by Chip Colwell
November 20, 2016 8.21pm EST
“This summer, Tim Mentz Sr. took to YouTube to
tell the world about the destruction of his cultural heritage. A former tribal
historic preservation officer of the Standing Rock Sioux, Mentz wore a baseball
cap, rimless glasses and two thin braids of graying hair. He was upset and
spoke rapidly about the area behind him, an expanse of the Great Plains cut by
a new 150-foot-wide road.
Two days before, Mentz
had testified to the D.C. District Court to report the area that lay
in the path of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) corridor holds
82 cultural features and 27 graves. By the next day, DAPL construction workers graded
the area. Behind where Mentz stood in the video was a place known as the
Strong Heart Society Staff, where a sacred rattle or staff was placed within
stone rings. Here members of the elite warrior society would come to make
pledges. Mentz explained the site is tangible evidence that Strong Heart
members followed a “spiritual path...
Zuni elders Octavius Seowtewa and John Bowannie, and
archaeologist Sarah Herr, look at a shrine archaeologists misidentified. (Chip
Colwell photo)
On another project
I conducted with the Zuni tribe, I watched as elders explained to the
archaeologists excavating a site in the path of a new Arizona highway that they
had placed a survey flag in a semicircle of rocks – which was likely a shrine
used to bless and protect the ancient village. When it comes to traditional
practices, Native Americans see what archaeologists overlook...”
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