Liberal politicians and celebrities in Massachusetts are the first people you would expect to support a big, 130-turbine windmill farm that would generate clean energy for their state and release none of the “greenhouse gases” they blame for “global warming.” Some of those very individuals, after all, long promoted the supposed wonders of wind power for the rest of the nation. But when the windmill farm would be in their own backyard, their enthusiasm has cooled.
A company named Cape Wind would build the giant turbines several miles off the shore of Massachusetts in Nantucket Sound.
The company has obtained approval for the project from one regulatory agency after another over a period of years. But now that it is about to gain final approval, some American Indians have stepped forward to say the windmills would undermine certain rituals they conduct.
The Wampanoag Indians say they need an unobstructed view of the water to greet the sun. A slight view of the windmills far off in the water would “destroy” their dances and chants at “secret, sacred sites,” The Associated Press reported.
But interestingly, a member of the tribe has come forward to question whether any such rituals even exist.
“I am stating to you with complete honesty and knowledge that I never participated in, witnessed, or even heard of a sacred spot on the horizon that is relevant to any Aquinnah Wampanoag culture, history or ceremony. Nor did I see, or hear, either my father or grandfather conduct such ceremony,” Jeffrey Madison, whose father and grandfather were medicine men in the tribe, wrote to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
If the Wampanoag manage to kill the Nantucket Sound project, will people who live near other proposed windmill sites suddenly discover some ancient “rituals” to protect themselves from noisy, unsightly wind farms, too?