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| Sites in Need of ProtectionWilliamson Co., Tennessee
http://www.tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/02/05/17012580.shtml?Element_ID=17012580
The Tennessean (Nashville), Friday, 05/03/02
Native Americans, TDOT to be back in court May 9
By PEGGY SHAW Staff Writer
FRANKLIN - Native Americans are taking legal action to stop TDOT from encapsulating ancient graves in concrete and paving over them at the intersection of Old Hickory Boulevard and Hillsboro Road.
A petition for an injunction was filed Tuesday in Davidson County Chancery Court asking that the court consider the Native Americans' equal protection and due process rights. A hearing has been scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday in Chancery Court I.
The petition called the state's plan to encapsulate the graves "arbitrary, capricious and illegal" because TDOT has "never officially treated the human remains of non-Native American Indians in this manner." The petition also called the highway plan "racially motivated" and said that burying the graves under asphalt would cause the Native Americans to suffer "immediate and irreparable harm."
The petition was filed by attorney Joseph Johnson on behalf of four individuals and the Alliance for Native American Indian Rights in Tennessee, and named as defendants J. Bruce Saltsman, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, and the state of Tennessee.
Legal battles began three years ago when TDOT, planning to add turning lanes to the intersection, discovered the graves and filed a petition for termination of the land's use as a cemetery. Local Native Americans protested by filing suit in both Williamson and Davidson counties.
None of those suits has a stopped TDOT's plan to place additional lanes at the busy intersection. This is the first lawsuit, however, to tackle TDOT's latest plan to encapsulate the graves.
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