Protection sought for Little Red Rock land

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.

Written comments on Little Red Rocks are due to the Army Corps of Engineers by Sept. 10. Comments should be sent to the District Engineer, U.S. Army, Corp. of Engineers, Sacramento District, Attn: Regulatory Branch, 1325 J St., Sacramento, CA 95814-2922.

Native American leaders urged a major Southern Nevada developer and a federal agency to protect rock art, ancestral burial grounds and other sites sacred to several Southwestern tribes during an emotional hearing Tuesday night.

The Howard Hughes Corp., which owns the land packed with ancient Indian sites on the edge of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, has set aside 75 acres that contain petroglyphs and other cultural resources and 200 acres along dry washes, Tom Warden, vice president of community and government relations, said.

"We want to preserve and protect the cultural sites in our northwest corner," Warden said. "We're still open to how all this comes together."

The rock art panels west of Las Vegas reveal a ghost-like shaman wearing a horned headdress, a bear paw, and horses. Also on the site are ancient shelters, roasting pits used by ancient Indians for cooking and pottery shards, some dating back 1,500 years.

Some at the hearing wanted more acres protected from encroaching development.

About 50 people jammed a Henderson conference room to express their attachments to the land. The Army Corps of Engineers led the informal hearing as part of a permit process under the Clean Water Act. Permits are required to allow some dry washes to be filled in during development.

Once the Corps considers all of the comments, final approval for any plan to preserve the petroglyphs, roasting pits and ceremonial sites must come from the State Historical Preservation Office in Carson City, Corps archaeologist Patti Johnson said.

Five sites in the Little Red Rock area have been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, Johnson said, but the area has not been studied in depth.

An extensive study of the area is needed because archaeologists have discovered ancient burial sites underneath roasting pits, said Alanah Woody, executive director of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation.

A survey of the area was completed in 1999, but the study had been of "minimal standard" and an in-depth examination was in order, Woody said, speaking from the audience.

One suggestion in a preservation plan prepared by Hughes includes a proposal to cover Indian graves over so they would not be disturbed.

Alfreda Mitre, tribal chair of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, said that burial sites are resting places for ancestors.

"Why do you want to live on a burial site?" Mitre asked. "It's not just land for sale, it's part of our existence from time immemorial."

Mitre described how Paiutes bury their dead so that they will always know they are connected to the earth, to a certain place.

"When the land is gone, it is gone, and you are the thieves of time, you are robbing us of our history," Mitre said.

Other tribes should be consulted about the Little Red Rock site, Mitre said, because many tribes traveled through Southern Nevada or lived here at some point in time, making it an important place for more than the local Native Americans.

Kenny Anderson, cultural representative for the Las Vegas Paiutes, wondered how the growing population of Las Vegas could bear to live on a burial site, even it it were covered with boulders.

"This whole valley has been covered over with pavement before anyone thought about what was underneath," Anderson said, referring to a time when no environmental laws protected cultural resources.

Moapa Paiute leader Calvin Meyers described a ritual when he goes out into the desert every day to pray, to gather food and to leave the city's pavement behind him.

"You're building a freeway right up to the site," Meyers said. "I know it's going to be destroyed. When you destroy my culture, you destroy me."

Representatives of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe and the Moapa Band of Paiutes have asked Hughes Corp. for more information and input before any decisions are made.

Hopi comments are included in the preservation plan, a fact the local tribes resented after not being invited to contribute.

Hopi tribe member Clay Hamilton, who traveled from Arizona to speak at the meeting, said the Hopi became interested in Little Red Rock because Hughes was willing to do something the federal agencies were not willing to do: protect the site.

"We have to respect each others' views," Hamilton said.

Perhaps a private owner such as Hughes could protect Little Red Rock best, Hamilton said, because such a large corporation would have the resources to hire guards to keep vandals off the property. Hopi elders visiting Little Red Rock discovered how destructive visitors can be.

"One site we visited was burned and the rock art had been removed," Hamilton said. "The elders touring the sites were disturbed."

Longtime Las Vegas resident Bruce Holloway said, "A couple of the areas were totally trashed."

Holloway suggested adding security guards to prevent current teenage rock artists with spray cans from defacing the sandstone cliffs.

Warden noted that fences made of large rocks at the site have been mowed down by vandals. "It's shocking," he said.

But, Warden added, security guards are expensive. He suggested a band of volunteers to help patrol the site.

Environmentalist Jeff van Ee said that any development in the area has to prepare for increased traffic, water reservoirs and flood control issues. Red Rock Canyon, located in the Spring Mountains, is part of a major watershed.

"I, personally, am concerned with preserving the views and these sites," van Ee said, asking Hughes to reveal more details about its plans for residential development and a proposed 400-room hotel and casino in the area.

Las Vegas resident and rock hound Don Hendricks said that the entire 690 acres of the Little Red Rock area should be defended from developers. Instead of trying to protect individual sites like islands on the property, the entire section of the sensitive lands should be defended, he said.

Perhaps the Bureau of Land Management or a preservation group could help protect the ancient sites, Hendricks said.

Warden promised that every option for the area would be considered. He said that would not be part of the permit process currently under way, but would require longer term negotiations.

"We would actually embrace that kind of thing," he said.