The Colorado River Indian Tribes’ Mohave and Chemehuevi homelands include the Sonoran Desert and Mojave Desert, one of the most iconic and best known landscapes in North America. Home to three national parks and two significant protected conservation areas, it has been called one of the world’s last great places, in part because the desert remained undeveloped for thousands of years.
For our tribal members, the desert is not an iconic place as much as it is home, where our ancestors lived, where evidence of their lives exists both in and on the earth. It isn’t just a place of the past, but also a place of the future, where our tribal families take their children to learn about our cultures and our lives.
Like many others, we applauded President Obama in August when he restored the Athabascan name Denali to the mountain formerly named Mount McKinley in Alaska. We call upon him to continue his good work to honor native peoples by supporting in situ reburial of sacred and cultural artifacts unearthed on public lands.
“In situ” means “in its original place.” We find it to be exactly what we mean – that, based upon our unique tribal cultures, we seek to rebury the artifacts in the place they were unearthed.
Our elders identified culturally important areas for the government to protect as part of the California Desert Conservation Area Plan 30 years ago. But the Obama administration made almost exactly the same area a renewable energy zone, prioritizing the placement of the nation’s solar energy projects in our traditional homelands.
The Genesis Solar Energy Project is the first of dozens of large utility-scale solar energy developments constructed or planned in culturally sensitive areas within 50 miles of CRIT’s reservation. Approximately 3,000 sacred objects were unearthed and removed from the Genesis project site, many of which were carelessly destroyed by earthmoving equipment.
Our cultural tradition is to never disturb the artifacts of our ancestors. Alternatively, if areas cannot be avoided, in-situ reburial of artifacts helps us preserve our ancestral footprint on the land. CRIT has asked for in-situ reburial of all artifacts. However, our requests have met with opposition and an outdated and rigid stance.
As the government supports the push to industrialize public lands – and subsidize for-profit developers – CRIT will hold the Obama administration accountable for properly consulting with tribes, minimizing harm to cultural resources by avoiding known cultural sites and allowing for the in-situ reburial of all artifacts disturbed during the construction of renewable energy projects and other development on public lands.
We invite President Obama to visit our ancestral homelands along Interstate 10 and the area of Blythe, to see first-hand the cumulative and cultural impacts to native peoples of covering the desert with utility-scale renewable energy developments.
CRIT is not opposed to responsible renewable energy, but it should not be achieved by degrading the living history and cultural beliefs of our people.
Dennis Patch is the chairman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes.