Carol Logan, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Wilbur Slockish, hereditary chief of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and Johnny Jackson, hereditary chief of the Cascade Tribe at Enola Hill, a sacred Native American site in the mountains near Mount Hood. The Yakama and Grand Ronde tribes are asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on their claim that an expansion of Highway 26 in 2008 violated their religious freedom by destroying an ancient burial site, a stone altar and old-growth trees. Tribal elders Wilbur Slockish and Carol Logan say a forested site off U.S. Highway 26 on Mount Hood was like a church without walls. They’ve told judges in district and circuit courts that they would visit the sacred burial ground to remember their ancestors and pray to their creator near a stone altar surrounded by old growth trees. The site, known as Ana Kwna Nchi Nchi Patat, which means “Place of Big Big Trees,” was destroyed by a highway expansion project in 2008. Slockish, the hereditary chief of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and Logan, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, sued the […]
