{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "Community Land & Water Coalition",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/community-land-water-coalition",
"title": "We Demand Change!",
"thumbnail_url": "https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg",
"description": "INDIGENOUS ERASURE: THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION'S ROLE Indigenous people have called the land now known as Massachusetts home for over 13,000 years. Millennia of indigenous history and culture are still contained in the land: habitation and village sites, burial grounds, artifacts, ceremonial stone landscapes, waterscapes, and more. The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) is responsible for safeguarding Indigenous history, yet they facilitate the destruction of important Indigenous sites without public knowledge. For 60 years, Massachusetts’ Governor and Secretary of State have failed to appoint a single Indigenous person to the 17-person MHC Board. The Massachusetts Historical Commission violates international laws, such as the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), by allowing federally-funded infrastructure projects to destroy important Indigenous sites without free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous people. The MHC lacks the expertise and authority to make decisions concerning Indigenous cultural heritage, leading to euro-centric interpretations of archaeological information. The MHC allows for discovered Indigenous artifacts to be destroyed or permanently stored in state consultant warehouses, preventing their return to Indigenous peoples. The MHC often makes it difficult for Indigenous peoples to access detailed archaeological reports of their ancestral sites, resulting in loss of cultural heritage, a barrier to education, and lack of government accountability and transparency. The MHC frequently asks archaeologists to modify their reports to advance state infrastructure projects, even if these projects might damage or destroy significant Indigenous cultural sites. Desecration of Indigenous cultural sites often involves the destruction of natural resources, as the spiritual and cultural history of Indigenous people is part of the land itself. The ultimate impact of the MHC's practices is the gradual erasure of Indigenous cultures in Massachusetts, which is a loss for all of humanity, not just Indigenous peoples.",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-demand-change"
}