The sacred Stone Mother at Pyramid Lake in Nevada. Photo © Marilyn Newton/Reno Gazette Journal.

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada has closed access to parts of Pyramid Lake due to vandalism at a sacred site.

Vandals have left graffiti at the sacred Stone Mother, a rock formation at the lake. Visitors are also leaving trash behind.

“The thing about sacred sites or places, the way most Indian people believe, is it’s all around us. Everything is sacred,” Ben Aleck, curator for the Pyramid Lake Museum-Visitors Center, told The Reno Gazette-Journal. “This mother earth of ours is sacred.”

The tribe will keep the area closed until it can find a way to prevent vandalism and educate the public about the site, Chairman Wayne Burke said.

Get the Story:
Paiutes close area of Pyramid Lake over graffiti (The Reno Gazette-Journal 5/4)

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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe closes a part of lake to visitors (4/19)