The Cape needs your help

Source: Barbara Durkin | Action alerts, Aesthetics, Information, Massachusetts

Translate: FROM English | TO English

We are all in a battle to preserve the historic integrity of the Cape and islands. Tribal rights to Nantucket Sound deemed eligible to listing to the National Register of Historic Places is a key issue under consideration by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. The single most important comment you can make to assert the value of the historic integrity of Nantucket Sound exists before 5 PM tomorrow. This issue parallels your successful effort to retain the historic character of a Cape Cod treasure, a National Park.

Please consider writing a letter in support of the Tribes at the forefront of our battle under the Section 106 Cape Wind NEPA review process. Encourage the Secretary to consider that heritage tourism (http://www.achp.gov/heritagetourism.html) is a better option than the industrialization of Nantucket Sound. The National Park that you have helped to preserve is a key victory that demonstrates the importance of the retention of the historic character of the Cape and islands.

Talking points for Cape Wind Environmental Assessment (Our last opportunity to comment on the Cape Wind project): provided by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound:
http://www.saveoursound.org/site/DocServer/Cape_Wind_EA_Key_Talking_Points.pdf?docID=1263

Please send your comments to:

exsec@ios.doi.gov or Fax to: 202-208-6950

Attention The Honorable Secretary Salazar:
Secretary Ken Salazar
U. S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240

Write your letters to defend the historic character of Cape Cod and the islands. Not all places are suitable for wind turbines and industrialization.
letters@washingtontimes.com
letters@washpost.com
letters@thehill.com

Resources:

“The Wampanoag were the first people of Noepe. For thousands of years these People of the First Light have been partners with Noepe. From the fishing shores to the inland woodlands, from the sand plains to the glacial ponds, the Island has provided for its people. And the Wampanoag have given back through wise stewardship of the land and sea.”
http://www.wampanoagtribe.net/Pages/Wampanoag_Way/other

MHC: OPINION OF ELIGIBILITY FOR NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
“The very meaning of “Wampanoag” rendered in English as the phase “People of the First Light or Dawn” refers to their relationship to Nantucket Sound as integral to their homelands, their history, their present, and their future. The evocative phrase “People of the First Light” is like a “tiny imagist poem” (Edward Sapir, quoted in Bragdon 1996: 135) packed with meaning. The word “Wampanoag” is both temporally literal-they have always been/are/will be the first people to see the sunrise over the water-and symbolically referential: they are of the place, it is how they identify themselves and how others know them. The Tribes have referred to their cultural identity and to their religious practices as dependent on their reverential viewsheds of Nantucket Sound…”
http://www.house.gov/delahunt/histcommission.pdf

ACHP Cape Wind Project Formal Comments Conveyed to Secretary Salazar on April 2:
ACHP: Nantucket Sound has been found eligible for listing in the National Register not only as a TCP but as a historic and archaeological property.
http://www.achp.gov/cape_wind_comment.html

A video presentation by Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, THPO, The Federally Recognized Wampanoag of Gay Head Aquinnah and the Federally Recognized Mashpee Wampanoag, and Dr. Tom King:
http://www.allmediapro.com/drtomking.html

National Parks Service
The Keeper has determined Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing to the National Register of Historic Places based on criteria A, B, C, D.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/guidance/NantucketSoundDOE.pdf

Roberta Lane is a program officer & regional attorney in the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Northeast Office.

However, there is no good reason for our nation’s goal of promoting wind energy development to conflict with our commitment of stewardship for our treasured historic places. This is a big country; there are lots of places to put wind farms. Why, then, is the nation’s first offshore industrial wind installation proposed for the heart of such a highly significant historical and cultural place?
http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=9186

1970’s 1980’s Federal and State Efforts to Make Nantucket Sound a National Marine Sanctuary Several Document links:
http://www.house.gov/delahunt/nansound.shtml