Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Leaders of seven tribes asked the state to stop construction of a train station on a sacred site near Salt Lake City.

The tribes said the FrontRunner station will harm a 3,000-year-old village. Artifacts have been discovered at the site.

"It's like if someone discovered Salt Lake City cemetery in 1,000 years, and said let's put a building here," Pauite Tribe Chairwoman Jeanine Borchardt said at a news conference, The Deseret Times reported.

Lawmakers voted in 2000 to protect the site but the state never executed a conservation easement, KSL-TV reported. Last year, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. -- who has been appointed to an ambassadorship by President Barack Obama -- signed a bill to allow construction of the train station.

"This site is considered religious, sacred grounds to Native Americans," said Goshute Tribe Chairman Rupert Steele.

Get the Story:
Tribes ask governor to thwart train station on archaeological site (The Salt Lake Tribune 7/23)
5 tribes opposing site of UTA stop (The Deseret News 7/23)
Utah tribes petition governor to protect sacred land (KSL-TV 7/22)
Utah tribes oppose possible commuter station site (AP 7/22)