Today, Newsweek published ACHP Chair Sara Bronin’s column on protecting our nation’s sacred burial sites from impacts both new and old.
Sacred burial sites across the country—sometimes unmarked or even undocumented—face growing threats to their preservation. These important sites have long been removed, defaced, or otherwise disturbed in the name of both public and private development. Meanwhile other threats, like flooding and erosion made worse by climate change, represent a novel challenge. As sea level rise and extreme weather events become more common, cemeteries and burial sites are at risk of being disturbed, submerged, or even washed away.
ACHP recently adopted a formal policy to address this significant, but too often overlooked, issue. The policy says that federal agencies should avoid disturbance of disinterment unless there are no alternatives—and not without early and meaningful consultation with descendant communities, aiming to reach consensus on their treatment.