Nantucket Sunrise is Sacred to Wampanoag

The Wampanoag Indian Tribe of Massachusetts have spiritual practices that require them to visit sacred sites with a clear view of the rising sun when they perform special ceremonies on the solstices and upon the death of elders. The Cape Wind project would compromise the natural integrity of a sacred site for the Wampanoags by industrializing their view of the rising sun.

The Cape Wind Farm’s plan is to build 130 wind turbines, each over 400 feet tall. The project would be several miles from the Cape Cod shoreline covering a 25-square-mile section of federal land.

Action is urgently needed before February 29, 2010. Please write to Secretary Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, Department of the Interior, 1849 C St NW, Washington, DC 20240; or email Secretary Salazar at feedback@ios.doi.gov; or telephone the Department at 202-208-3100.

Please make the following points:
1. The Wampanoag, People of the First Light, require an unobstructed view of Nantucket Sound in order to view the rising sun on solstices when they perform their sacred ceremonies and upon the passing of elders.
2. Wampanoag ancestral remains are buried in the Sound and the wind turbines would dis

For more information contact: the Wampanoag.

Other resources, including an excellent photo of the sound with proposed Wind Turbines, can be found at: The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

The groups fighting the development include the Chumash Indian Wishtoyo Foundation, the Center for Biological Diversity, the TriCounty Watchdogs and the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.

Mati Waiya of the Wishtoyo Foundation says the development threatens Chumash sacred sites and the endangered condor whose habitat would be gravely disturbed. The condor is central to the perpetuation of Chumash culture and ceremonial practices. The magnificent bird features prominently in Chumash oral histories and in sacred cave paintings.

You can read more about the issues surrounding the lawsuit and the destructive development in the press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

Aboriginal Elders fear the blasting will endanger sacred stones, fragile plants and animals central to their culture. The quarrying will contaminate their water flowing from a brook that feeds into the Swan River.

The site complex at Red Hill in the Darling Range includes petroglyphs, ceremonial sites, grinding stones and ochre deposits used in spiritual practices. Of special interest is the Guardian Ancestral Owl Stone. You can learn more at Perth Independent Media.

For more information please visit the Susannah Valley website.

Petrochemical development has been threatening other sacred sites in Australia. The Dampier Rock Art, Burrup Peninsula located in Murujaga, Australia was included on the Sacred Sites International 2005 Most Endangered List. The site was again listed on the SSIF 2008 List of Sites because it is still highly endangered.

A proposed off-shore wind farm is proposed several miles off of Nantucket Sound and the Wampanoag are protesting the proposal as interfering with tribal religion. The development project calls for 130 wind turbines, each over 400 feet in height. The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag claim the turbines will block their view of the sunrise and interfere with their ancestral burials on Horsehoe Shoal.

The Wampanoag are hoping to get Nantucket Sound listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. Such a designation would come with new regulations preserving views of the sun rising over the Nantucket Sound horizon thus assuring the continuance of their sacred practices.

You can read more about this in the San Francisco Chronicle article “Tribes Upset Over Wind Turbines.

In 2005 SSIF featured Tara Hill on our Most Endangered Sacred Sites List. The threat at that time, a freeway built right next to the sacred hill, is still the threat. Yet, another freeway!Fresh from the Irish government’s disgraceful ruination of the Tara-Skryne Valley sacred landscape, they’re planning another assault on the area containing many of Ireland’s primary ritual sites.Take a look at the link below. And watch this space; we’ll post details of who to contact as and when we know them.The Hill of Tara is not the only important heritage threatened by the Leinster Orbital Route. The Heritage Town of Trim is to be bisected.Check this story on Indymedia:http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94705UN MUST SAVE TARA PETITIONhttp://www.savetarapetition.net

This project makes many assumptions that are not based on fact. Each Native American Nation and Tribe is unique, having their own identity based on centuries of oral history, based on the environments in which they live and based on their sacred ceremonies, spaces and symbols. Taking these elements out of their cultural context leaves them devoid of their fundamental meaning. Native Americans from one tribe usually do not consider using the sacred plants of another tribe to perform their ceremonies; so why do Christians believe that it is appropriate to do so?

We have spoken over the years with many Native Americans who consider cultural appropriation disrespectful and deeply hurtful. Why not design a healing garden based on western forms and western healing plants? There are many sacred forms such as the labyrinth that could form the basis of such a garden and endless choices of healing plants historically used in Western Culture.

Recommended resources: Sacred Objects and Sacred Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions by Andrew Gulliford (a benefit of Membership in Sacred Sacred International at the $50 level). We also recommend the excellent book by architect and Sacred Sites Board Member, Tony Lawlor, The Temple in the House.

The latest UNESCO list of Intangible Culture includes several sacred sites and sacred traditions. The Committee considered these cultural elements as endangered despite the efforts of the communities or groups concerned. Following the inscription, States concerned will implement specific safeguarding plans, as indicated in their nomination files. Intangible cultural elements in need of urgent safeguarding will be eligible for financial assistance from the Fund established to this end.

We can thank the National Museums of Kenya for their efforts in nominating the forests and for the efforts of scholars such as Celia Nyamweru who has been working with the Coastal Forests Conservation Unit, a division of the National Museums of Kenya. Visit the Sacred Sites Map on this website by clicking here for more information on Kaya Forests in an article by Celia Nyamweru.

Kenya / Traditions and practices associated to the Kayas in the sacred forests of the Mijikenda

The Mijikenda include nine Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in the Kaya forests of coastal Kenya. The identity of the Mijikenda is expressed through oral traditions and performing arts related to the sacred forests, which are also sources of valuable medicinal plants. These traditions and practices constitute their codes of ethics and governance systems, and include prayers, oath-taking, burial rites and charms, naming of the newly born, initiations, reconciliations, marriages and coronations.

Kayas are fortified settlements whose cultural spaces are indispensable for the enactment of living traditions that underscore the identity, continuity and cohesion of the Mijikenda communities. The use of natural resources within the Kayas is regulated by traditional knowledge and practices that have contributed to the conservation of their biodiversity. The Kambi (Councils of Elders) acts as the custodians of these Kayas and the related cultural expressions. Today, Mijikenda communities are gradually abandoning the Kayas in favour of informal urban settlements.

Due to pressure on land resources, urbanization and social transformations, the traditions and cultural practices associated to the Kaya settlements are fast diminishing, posing great danger to the social fabric and cohesiveness of the Mijikenda communities who venerate and celebrate them as their identity and symbol of continuity.

The first is in Alaska and is known as the Pebble Project where engineers with the Northern Dynasty mining corporation have found what they believe is half a trillion dollars worth of gold, copper and molybdenum. This project, if approved, would create the largest open pit mine in North America! Two organizations, among others, have organized to oppose this project. Please the group, Stop Pebble Mine by clicking here and the non-profit organization, Renewable Resources Coalition by clicking here.  Another project is located in Russia in a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Western Caucasus Heritage Site .  The money behind this development road project is Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company. Gazprom has a new development, a mountain resort, ski slopes and lifts, as well a complex for the 2014 Olympic Games. IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has worked with UNESCO & Gazprom to alleviate some of the project’s impact, however, Gazprom still plans to complete the road through the World Heritage Site to the Olympic Village. Please visit the, Environmental News Service, to learn more.