Chillicothe – Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Mound City
Thursday, June 21, 7:00 pm
Oregonia – Fort Ancient Earthworks, Saturday, June 23, 5:30 am
In Ohio, there will be gatherings at the four major remaining earthworks sites to honor the brilliant achievements of the Indigenous Peoples who lived in the Ohio Valley 2,000 years ago and built enormous earthen architecture. Gatherings will occur near Peebles, in Newark, near Chillicothe and near Oregonia to acknowledge the original landscape, what has been lost and all that continues into the future. The public is invited to observe the National Day of Prayer to Protect Sacred Places at these places.
Two thousand years ago, Indigenous Peoples built more than 600 groups of earthworks, each group consisting of several large earthen geometric shapes with specific purposes. The earthworks were built by design, near creeks and rivers. Many of the earthworks are enormous, measuring from 20 to more than 50 acres in area, with walls varying from 3 to 30 feet tall and connected by walled earthen roadways; the design guided the Peoples through the earthworks along a ceremonial road. Large circles with entryways facing the east, squares with rounded corners and entryways, octagons with eight entryways, huge rectangular flat-topped or oval mounds, tall conical mounds and ceremonial roadways mark the Ohio Valley as a sacred landscape. In addition to using geometric forms to convey meaning and purpose, the builders used a standard unit of measure and other mathematical consistencies in the spacing of the earthworks. Distances between earthworks at Newark can be measured in multiples of 1,054 feet.
The Newark Earthworks consisted of four large earthworks built 2,000 years ago over a four-square mile area by the Peoples of the Hopewell Culture. Two remain preserved. The Octagon Earthworks is an astronomical calendar tracking the 18.6-year lunar cycle, marking the lunar standstills in spectacular moonrises. It was built in the shape of a circle and an octagon connected by a walled ceremonial road. The nearby Great Circle is itself nearly 1,200 feet in diameter and possibly had many uses, as a ceremonial center, for formal games such as stickball and as places of gathering. The Ellipse was a walled cemetery with many burial mounds and contained a number of earthen circles open to the east before it was excavated to clear the land for canals, railroads and heavy industry. The Wright Square stood between the Great Circle and the Ellipse cemetery, but has been destroyed by development.
Of the four major remaining sections of the Newark Earthworks, all but one have been acknowledged as sacred places and have become state parks/monuments. However, the Octagon Earthworks are leased to a private country club and open to the public only four days per year. The Ellipse cemetery is owned privately and currently being prepared for sale as an industrial park.
Serpent Mound is one of two effigy mounds in Ohio, and one of the largest anywhere in the world. Its iconic aerial outline is known far beyond the borders of this state. Nearly a quarter of a mile long, the undulating coils made of three foot tall earthen walls curve from a spiral tail to a head pointing across the Brush Creek valley at the point on the southwestern horizon where the sun sets on the summer solstice. Recent scholarly work points to a construction of this unique mound at about 1070 CE, later than many of the more geometric enclosures around Ohio. The landscape is also marked by geological interest. A “crypto-explosion” crater cradles the arc of the valley where Serpent Mound lays on a bluff; the result of a meteorite that folded the crust of the earth when it struck 250 million years ago. This bluff of sandstone also has interest, as a visitor may walk down to creek side and look back up at the point where the “serpent's head” ends, and see a snake headed prow of stone poke out over the water below.
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park is made up of five sites in and around the city of Chillicothe, Ohio, where once could be seen the largest concentration of earthworks complexes anywhere in the world. Mound City is the name for the central enclosure, a rounded-cornered square that was one of the ancient cemeteries alongside the Scioto River where the National Park Service has its visitor center. Almost entirely destroyed during World War I by the construction of training camps and industry to support the war effort, it was rebuilt from the original foundations and above surviving parts of mounds during the 1930s and in another major effort during the 1960s and 1970s. An alignment along three of these reconstructed mounds, pointing towards a southwestern corner gateway of Mound City, is a dramatic view, and casts the entire complex into vivid contrast. The possible astronomical alignments for this and other units, such as the Hopewell Mound Group west of the city, are still being studied, using both old maps and surveys, and non-intrusive studies that can trace where walls and their associated clays still can be seen.
Fort Ancient is a vast, irregular enclosure with three miles of wall atop a pair of plateaus next to the Little Miami River valley. Military language was attributed to this location by early European occupants, who named features “North Fort” and “South Fort,” but later studies show that combat and conflict seem to have been entirely absent from this sacred site. Fort Ancient is the archaeological label used for a later cultural phase in Ohio, but much of the site was built around the same time as Newark and Chillicothe. Reflecting pools of water were built into the site to create a sense of place – world above, world below. More recent surveys have shown that four compass aligned stone mounds in the “North Fort,” were built alongside the traces of a circle, perhaps a “woodhenge” where posts in a circle aided in astronomical calculation and prediction. Fires were built on top of stone mounds into the historic era. From one of those stone mounds, on mornings near the summer solstice, a particular entryway to the northeast pours a path of light across the leveled plaza, until it paints the surface of the mound.
Many of the major earthworks in Ohio are now under consideration for designation as World Heritage Sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and a proposal is being prepared. For additional information about the Earthworks, see: http://whc.unesco. org/en/tentative lists/5243/. For more information about Solstice events see: www.AncientOhioTrail.org
Tennessee: Muscogee “Creek” Citizens Gathering, The Great Mound of Mound Bottom, Saturday, June 23, 10:00 am
Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area, Lebanon, Wilson County
Sunday, June 24, 2:00 pm
A Muscogee “Creek” Citizens Gathering will take place on Saturday, June 23, at 10:00 am, at The Great Mound, Mound Bottom archaeological site, in observance of the National Sacred Places Prayer Days. “This gathering will be ceremonial to honor and lift up the Mound,” said Melba Checote-Eads (Muscogee), who is organizing the gathering. “We will observe a day of prayer, singing, gifting and feasting at Mound Bottom, as is Muscogee tradition. Water will be furnished by Muscogee Citizens.”
Ms. Checote-Eads asks people to reserve a space by calling her at 615-765-5854, to bring a bag lunch and beverage, to wear hiking boots and to meet in the picnic area: “We will meet at the picnic area near the Harpeth River beside the Mound. We will walk one mile to the Mound and transportation will be provided for those unable to make the walk.” The group will tour the Mound at 10:00 am with Ranger Gary Patterson.
Mound Bottom is located in Cheatham County along the horseshoe bend of the Harpeth River. Mound Bottom is approximately one mile north of the point where US Route 70 crosses the Harpeth River, on the outskirts of Kingston Springs, Tennessee. The site is managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation as part of Harpeth River State Park. The Great Mound of Mound Bottom dates to the Mississippian era (900 AD-1300). Mound Bottom is about 100 acres and is nearly surrounded by the Harpeth River.
The flat-topped embankment that dominates the view from Mace Bluff is the largest of at least 14 Mounds that remain. The Great Mound stands 25 feet tall and 47 square feet in area; the remains of an earthen ramp leading from the plaza to the top of this Mound can still be seen. The entire complex, which is believed to have included hundreds of houses, was surrounded by an earthen wall topped with a palisade of upright logs. Mound Bottom likely began as a ceremonial meeting place around 950 AD and grew to become a fortified city with a population numbering in the thousands. Mound Bottom was part of a vast trade network that extended to Native Peoples in the Great Lakes area, Gulf Coast region and the Appalachian Mountains.
There also will be a gathering at the Sellars Farm on the following day, Sunday, June 24, at 2:00 pm The Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area is located in Wilson County: off Hwy-70 left at Poplar Rd., in Lebanon, Tennessee. The group will tour the Mound area and walk the path around the Mound, which is near Spring Creek, a tributary of the Cumberland River. Participants are asked to bring a bag lunch.
Ms. Checote-Eads describes the Mound site as covered with trees, grasses and wild flowers. It was a large village and trade area during the Mississippian Period. In 1939, a farmer dug up four statues, which were made between 600 and 800 years ago. Two of the statues are in the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and have been featured on a US postage stamp.
For additional information, contact: Melba Checote Eads at melbaceads@dtccom.net or 615 765-5854.
Washington, DC: United States Capitol, West Front Grassy Area
June 20, Wednesday, at 8:30 am
The observance in Washington, DC, will take place at the US Capitol on the West Front Grassy Area on Wednesday, June 20, at 8:30 am The public is invited to attend this respectful observance to honor sacred places, sacred beings and sacred waters, and all those who care for them and protect them from harm. The observance will take the form of a talking circle.
All are welcome to offer good words, songs or a moment of silence for all sacred places, beings and waters, especially for those that are being threatened, desecrated or damaged at this time.
This observance is organized by The Morning Star Institute, a national Native rights organization founded in 1984 and dedicated to Native Peoples' cultural and traditional rights, including religious freedom and sacred places protection. The observance will be conducted by Mary Phillips (Omaha & Laguna Pueblo).
Contact: The Morning Star Institute at (202) 547-5531, Suzan Shown Harjo at suzan_harjo@yahoo.com or Mary Phillips at trumpetnative@aol.com or 510-205-4501.
Washington: Snoqualmie Falls, at the Cedar Tree, Friday, June 22, 11:30 am
Water is universally a Sacred Being, part of sacred ceremonies in all faiths and religions.
Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State is a place recognized as Sacred for thousands of years. For the Snoqualmie and other Tribes of the Puget Sound region, this is the Transformer's gift to the People.
It is a 268-foot waterfall listed on the Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. Over two million people come from all over the world to visit Snoqualmie Falls annually. Puget Sound Energy owns and operates a hydroelectric facility there. Snoqualmie Falls is impacted and desecrated by diversion of a significant portion of the water from the river by a hydroelectric facility before it can complete the Sacred Cycle of reaching the base of the falls and creating a healing connection by its transformation to legendary mists that connect worlds, carry prayers, and deliver blessings.
Puget Sound Energy, a public utility, owns and operates a public park located there. A popular hiking trail down to the viewing area near the base of the falls continues to be closed to visitors until sometime in 2013. Access to the base of the Falls, specifically a spiritually powerful location, is blocked.
On Friday, June 22nd, at 11:30 am, there will be a gathering, rain or shine, at Snoqualmie Falls.
We welcome anyone who would like to respectfully join together in Spirit for observance of our Sacred Places across the globe that are in need. Join us and others that are gathering to pray, each in our own way for their protection.
“When one is uplifted, we all are uplifted”.
“We give thanks for the teachings of the Sacred. We give thanks that we are still here. We give thanks for the breath of the Spirit”.
We pray for one another.
In the Spirit of Snoqualmie Falls, Lois Sweet Dorman.
Contact: Lois Sweet Dorman, Snoqualmie, at nightfishes@qwest.net.
World Peace & Prayer Days – Gray Horn Butte (Devil's Tower), June 16
Medicine Wheel, June 17
Grand Tetons, June 18 – 21
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 21
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe: “Once again I am sending my voice to all Nations upon Mother Earth, those who can hear my sincerity with their hearts – - unite together at our Sacred Sites creating an energy shift of a great healing on this June 21st. We need to see and listen to the wamakas'ka (the animals) who are more than ever now showing their sacred color of white, there are so many. This color represents the direction of when physical life now goes into the spirit journey. They are trying to warn us to pay attention to our responsibilities as a Global Nation. In order to protect the remaining sacredness that is trying to survive upon Mother Earth, which includes even our own children, we now have no choice but to unify and make positive decisions together.
“To honor the birthplace of World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites where it all began in 1996, we will gather at Gray Horn Butte, aka “Devils Tower” on June 16th. Peace Riders who made the '96 journey from Canada to
Gray Horn on horse back, will join us and offer prayers as well and plant a Peace Pole reading “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in 4 different languages. We will do the same offering on June 17th at Medicine Wheel. On June 18th we will gather at the Grand Tetons to begin one of the many events of WPPD throughout the world. The Grand Tetons will be the beginning of a four day event to bring attention for the need to protect the last of the true wild Buffalo (bison) that exist in Yellow Stone National Park, they are in constant danger of being massacred when caught off park property.
“On June 21st I will pray with thousands of People at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As part of the various gatherings and celebrations that will be held as part of the Sacred Earth Gathering in Aldeia Nova Terra during the month of June parallel to the conference, there will be a very special ceremony to celebrate World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites along with various representatives of the Brazilian indigenous tribes and spiritual leaders from different nations. The intent is to honor this day not only in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but to also invite the participation of other WPPD activities worldwide to join though simultaneous acts of prayer and song so as to be united spiritually on this June 21st to celebrate the 2012 World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites. Onipiktec'a (that we shall live).”
Contact: Paula Horne-Mullen, Wolakota.org http://wppd2012.com/
The Morning Star Institute, 611 Pennsylvania Ave., SE #377, Washington, DC 20003 (202) 547-5531
