Subject: Mohican Site in Grave Danger
From: "Debra J. Winchell" <winchd@rpi.edu>

WAL-MART PLANS TO BUILD ON ANCIENT MOHICAN SITE

Walmart wants to build a store on an undisturbed Mohican site called Leeds Flat dating back over 1,000 years in the Town of Leeds in New York State. They do not want to permit a thorough archaelogical dig, which would give the Mohicans invaluable information on their history and culture, much of which has been lost since the coming of the Europeans. The remains of a child have also been found at the site. Wal-Mart advertises itself as being family-oriented, yet they want to stop Native Americans, who are typically very family-oriented, from learning more about their families. After tribal members visited the site and staged a protest rally garnering much press coverage December 1995, the Mohican tribe agreed to join the Greene County group It's Not Easy Being Greene in a lawsuit against the Town of Leeds, claiming it illegally approved the environmental impact statement when it was not complete and rezoning the historic area. It is well-known that Leeds Flats was the site of a Mohican village and also a flood plain. No plans were submitted for dealing with the flood plain. It flooded to 3 feet one time this winter. This historical, sacred site must be preserved. They must stop taking from Native Americans. Please join me in sending e-mail protests to the Letters to the President at letters@wal-mart.com or write letters to the people listed below. They only have an option to buy the property. If we apply pressure, maybe they will pull out.

**Please cross-post and forward to interested persons or lists. Thank you.**

Key People at Wal-Mart

S. Robson Walton, Chairman
Donald G. Soderquist, VC and COO
David D. Blass, President and CEO
William R. Fields, President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores Division Joseph S. Hardin, EVP, COO, Wal-Mart Stores Division John B. Menzer, EVP and CFO
Nicholas J. White, EVP Supercenter Division

Headquarters Address: Bentonville, AR 72716
Phone: 501-273-4000
Fax: 501-273-8650

Debra Winchell, Melrose, NY, winchd@rpi.edu
http://www.rpi.edu/~winchd/mohicans.html

This is solely my opinion, but I hope not for long.

Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 11:27:00 -0600
Subject: Re: Grave Danger & Wal-Mart
From: dhardin@longwood.lwc.edu (David Hardin)

Ah, the joys of predatory capitalism! Whether it's Washington's boyhood home at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, Virginia, ancestral Mohican lands in Leeds, New York, or countless other economically crippled small downtowns across America, Wal-Mart marches relentlessly on, crushing all in its path! One wonders if the good people at Wal-Mart would be so eager to build if it was a relict industrial waste site rather than ancestral Native land? Somehow, I think they'd be more likely to listen to historians' concerns then.

Dr. David S. Hardin
Assistant Professor of Geography
Natural Sciences Department
Longwood College
Farmville, VA 23909
(804) 395-2581
dhardin@longwood.lwc.edu

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