Why Fight It?
It's better to lose a battle with honor, than to sell your heart.
Geronimo
Wouldn't you fight to protect your family's grave sites?
Not Artifacts - Not Abandoned
For many of us, these are our ancestors. Our ancestors' bones are not for sale. Our ancestors bones are not for display. Our ancestors possessions lovingly buried with them are not for trade on any market - legal or black. They never have been.
For others of us, these are the ancestors of our brother and sister nations, our friends, our neighbors.
For still others, we fight it because we would feel the same if it was our family someone was trying to displace. It's simply the right thing to do.
The government made many promises to our people
The only promise they ever kept was to take our land, and they did that.
Red Cloud
Pre-historic and even historic American Indian burial sites are often classified as "archeological sites" or "abandoned cemeteries." Those are PEOPLE buried in these sites. They were mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neigbors. They were not, are not "science projects" (archeological material). Their remains were not, are not museum displays. The funerary objects buried with them were not, are not "artifacts." Those objects were tokens of affection, badges of honor, and sacred items buried with the person much like members of dominant society leave bibles, rosaries, cards or notes, or other "tokens" in the coffin of their dead today.
The burial sites like Two Rivers were never, ever "abandoned." They were taken - sometimes by force, sometimes by treaty violation (encroachment), sometimes by out and out deceit, trickery and fraud.
If we start to bend on one tradition, then we cease to exist.
It Isn't Necessary
There is no earthly reason for the destruction of Two Rivers Mounds or any other burial or sacred site. Think about it. Our cities and towns are decaying from the inside out. Instead of reclaiming and clearing away the decay, developers simply find a section or so of undeveloped land, clear cut it, level it, and build from scratch. Why?
Last time we checked, a bulldozer could knock down concrete as well as trees. A backhoe could dig out an old basement as well as ancestors laying in their final resting place.
Last time we checked, wetlands could not be recreated in storm sewers. Wildlife couldn't survive car wheels.
The kind of development planned for Two Rivers - the kind of development that invariably uncovers burial and sacred sites - that kind of development is for one purpose and one purpose only - personal profit. Greed. Excess.
We can't buy back what we've already covered over. We can't buy back clean air, clean water. We can't buy back species that have already become extinct.
This development is not necessary. We heard a rumor that one of the current owners estimates the property is worth $10 million in revenues off the condominiums. We know the prospective buyer isn't even a resident of Tennessee. Our question is, who will profit here? Tennessee? Maybe for about 10% of that amount. Maybe. The county where Two Rivers sits? Maybe for 1% in taxes. The city? Only if the tourism industry holds, and in this economy that's a bigger gamble than slot machines.
It's a New Dawn - a New Day
For too long, our Indian nations have had to make concessions when it comes to burial and sacred sites located off Indian lands. They've faced a choice of protecting the living people of their nation or protecting the ancestors stolen away from them. Too often, they've had to sacrifice those ancestors for the well-being of the living. They've had to agree to allow the ancestors to be "vaulted over" with a layer of concrete beneath the surface of the earth that holds them, to be dug up and moved to another location, and far too often have had to watch in sorrow when they could do nothing to stop total destruction of burial and sacred sites.
We believe it's time to change that. This is the dawn of a new day. Two cultures can join together to do what's right. This is a call, a challenge to those of you who share a heritage with the nations, who share ancestors long ago laid to rest:
Our parent nations no longer have to stand alone outside the boundaries of tribal land. We can and should stand for them. Sign the petition. Write a letter. Make a call. Come to a protest. Show your loyalty to the nations of your ancestors. Do it today.
