My name is Felecia and this petition is deeply personal to me. The place that Cedar Point Developers LLC wants to convert into a housing estate is more than just land, it is the resting place of my ancestors. Turning it into a construction site means erasing native American history and heritage, something I cannot stand idle to. I am appealing to everyone, particularly to Sen. Michael Lazzara, to stop the progress of HB385. As the legislation that paves the way for this disruptive venture, halting it could prevent irreparable harm to the tuscarora native American history. It's not just about my personal story, this is about respecting and preserving historical and cultural sites across the country, sites that hold deep meaning and connection for many families like mine. We should prioritize protecting these valuable lands over rampant development. Stoping this will even protect the civil battlefields. Join me in urging Sen. Michael Lazzara to defend our history, our culture, and halt House Bill 385. Sign this petition please.

his amendment (HB 385-ARI-77) will be very destructive to cultural resources along the North Carolina coast, and will set a dangerous precedent by weakening protections for heritage and Native American burial sites across the state. It will also jeopardize more recent archeological resources such as Civil War battlefields. We demand protections for Native burial grounds, cemeteries and irreplaceable cultural resources - NO HB385!

Here are 3 key sections of HB385 we're worried about:

Section 8(b): Restricting the definition of historic places to those listed or determined eligible to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).  This covers only a small fraction of the archaeological sites in the state. It ignores all sites that have not been professionally assessed for NRHP eligibility and all undiscovered sites. That's tens of thousands of sites along the NC coast alone. Whether they have been listed or assessed has nothing to do with their significance. Sites are no less significant just because they haven't been studied adequately. This change will cause the destruction of the majority of archaeological resources in the path of development and their data will be lost forever.  It would also cause the destruction of sites that contain human burials. Native American burials are already covered under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and NC's unmarked burial law (GS 70). This amendment will likely conflict with those statutes.

Section 8(e): This alters the definition of "major and irreversible damage" to cultural resources to exclude inadvertent discoveries.  This is how many archaeological sites are discovered, when they are impacted by development. The very act of discovering them is irreversible damage. Combining this with the previous section, this would allow developers to obtain building permits in Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) areas with no archaeological survey to identify sites.  And when they impact a site they won't have to cease construction or do any archaeological recovery or assessment. 

Section 8(f): In the narrow circumstance that archaeological work is required under the law, this last change will force the state to cover the cost of the work.  This change forces taxpayers to cover the bill to do archaeological recovery work that benefits the individual developers. At the same time it incentivizes developers to ignore the potential effects of their construction on archaeological resources.  Not only would this cost the state millions, but the state government doesn't have the required resources or qualified personnel to carry out such work on that scale. 

Though these changes only cover CAMA areas, it would set a dangerous precedent. This amendment will result in the destruction of cultural resources along NC's coast. It won't just affect Native American sites but all archaeological resources, even more recent sites like Civil War battlefields or cemeteries.