Well folks, a whole lot of nuttin's been going on. Well, at least it seems that way from the public point of view. In fact, there have been meetings, draft agreements, and a whole lot of letters flying about but still NO RESOLUTION. The time to get this back on track is NOW. ARCHAEOLOGISTS ANONYMOUS will be updating this blog in coming days with new and shocking information.
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This may come as a shock - and please don't shoot the messenger - but NHPA is about following a process, not achieving results. If your expectation is that the law requires a positive resolution - or any resolution - you will be disappointed. The law does not mandate outcomes, it simply requires a process that might (hopefully) arrive at a desirable outcome. In the end, it is only the process that matters, legally.
ReplyDeleteThe NHPA encourages resolutions - it does not require that there be any, or that anything positive will ever happen on the ground. To use your words, the law does not rule out a "whole lot of nuttin' ". So, use your energies wisely. Directionless venting and blogsite hand wringing will just get you more of "nuttin".
Acknowledged, NHPA is procedural law, no question about that. We have here a situation where that process appears to have been completely circumvented PRIOR to project implementation. Shirking that responsibility, in my view, is what ultimately caused the Amity desecration - appropriate project review and consideration of alternatives would have very efficiently prevented adverse effects to the site, Eagar would have a pond, and a wealth of public resources would have been saved.
ReplyDeleteNow, after the fact, the parties may be acting to appear as if they are following process... but painfully slowly. Isn't it reasonable to expect this process to be conducted as expeditiously as possible? The phrase "meaningful and timely" gets thrown around a lot, notably in EO 13175. So, timeliness does appear to be a relevant aspect of this process, at least to certain members of the executive branch.
Law aside, people have been harmed. It is unconscionable for the responsible parties to respond so slowly and unsatisfactorily. The public should demand better from the government they pay for... but such action cannot be taken if the public is unaware of a problem. I have not seen any other publicly available information addressing efforts to resolve the Amity case and the snail's pace of those efforts, thus the blog. We hope others find this information of more value than simply "hand wringing."
^ Who said anything about the National Historic Preservation Act? You are obviously misguided, so go back and read your APPLICABLE laws. NHPA in this case applies to the lead federal agency (US Fish & Wildlife) and by their misguided labor-sharing unpermitted and unqualified federal partner (Natural Resource Conservation Service). Yes, they are in a drawn out consultation process. Yes it would be nicer if it happened faster. But that's not the point...
ReplyDeleteThese 2 are the points - 1 - it is a reprehensible act to dig up our ancestors, desecrate their graves, and leave them like that FOR TWO GODDAMN YEARS. Common decency would have that situation resolved very quickly, that is, if this were the hallowed burial grounds of the Snows and Flakes. Stalling reburial efforts is tantamount to racism.
2 - This is State of Arizona land, owned in Title and Fee by the State and administered by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. As state land, the burial discovery is governed by Arizona Revised Statutes 41-844 and 41-865. Read them here: http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/41/00844.htm and http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/41/00865.htm.
Read them? Now tell me how the law doesn't require "a positive resolution" or "anything positive will ever happen on the ground." Get you head out of Federal Law, or any of White Man's law and see the whole picture for what it is.
Directionless venting and blogsite hand wringing? This is grassroots action.
Thank you, this should be said often and loudly.
DeleteAlonzo's New Times article quotes AGFD's former Deputy Director Gary Hovatter as saying "he wants to reach an agreement but is hamstrung because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the entity that legally must engage in "government-to-government consultation" with sovereign Indian nations."
This is certainly true in federal matters, but it seems the Arizona State Museum has that obligation in this case under the laws you cite. Hovatter's position strikes me as a convenient shield. He can "accept" culpability while deflecting responsibility for stalling--and maybe financial responsibility-- onto the feds.
Yes, that is called passing the buck. The State of Arizona has exclusive jurisdiction over its sovereign lands, and all of the rights and responsibilities that come with that. They employ badged cops who can arrest somebody for illegal digging on their land, and State Attorneys General who can prosecute illegal digging, and State Judges who will hear the trial, and State jails to put diggers away if they need to. So why is Arizona passing the buck to a federal agency at Amity Pueblo ? Their lame excuse is that the project was federally funded and therefore the site is no longer the State's responsibility ? Were the State of Arizona's laws and procedures wiped away because Arizona applied for federal assistance ? This is a simple matter of the State being good stewards for its' own State lands and State sites - and accepting responsibility as the top professionals they probably see themselves as.
DeleteIf the project was federally funded, that means Arizona Game & Fish must have applied for the funding. I doubt some black-booted feds flew into Phoenix one day from Washington or some other state, and ordered the State of Arizona to build a recreational pond out in the boonies, right next to a major Pueblo building.
This looks very much like Arizona is shirking its responsibilities for its state lands and state resources, and trying to palm their problem off on the feds who responded to their request for funding. Only a total bureaucrat could fall for a dipsy-doodle like that.
Well that was a rousing cheer for "grassroots action". OK, it has now been two and a half years since the site was bulldozed, and nothing has happened. Nothing federal. Nothing state. Nothing nobody. Nada-rama. So, where's the "action" ?
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