ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
EL PASO, Texas
Road Plan Rankles Texas' Tigua Indians
It looks like an undeveloped dirt lot in a residential neighborhood, so city officials decided to put a long-awaited four-lane road extension through it.
But the square of dirt is a holy site for the Tigua Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribe and the site of the tribe's original pueblo.
That's not the only problem with the planned road that would cut across other private property to create a direct path from Interstate 10 to a border highway on the city's congested southeast side.
It would also eliminate the parking lot for a Catholic monastery. Not to mention that other El Paso residents say they don't need or want the road.
The City Council debate on the extension drove one member to tears after the 5-4 vote this week in favor of the project, which has been in the works for more than 30 years.
"We've been here since 1680," noted Arturo Senclair, tribal governor of the Tiguas.
Senclair said City Council members who support the latest incarnation of the road extension are ignoring the history and significance of the site, even if looks are deceiving.
While the project still has several hurdles to overcome, including a vote this month by the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization, Senclair said he and other tribal leaders see the city's vote as an insult.
The Tigua tribe, recognized as a sovereign nation in 1987, was one of several tribes forced to close lucrative casinos after being targeted by Jack Abramoff. The disgraced former lobbyist pleaded guilty in 2006 to bilking the tribes out of millions of dollars amid promises to lobby Congress and the Interior Department on their behalf.
The road extension appeared dead two years ago after hundreds of residents demanded the project be abandoned. That plan, which would have required the destruction of as many as 250 houses, was unanimously rejected.
It was revived this year after city representative Alexandro Lozano suggested another route. Previous plans called for the road to be built near the tribal holy site, not over it.
Angry residents stormed out of the council chambers and a first-term councilwoman wept after Tuesday's vote. Even Lozano voted against the project, saying the opposition changed his mind.
A teary Rachel Quintana said she worried that destroying the Tigua site was "setting a precedent that we aren't sympathetic to their culture, their religion.
"I don't know how we are going to be looked at as a city," Quintana said. "What worries me is just the message we are sending: If we want something, we are going to do it no matter who is in our way."
Supporters see it as an infrastructure project long overdue.
"It's waned for about 20 years. This makes the most sense," councilman Steve Ortega said. "No. 1, it addresses traffic congestion; No. 2, it takes the least number of homes; and No. 3, the alternatives were cost prohibitive. The question is, do something or do nothing. I'd rather do something."
Disputes have long dogged the route for the road in the Mission Valley area. Maps of the area, including at least one drafted by the Texas Department of Transportation, are dotted with historic and culturally significant sites.
Among them is a Catholic monastery whose parking lot would likely be demolished if the road is built.
Ortega and Mayor John Cook, who cast the tie-breaking vote for the road extension, have pledged to work with the tribe, officials at the Monastery of Perpetual Adoration-Corpus Christi and other area residents to "minimize, to the greatest extent, the impact."
Cook has even offered to close the road for three days _ including the day before and after the Tiguas' annual St. Anthony's Feast celebration in June _ or trade the tribe for another piece of property.
But Senclair said there was no room for negotiation.
"They just don't understand us as tribes," he said. "You start giving a little bit and then a little bit more and then there is never an end."
Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Barbara J Hickman, Staff Archeologist
Archeological Studies Program
Environmental Affairs Division
Texas Department of Transportation
125 East 11th Street
Austin TX 78701
Telephone: 512.416.2637
Fax: 512.416.2643
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