Carol Logan, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and Wilbur Slockish, hereditary chief of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, said the forested site near US Highway 26 on Mount Hood, Oregon, was “like a church without walls”.
The site, called Ana Kwna Nchi Nchi Patat (the ‘Place of Big Big Trees’) in first nation language, and known as Enola Hill in English, was flattened when the highway was widened in 2008.
Slockish and Logan told district judges that they would visit the site – a sacred burial ground – to remember their ancestors and pray at a stone altar surrounded by trees.
Two lower courts dismissed the case and so the group is now appealing to the Supreme Court.
The tribal members have filed papers claiming that they told both state and federal transport officials about the religious significance of the site prior to improvement work commencing.
Despite this, the old-growth trees and the stone altar were obliterated when a slip-road off the highway was built right through the site.
Slockish and Logan want an embankment removed, trees re-planted and a new stone altar to be reconstructed.
The US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Land Management and Oregon Department of Transportation claim that the slip-road and embankment were necessary for safety reasons.
The Supreme Court has until January to decide whether or not to hear the case.
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