Posted on 11/07/2009 8:25:28 PM PST by SmithL
Mashpee, Mass. --
From a blustery perch over a Cape Cod beach, Chuckie Green gestures toward a stretch of horizon where he says construction of the nation's first offshore wind farm would destroy his Indian tribe's religion.
The Wampanoag - the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 17th century and known as "The People of the First Light" - practice sacred rituals requiring an unblocked view of the sunrise. That view won't exist once 130 turbines, each over 400 feet tall, are built several miles from shore in Nantucket Sound, visible to Wampanoag in Mashpee and on Martha's Vineyard.
Tribal rituals, including dancing and chanting, take place at secret sacred sites around the sound at various times, such as the summer and winter solstices and when an elder passes.
The Wampanoag fight to preserve their ceremonies has become the latest obstacle - some say delay tactic - for a pioneering wind energy project that seemed at the cusp of final approval.
"We, the Wampanoag people, who opened our arms and allowed people to come here for religious freedoms, are now being threatened with our religion being taken away for the profits of one single group of investors," Green said.
The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag claim Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. The tribes say the designation, which would come with new regulations for activity on the sound, is needed to preserve not only their pristine views but ancestors' remains buried on Horseshoe Shoal, where the turbines would be built.
Cape Wind supporters say the tribes' claim for a National Register listing for the sound is baseless and was sprung late, in league with the project's most vociferous opponents, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Teddy Kennedy, version 2.0...
Tough teepee. Great White Mother Pelosi says it must be done. So shall it happen.
And we’ve got some great health care for you, too.
Works for me
Oh, Great Spirit of the morning light, give me casinos, give the white folks grief, and let me laugh forever on the way to the bank (backed by the Federal Reserve and all, of course). Yours truly, Chief Nimby.
Yippee. Maybe they need to find another location for their "sacred rituals," one that gives them an uncluttered view. Or maybe they should stop inventing ridiculous fictions just to block progress and stay mired in the Stone Age.
Tribal rituals, including dancing and chanting, take place at secret sacred sites around the sound at various times, such as the summer and winter solstices and when an elder passes.
And by "secret sacred sites" we mean locations that we can make up on the spur of the moment wherever they can be the most obstructive. Odd that nobody has heard of any of this before ... Oh, that's right. It was a secret ... until now.
What do they do on foggy mornings? What crud, just more wannabes claiming to be a tribe that’s been extinct since before the Cherokee wars.
“indigenous” tribes upset by __________________ (you fill in the blank)
Yo! Chuckie!
Remember King Philip? We do! He started it. We won it. Get over it. STFU.
We need a copper-free society.
“The Wampanoag ... practice sacred rituals requiring an unblocked view of the sunrise.”
Maybe they can buy a helicopter with all that casino money.
Thw Wampanoags never organized as a single group until long after the Pilgrims arrived. The first natives encountered by the Pilgrims tried to kill them, and the Pilgrims had to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate who the friendly natives were, since the various tribes didn't get along among themselves any better than they got along with Europeans.
Interestingly enough, the shallow shoals of Nantucket Sound were the obtacle that turned the Pilgrims north toward Plymouth instead of allowing them to continue west to the Hudson Valley as they had planned.
Reporter's fault. Untrained ear hear "Wampanoag", when Ward "Chuckie Green" Churchill say "Wampum Nags".
Blow it out your ass, chief. It’s time to get green. Gaia be damned.
What did this tribe do when Ted Kennedy was alive and blocking the view of the sun?
If the turbines affected Muslims they would not be built. If they happened to be built, the Muslims would blow them up.
This is similar to the case of Mt. Shasta. They tried to get the entire mountain declared a National Historic Landmark on the basis of cosmological significance to the Wintu and Shasta tribes. This meant that anything that happened on the mountain (including the town of Mt. Shasta at its feet) had to be regulated to preserve the religious significance and experience of the mountain. It also meant that every place that could be seen from the mountain had to be regulated for visual and noise impacts.
Since Mt. Shasta is about 14,000 feet high, this meant that most of the county was going to have to be regulated for Native American religious experience. There was a great deal of concern that this was absurd and that no one was willing or could regulate all land uses in such a manner. The listing of the mountain ended up including only the area above 10,000 feet, excluding the lower elevations where most ceremonies occurred.
BIA health care was the poster child for NOT getting the government into health care any further...
Turbines of Tears.
Lets play environmentalist and Indians.
Well said. My best friend is Lakotah, and so liberal he makes Dennis Kucinich look sane. And even he agrees that a lot of the “sacred places” claims of the Indians are little more than obstructionist oombalah.
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