click to enlarge Excavation work in progress. Marina Thomas In 2018, the City of Phoenix unveiled a new vision for their notoriously rundown Edison Eastlake housing projects. The buildings, left in despair for decades, would be demolished. They would be replaced by new mixed income apartments surrounded by parks and gardens. However, as it turned out, these projects were built in the heart of one of the largest archaeological sites in Phoenix, inhabited by the Hohokam centuries ago. The city estimates that more than 700 Hohokam remains could be exposed in the course of ongoing construction. Now some activists are fighting for the preservation of the graves. Related Stories I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of the New Times clear. One of them is Marina Thomas, a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and a descendant of the Hohokam. In April, she first shared her concerns with the City of Phoenix, stating that the news of the plan “deeply worries the community” – and that although the tribe had been consulted about the project, the wider community had not been made aware was. That has changed. Over the past few weeks, Thomas and the O’odham Stronghold advocacy group have been spreading their message and getting a lot of positive feedback. A petition entitled “Let our ancestors rest” has so far collected more than 40,000 signatures, with commentators calling the development a “grave robbery”. “The O’odham have always inhabited the entire region of the Sonoran Desert,” the petition says, and it goes on to say that removing the corpses from the ground would disrupt the “very sacred process of the body becoming one with the earth.” “I felt really hard with it,” Thomas Phoenix told the New Times. “The city doesn’t want to listen. And the tribe can’t do anything. ”In Edison-Eastlake, the archaeological site is unmarked – but it is part of a sprawling prehistoric village called” La Ciudad “that stretches for hundreds of acres to the east of Phoenix. Over the decades, La Ciudad has been excavated dozens of times, often to make way for new developments. For example, the Heard Museum’s original collection consisted of artifacts from the site; its founders, Dwight and Maie Heard, bought a piece of the ruins in the 1920s. “It’s a huge, massive site,” said James Watson, assistant director of the Arizona State Museum, noting that it has been excavated “many, many times.” In recent years these excavations have been relatively small. In contrast, the current project, which has been withdrawing housing projects since the 1940s, will “expose a huge portion of the site that, in my opinion, has not been exposed since the initial investigations”. The project’s impact on the archaeological site will be “far-reaching,” according to a treatment plan from the Phoenix New Times; At least one parcel is at the core of the site and is estimated to contain over a thousand structures – and hundreds of graves. For archaeologists, the plan is that the site will offer a “unique opportunity” to study the life and social structures of the Hohokam. Nevertheless, such an effort is hardly unusual for the city. “In all fairness,” said Watson, “the entire city of Phoenix is basically parked on a huge Hohokam archaeological site.” Phoenix development projects frequently pierce these ancient sites, all of which require similar excavations. Recently, a demolition project in Tempe uncovered an old Hohokam community center that was buried by a railroad. Typically, however, such excavations are carried out quietly. Agreements between the city and the local tribes often require discretion, as was the case with the current Edison Eastlake project. It is unusual for them to become the subject of public scrutiny – when the city encounters opposition to a process that has become routine over the years. In Arizona, state law governs the protocol to be followed when human remains are found on public land. All discoveries are reported to the Arizona State Museum, which must then consult with groups that have ties to the burials – in this case, tribal governments. The museum, Watson says, processes dozens of these arrangements every year. click to enlarge The plans. City of Phoenix This protocol was followed in the case of Edison-Eastlake, according to the City of Phoenix. In a statement, a city spokesman said the city is “working with all four O’odham parishes and 10 other tribes on this project” and providing them with “daily updates.” However, that doesn’t always mean that the wider community will be made aware of the work. That would be “mandatory for the tribal units we work with,” said Watson. Salt River-Pima Maricopa and Gila River Indian community conservation officers failed to respond to New Times inquiries; a Salt River-Pima Maricopa official who refused to be identified said only that there were “different opinions” within the community on the matter. In such cases, however, the tribes still have little choice as to whether their ancestral graves are disrupted. Since 1990 state and federal laws have required the repatriation of remains and artifacts, for memorial services or for reburial purposes. However, no consent is required to core the remains. “You have tied your hands,” said Thomas. “Knowing how development works, I very much doubt that such a thing can ever be stopped by a tribe that expresses concern,” said Watson – although, he emphasized, “this disturbance and destruction and desecration of their ancestral graves, “For tribes,” are really painful. “And indeed, despite the outcry, development of the project continues. The new Edison Eastlake plans are finally welcome in a neighborhood that the city had neglected for years, leaving buildings behind for the new development that The $ 30 million federal grant will build a number of parks with gardens and walkways, and build 1,000 residential units – including marketable and new public housing – at a time when the city is facing a worsening shortage of affordable housing. For the residents of Edison-Eastlake, the changes are long overdue, but Thomas says it is Difficult to watch the plans take shape without mentioning what lies underneath. Place of worship, she said, she “just wanted to look at everything, sit here and learn from it.” as it says in a city brochure, “rich in history”.
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