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Road expansion nears cemetery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Thursday, 27 May 2004 |
WASILLA -- Dirt work in one section of the Knik-Goose Bay Road expansion has been halted until an archaeologist is on hand to examine the site, after a group of area residents protested Thursday saying the area is a historic cemetery.
Members of the Knik tribe, as well as some concerned community residents, began a sit-in and sign-waving protest Thursday, in opposition to dirt work being done in an area they say contains graves of Athabaskans and early Wasilla homesteaders.
Nancy Sult, president of Friends of Old Knik, a group aimed at maintaining historical places in the old Knik and Wasilla area, helped gather the protesters and said she was planning to stay by William Moffat's grave until someone from the Alaska Department of Transportation took notice and prevented the hill from being demolished.
"We've been over all this with them," Sult said. "If [the dozer operator] takes that hill out, there's a 75 percent chance he'll have bones in the dozer."
Thursday afternoon, Sult said she returned to the site after work and found that Moffat's grave, which had been clearly marked with a cross, a stone and a fence surrounding it, was missing the cross, stone and one post from the fence.
"I watch this area really carefully," Sult said. "Today, I know for sure, the cross and the rock were moved."
It's not only Moffat's grave Sult and other protesters are worried about. Chief Paul Theodore said he knows of at least three Athabaskan graves in the area, and Sult said her research shows there may be as many as 50 unmarked graves of early-Wasilla residents at the site. Theodore said he was concerned about the dirt work, as well as people potentially disturbing the grave sites.
"If we did that, it's a federal offense," Theodore said. "If it's ours, they don't care, the state doesn't care."
Dave Filucci, project engineer for DOT on the road expansion, said the state Historic Preservation Office has been contacted, and will be sending out an archaeologist to examine the site and oversee work in the area. Filucci said DOT has a process in place that comes into play when historical sites such as graves are pointed out near or within a construction area.
"We immediately got our equipment out of the area," Filucci said. "They'll come in and take a look at it and ... basically see if they can see anything from the get-go. If they determine there's nothing in the area, ... we'll continue the work, with an archaeologist right there, and work at a slow speed, just in case one grave somebody thought was there actually is. It's a very cautious, slow process."
Filucci said he was made aware a few weeks ago of the Moffat grave, and visited it recently with a local resident. It's marked on DOT's maps, he said, although the area had been cleared by archaeologists in 1993, when a review of the area for historical sites was conducted. He said the grave was 10 to 15 feet away from an Enstar natural gas line that runs on top of the hill, and the map drawings of work set to be done on the site shows it would stop about 35 feet from the grave. Construction drawings show that up to 10 feet of the hill will be excavated in that area, in order to make a gentle slope. Filucci pointed out that the area has already been extensively excavated -- the road, built in the 1960s, cuts a notch in what was once an undisturbed hill.
"It's not undisturbed ground," Filucci said, adding that, whether it was disturbed or undisturbed, DOT is not taking the situation lightly. "I can understand the people's concern -- by gosh, if it were my people up there, I'd be upset too. We are not going to go back out there and do any work without an archaeologist. I want to see that this is taken care of properly."
Sult and Theodore said they attended public meetings a few years ago, and told DOT staff the area had numerous unmarked graves. Filucci said he had not been part of that public process, and did not know what information was presented at those meetings.
Friday Sult said she and other protesters planned to file for an injunction against further work at the site.
"Our opinion, as always, is no digging," Sult said.
Theodore said he'd like to see more cooperation between the state and area tribal groups.
"A lot of this land is all Athabaskan land and they should ask permission and make agreements with the tribes and the chiefs -- especially the chiefs -- before they do anything," Theodore said. Theodore is the descendant of two previous chiefs -- Chief Wasilla, his grandfather, and Chief Stephan, a former chief of the Knik tribe. "We owned all of these four lakes here, my people. And they just moved onto it ... Maybe we need to put a bike path through Arlington, for Indians to go through."
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2004/05/27/news/news1.txt |
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