Archaeologists & Museums Denounce Destruction of Standing Rock Sioux Burial Grounds

To President Obama, the United States Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers:

As archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and museum workers committed to responsible stewardship, we are invested in the preservation and interpretation of archaeological and cultural heritage for the common good. We join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in denouncing the recent destruction of ancient burial sites, places of prayer and other significant cultural artifacts sacred to the Lakota and Dakota people.

On Saturday, September 3, 2016, the company behind the contentious Dakota Access Pipeline project bulldozed land containing Native American burial grounds, grave markers, and artifacts–including ancient cairns and stone prayer rings. The construction crews, flanked by private security and canine squads, arrived just hours after the Standing Rock Sioux tribal lawyers disclosed the location of the recently discovered site in federal court filings.

Former tribal historic preservation officer Tim Mentz called the discovery of the site “one of the most significant archeological finds in North Dakota in many years.” “This demolition is devastating,” Tribal Chairman David Archambault II said. “These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground.”

We are familiar with the long history of desecration of Indigenous People’s artifacts and remains worldwide. Many of us put countless hours into developing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to prevent burial desecration of this type, yet the pipeline was approved without a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and the cultural resources survey did not involve proper consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribes in the region.

The destruction of these sacred sites adds yet another injury to the Lakota, Dakota, and other Indigenous Peoples who bear the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and transportation. If constructed, this pipeline will continue to encourage oil consumption that causes climate change, all the while harming those populations who contributed little to this crisis.

We call on the federal government to abide by its laws and to conduct a thorough environmental impact statement and cultural resources survey on the pipeline’s route, with proper consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. We stand with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and affirm their treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, and the protection of their lands, waters, cultural and sacred sites, and we stand with all those attempting to prevent further irreparable losses.

With concern,

Brenda Toineeta Pipestem, Chair, Board of Trustees, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Richard Lariviere, PhD, President and CEO, The Field Museum, Chicago, IL
Luke Swetland, President and CEO, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Micah D. Parzen, Ph.D., J.D., Chief Executive Officer, San Diego Museum of Man
Ben Garcia, Deputy Director, San Diego Museum of Man
Jill Hartz, President, Association of Academic Museums and Galleries
Anthony Shelton, D. Phil, Director, Museum of Anthropology, Professor of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Patsy Phillips, Cherokee Nation, Director of IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Mark J. Meister, President & CEO, Dayton Society of Natural History, Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park, Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve
Suzan Shown Harjo, President, The Morning Star Institute, Guest Curator, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, Recipient of a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
James Powell, Former President and Director of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and former President of the Franklin Museum of Science Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park
Elizabeth Pestana, B.A., Scientific Consultant Services, Inc., Archaeologist; current student at University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Department of American Studies, Historic Preservation graduate certificate program
Darren Smith, Library Technician and former Aboriginal Program Team Member, Fraser Valley Regional Library, City of Langley Library, Langley, BC, Canada

To read the entire updated list of over 1000 signatories, please visit:

http://thenaturalhistorymuseum.org/archaeologists-and-museums-respond-to-destruction-of-standing-rock-sioux-burial-grounds/

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