http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070625-9999-1n25sacred.html

Sacred site focus of tribal tug of war

Location of casino causes Quechan rift

By James P. Sweeney
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

June 25, 2007

SACRAMENTO – A few years ago, when the Quechan tribe was fighting a
proposed open-pit gold mine near its reservation in the Imperial Valley,
tribal leaders argued that nearby sacred sites were “more precious than
gold.”

The project in which a Canadian company invested a decade of planning and
more than $15 million ultimately was blocked and will never be developed.
In the process, Quechan became a national symbol of a crusade to preserve
vanishing sites considered culturally or religiously important to American
Indians.

Now the tribe is being accused from within of abandoning its past and
preparing to desecrate one of its most sacred settings for another gold
mine – a casino-resort that promises to earn millions of dollars a year.

With up to 1,100 slot machines, the new Quechan gambling resort would
replace a smaller California casino it owns just across the border from a
second casino the tribe operates near Yuma, Ariz.

The 3,300-member tribe, which occupies the 45,000-acre Fort Yuma
Reservation, broke ground on the $200 million project just off Interstate 8
at Algodones Road this month.

“Their blood is the same as mine,” tribal member Valerie Jose said. “And
yet, if they are truly Quechan, they would know that they are excavating my
soul. . .

“This tribe already has two casinos. We don't need any more money.”

The impending construction has roiled a group already in turmoil. The
results of a tribal election last year were challenged, forcing a second
election this month, the results of which also are in dispute.

Now there is talk of collecting the 100 signatures necessary to force a
tribal vote on the casino site. One tribal elder views the controversy as
an inevitable and perhaps healthy clash of the tribe's past with its
future.

“It got here a lot sooner than I expected,” said Lorey Cachora, an
authority on tribal sacred sites. “It's going to be something we all learn
from, and who better to do something like that than our own people?”

Two days before the groundbreaking, the tribe and local law enforcement
officers forcibly removed a small group of tribal members holding a
religious ceremony on the site in protest of the project.

The protesters, including Priscilla Prettybird, contend the site is part of
a larger prehistoric ceremonial and gathering area used by at least five
tribes, which cremated their ancestors there.

The casino site also is near a mountain known as Pilot Knob, a landmark
that tribal officials singled out during the gold mine fight as hallowed
ground to the Quechan and other tribes that once inhabited the desert
region.

“Both ends of the spirit trail, The Trail of Dreams, linking Avikwaame
(Spirit Mountain) to the north and Avi kwalal (Pilot Knob) to the south are
listed as traditional cultural properties on the National Register of
Historic Places,” the tribe noted in documents distributed during the fight
against Glamis Imperial Corp.

Charles Jeannes, a former Glamis executive, remembers the location well.

“One of the objections to our project was that if you happen to be on Pilot
Knob you could see the mine and that would impact the spiritual sense of
being on that site,” Jeannes said.

Quechan President Mike Jackson and Brian Golding, the tribe's economic
development director, declined to respond to repeated telephone calls.
Courtney Coyle, a La Jolla attorney who handles sacred sites issues for the
tribe, declined to comment.

Jackson earlier told the Yuma Sun that the tribe had “a plan to protect the
artifacts” in and around the site.

“A comprehensive cultural and archaeological study was conducted of the
site,” Jackson said. “There are some sites we know to be there and we're
taking steps to protect them.”

Prettybird and some prominent tribal members are not convinced the glitter,
traffic and other activity associated with a casino and 166-room hotel can
be introduced without impacting Pilot Knob.

“I believe if you build anywhere close by a mountain that is considered
sacred it would be a blasphemy of bright lights versus the traditional
usage,” Prettybird said. “It's a form of disrespect.”

Cachora, the tribal elder, said he also has misgivings about the location.

“My concern is the rise of the structure,” Cachora said. “I'm talking about
the view, how it's going to obstruct – we're talking about Pilot Knob –
there are places we call ceremonial circles. If those are obstructed by a
building, it's kind of hard to use that.”

For that reason, Cachora said he cautioned the tribal council to be careful
about the placement of the buildings.

“The natural setting to us is important,” he said. “That goes back to the
ceremonial circles. In order to transcend or spiritually fly into certain
areas, there has to be no blockage of any kind.”

Cachora said he initially opposed the casino. He no longer opposes it, but
believes it should be built somewhere else. So does Vernon Smith, Quechan's
administrator and a tribal elder.

“There are better places. . . . I think it was just a poor choice,” said
Smith, who ran unsuccessfully against Jackson in the most recent election.

Discoveries of charcoal, which could indicate a cremation site, and other
artifacts only may hint at what the project site might hold, he said.

“When you start moving the dirt to level or whatever, what else might be
there?” Smith said. “I think a lot of research should have been done, more
in depth, rather than real quick.”

Pilot Knob, he said, once had tribal villages situated at its base.
Moreover, he said, the tribe believes mountains were placed in the desert
for a reason.

“We believe spirits dwell in them, so we try to stay away from them,
protect them, not do anything to damage anything that is out there,” Smith
said. “There is more next to the Pilot Knob area, a lot of artifacts,
remains of villages that were there at the time. So no one goes over
there.”

Like Cachora, Smith was involved in the tribe's efforts to seek state and
federal recognition and protection for such sacred sites. The campaign was
the subject of an intense political fight five years ago when Quechan and
other tribes pushed state legislation that would have allowed tribes to
block development that threatened sacred sites. That bill was vetoed by
then-Gov. Gray Davis in a move that infuriated tribes.

Quechan also sued the federal government in 2002, seeking $9.4 million for
damage allegedly done to sacred sites during the replacement of power
poles. The suit is still pending.

Now Smith fears the tribe may be sacrificing its credibility.

“I would go to meetings all over the country to support Quechan's beliefs,”
he said. “We were always very strong about that, saying there are some
things out there that we feel are important to us.”

Those arguments, Smith said, will now “sound so hollow.”

“Unfortunately for the tribe, we have leaders that are young and don't
understand these things and make decisions that seem to contradict what
we've been saying all along.”