Feds Defend Bulldozing Native American Burial Grounds For Highway Expansion
A federal judge seemed skeptical Monday about the government’s argument that it was within its rights to destroy burial grounds and a ceremonial site sacred to members of the Klickitat and Cascade Native American tribes to widen a highway.
In 2008, the government widened U.S. Highway 26, which runs from the Pacific Ocean over Mount Hood and into the eastern part of the state. The Oregon Department of Transportation took special care not to disturb wetlands that ran along the road and to avoid encroaching on a roadside tattoo parlor.
