US government agrees to help restore sacred Native American site destroyed for Oregon road project

Source: Associated Press

US government agrees to help restore sacred Native American site destroyed for Oregon road project

BY CLAIRE RUSH
Updated 9:17 PM EDT, October 5, 2023

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. government has agreed to help restore a sacred Native American site on the slopes of Oregon’s Mount Hood that was destroyed by highway construction, court documents show, capping more than 15 years of legal battles that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a settlement filed with the high court Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation and other federal agencies agreed to replant trees and aid in efforts to rebuild an altar at a site along U.S. Highway 26 that tribes said had been used for religious purposes since time immemorial.

Members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde said a 2008 project to add a turn lane on the highway destroyed an area known as the Place of Big Big Trees, which was home to a burial ground, a historic campground, medicinal plants, old-growth Douglas Firs and a stone altar.

Carol Logan, an elder and member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde who was a plaintiff in the case, said she hopes the settlement would prevent the destruction of similar sites in the future.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/oregon-native-american-site-settlement-mount-hood-6274ff21b141f01ac29788b63109ffc7