Stop the train — Utah Gov. to act to preserve ancient Indian village Blog Post

The governor of Utah is making good on his promise not to allow a train station and commercial development to be built on the site of a 3,000-year-old Native American village along the Jordan River in Draper, UT. He is expected to sign an easement today that will protect the land from development, writes Kristen Moulton of the Salt Lake Tribune.

The move comes even as federal authorities continue ramping up their prosecutions of a ring of Utah-based artifact thieves who have been charged with systematically stealing ancient relics from gravesites, and other protected lands.

That investigation has now widened to include dealers suspected of selling ill-gotten antiquities.

The dealers, who have yet to be charged with anything, say the prosecutions are over-zealous and based on a new interpretation of the federal law intended to rescue ancient human remains from museums and private collections.

 

Those who favored developing the ancient site at Draper also took advantage of a legal glitch to try to move forward with their plans. The Utah Legislature had mandated the land be preserved for open space back in 2000, but the Department of Natural Resources never signed a document that would have placed the land in perpetual conservation. Last winter, lawmakers let the proposal by the Utah Transit Authority proceed.

 

Both these incidents have galvanized the tribal community to come together to preserve a heritage that is quickly being parted out in a world where you can sell a piece of ancient history on eBay.

Utah tribes band together to stop train station on sacred land Blog Post

Seven Utah tribes want to stop the Utah Transit Authority from building a train station on the site of an ancient village in Draper. They came together in a rare show of public unity to petition lawmakers and Utah’s next governor to stop the proposed project, according to a story by Brandon Loomis of the Salt Lake Tribune.

 The site, which dates to 3,000 years ago, contains some evidence of the earliest known corn farming in the Great Basin area and has been deemed significant by the state archeologist. 

“Are we so insignificant that we are overlooked and desecration is done to our sites?” Curtis Cesspooch, chairman of the Uintah/Ouray Utes, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

The Utah Legislature had mandated the land be preserved for open space in 2000, but the Department of Natural Resources never signed a proposed perpetual conservation easement, and last winter lawmakers allowed UTA’s proposal go forward.