Tuesday, Mar 1 2011 9:41AM
Some Native American groups are protesting the development of sacred land for solar energy projects.
Native American groups are fighting the federal government over the construction of green infrastructure projects they say will harm their sacred grounds in the country's Western deserts, reported the Associated Press.
Recent lawsuits by two Native American tribes are threatening solar energy projects identified as high priority by the Obama Administration. The news agency reported one suit has already stalled construction on a major solar farm in Southern California that would require 7,000 acres of land in the city of Blythe.
Although the federal government is required to consult local tribes before initiating land projects, some native groups believe their concerns aren't being heard.
"There is this sense that there is this rush to renewable energy that's politically motivated and when tribes are consulted their concerns aren't being taken seriously," Michelle Raheja, interim director of the California Center for Native Nations, told the news agency. "There's no guarantee that once the project starts that they won't harm something."
While native groups don't object to renewable energy practices, they say many proposed projects are situated in the wrong places, such as one 56,000 acre project in California that is located near abandoned villages and cultural landmarks.
The Quechan tribe recently won an injunction against a solar energy project in California's Imperial County that would have been built on culturally significant sites, including an ancestral burying ground.