"We ask that you reconsider your position concerning building on Glen Cove or fencing the area off from the local Native people who worship there. The bottom line, and I hope this letter makes this point clear, is that preservation of ALL cultural significant sites and spiritual places must take place in order to protect our beautiful diversity of ALL people for the future.

Once sacred sites -- such as mounds, burials, spiritual grounds -- are destroyed, they cannot be replaced. In many ways this makes the sites similar to the resources that we are abusing now from the earth. In fact, these sites hold deep spiritual value for the Native community, and once those are destroyed, part of the sacred ways of peoples are destroyed as well. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People clearly explains that these sites belong to ALL Native people who worship there.

We do not feel that the tampering or fencing off of the Glen Cove site respects this law, and we encourage you to rectify this situation. Furthermore, this law gives all Native people who hold the mound sacred the right to voice their concerns and use the sacred space for religious purposes. We do not feel that the Native American Preservation Committee is hearing ALL Native voices connected with the mound, and has only vested its decisions "

Get the Story:
Robert and Cora Dunaway: Reconsider on Glen Cove (The Vallejo Times Herald 5/11)

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Opinion: Fact and fiction in battle over sacred burial site (4/21)
DOJ intervenes in protest for development at sacred site (4/19)
California attorney general pressed to protect sacred site (4/14)