The Obama administration is fast-tracking nearly two dozen renewable energy projects in California, Arizona and Nevada, and tribal members are worried that sacred sites are being overlooked.

In the last month alone, three projects have been approved. Tribal members say they can't keep up with all of the environmental reports.

"It is a backward process," Linda Otero, the director of the Aha Makav Cultural Society and a member of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, told The Riverside Press-Enterprise. "There are so many projects, it is impossible to juggle them all."

But even when tribes provide comments, they are often ignored, according to Anthony Madrigal, the director of policy and cultural resources for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians of California. There is no way to restore sacred sites once they have been damaged, he said.

"We don't think of it as mitigation. We call it destruction," Madrigal told the paper.

Members of the Colorado River Indian Tribes also have raised concerns about the projects.

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CALIFORNIA DESERT: Native Americans object to energy projects (The Riverside Press-Enterprise 10/20)