Prophecy of the Grandfathers

BISMARCK, ND—There are few tribal activists that have been more active the past thirty years than Standing Rock’s Tim Mentz. Unlike many activists who deal in aspirational rhetoric, Mentz has always focused on the structural nature of problems; he takes the time to understand every aspect of law and policy as it impacts the Oceti Sakowin, and working positively with other tribal elders, his efforts have succeeding in amending Congressional law and policy to benefit tribes. 

Few men know more about spiritual sites, their location, their history, their desecration, the threats currently facing these sites, than Mentz. He was the first Tribal Historical Preservation Officer (THPO) in the nation, and he helped organized two crucial meetings held over six days last week at Untied Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. 

The first three days were devoted to treaty council issues, and the second three days were hosted by the Standing Rock Elders Preservation Council, of which Mentz is the youngest member. The focus of those three days was a call-to-action to protect the sacred burial sites of indigenous people, not only in the United States, but worldwide. 

“That’s six meetings of intense discussions and presentations,” Mentz said. “I met with (Standing Rock) Chairman (Mike) Faith this morning, and we’re putting the national call out now, and it’s going to spread around the world, we are going to make this happen, and we are going after Congress to be responsible on their duties and their responsibilities to our relatives. Right now, NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) law only applies to federal lands or tribal lands— we are going to make it apply to all lands.”

The problem is a complicated one, but here it is in a nutshell: NAGPRA currently protects sacred tribal sites on federal or tribal land. Mentz wants that protection amended to include all lands, lands he describes as “state lands, county lands, church lands, and private landowners, those four particularly we are targeting for the amendments to NAGPRA. Basically, we are saying we want federal law to apply to all lands regardless of location and regardless of ownership.”

When Mentz helped amend the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1992 to include THPOs, not just State Historical Preservation Officers (SHPOs), he could not foresee what convoluted turns the implementation would bring. NAGPRA can apply after sacred sites have been identified and analyzed but that process of identification has been corrupted by THPOs who receive compensation from the very archaeology firms they have been entrusted to advise on behalf of their tribe. These firms are highly motivated financially to dismiss a sacred site, and many THPOs are highly motivated financially to assist the firms at arriving at that determination. 

Never one to just wring his hands in frustration, Mentz got the ball rolling up at Standing Rock to create a body charged with helping preserve tribal sites and history. By tribal resolution the six-member Elders Preservation Council (EPC) was formed. Other members include John Eagle Shield, Sr., Cedric Good House, Sr., Virgil Taken Alive, and Terry Yellow Fat. The recent passing of George Iron Shield, Sr., has left a vacancy.

“The (Standing Rock Tribal) Council started in June,” Mentz said, “discussing with the EPC how could we address the issues of the human remains act that got disrupted by the Dakota Access Pipeline, when the bulldozers destroyed all these sites. We wanted to take our issues in relation to burial and sacred sites to Congress. Standing Rock wanted a call-to-action of all indigenous nations to address the issue of not only the destruction of burial sites and the exposing of human remains but then the issue came up of boarding school children. The tribal council really took exception to that issue because it’s been lying dormant for so long. We knew we had all our children that were stolen from us buried at these places and they are all on private lands and nonfederal lands.”

Mentz said the call-to-action consists of three main parts. Mentz: “One, Congress had to address the issues of all children’s burial sites that are adjacent to these identified boarding schools, which I believe the number now including the Canadian reserves, is 502 boarding schools that have been identified. That really bothered the tribe to the point they asked for a resolution, I developed it I presented it. The second issue we wanted to address the issue of the 82 sites that were destroyed by the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). We submitted that information in September 2016.”

Armed with that information, DAPL hurriedly sought to take advantage of it: “DAPL traveled 26 miles by next morning and destroyed all those sites.”
The third part would involve Native guests from Hawaii, who had reached out to Standing Rock for assistance with their struggle to preserve sacred burial sites. In June, Mentz flew down to Hawaii as the guest of Native folks, and then invited them to Standing Rock to participate in the six days of meetings. 

Mentz talked about the third part of the call-to-action, which dealt with “all the human remains that get destroyed from infrastructure development, because all three of these issues are all related to off reservation or off federal land.”

The call-to-action involves other tribes passing their own resolutions. Mentz: “We want all indigenous nations to develop a resolution similar to ours that calls for a congressional oversight hearing. We want Congress to take responsibility, a congressional oversight hearing to amend the Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act.”

The guests from Hawaii, who call themselves Kanaka Maoli, the original inhabitants of the island nation, have problems similar to what the Oceti Sakowin face, but their problems are even worse for two reasons. Mentz says the NAGPRA language doesn’t “clearly identify which lands constitute native Hawaiian lands,” and does not “clarify how the role of NAGPRA plays” concerning Native Hawaiians. Burial sites are then not protected on any Hawaiian land. In addition, there are no THPOs to turn to. Natives in Hawaii must rely on SHPOs.

Oglala Sioux Tribal Attorney Mario Gonzalez, who participated in the meetings at the request of OST President Kevin Killer, explains: “When there is inadvertent discovery from development, then it’s the SHPO that comes in there and they are probably not sympathetic to Natives. We do have THPOs here, fortunately, due to a lot of the work from Tim (Mentz) and others that got the NHPA amended.”

In 1988 two resorts were started on the island of Maui. Both planned on heavy development that would disturb and destroy sacred sand dune burial sites. Native protest succeeding in getting one resort to move their development to a less threatening location, but the other resort, the Grand Wailea Hotel, thwarted all Native attempts to protect the sand dune burial sites. Claire Apana, one of the invited Hawaiian guests at the conference in Bismarck, and intimately familiar with the traditional history and customs of her people, described the desecration at Grand Wailea in disturbing detail: “That is a forever resting place, not to be disturbed, not to be moved, that is their place. In the 1970’s, they built the first sewer line, and there they desecrated some 150 burials. They put them back on the sewer line in wooden beer boxes. They were found later by the archaeologists. The workers say they dug the water line on the north side of the property, 25 feet deep, 25 feet wide, and there they found all the burials of the babies…the babies were taken out of their place…and put into cardboard boxes and taken off property. We don’t find any record of them in the archaeology notes. We have a declaration from one of the workers who took buckets of pieces of bones off the property. She went to another property where they were filling a gulch, and this happened for at least three years. A U-Haul truck was taken to the other side of the island and the equipment operator was asked to dig a hole to put them in. We’d like to bring them back just like you want to bring back your children. We want to bring them back so the families can at least be whole again. We can perform ceremonies and prayers and connect back to our family.”

Apana said the trip to Standing Rock has been the “most incredible experience.” She said, “We feel like we are all family There is almost a heart and blood connection that feels so strong.”

Mentz is excited and optimistic, that not only will the call-to-action spur other tribes to pass similar resolutions, but that Congress will also respond favorably. He is particularly enthusiastic about Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, and her interest and involvement. Mentz: “Deb was there at Standing Rock, at the camp. She’s openly invited other tribes to sit down and discuss this issue, and she also now initiated an investigation to all boarding schools within the continental United States and territories. There are a number of Congress people, the child burials are the most important thing that they see, and they are pretty upset with all these schools that are trying to hide the records. They are finding out a lot of things, and are well aware of this issue, and now that resolution from Standing Rock is being sent up and spread around to some Congressional people.”

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

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