Tribe not protecting artifacts

Regarding The Spokesman-Review article “Sacred artifacts.” First, this letter is not personal. I’m sympathetic to Native American discrimination and abuse.

I grew up in the Silver Valley, and worked and recreated near the Old Mission at Cataldo. Unknowingly I was lead-poisoned as a child and suffer chronic health problems.

Unfortunately, Coeur d’Alene tribal leaders are demonstrating behaviors of hypocrisy for not taking a stand against the building of the toxic waste dump on their ancestral grounds at the mission. Many are asking why the tribe did not take a more active role while EPA desecrated land that is now the largest toxic dump in the Bunker Hill/CdA Basin Superfund site.

Construction of the Mission repository ignored the likelihood of artifacts buried at the site. EPA violated its own laws mandating community involvement, and thousands of affected citizens and national groups are opposing the building of the repository at Exit 39 off Interstate 90.

National historic preservation laws have been violated, tons of lead and heavy metals are washed downstream during flooding, further destroying the environment and exposing everyone living and recreating in the area.

If the tribe cared about their land artifacts, one would think they would take care of them.

Rocky Hill

Stevensville, Mont.