Graves at center of building dispute

DAWN DE BUSK

Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - A small group camped out near a trio of graves in Wasilla on Friday night. The family was ready to protest land-clearing that could start any time, now that permits are in place to build a triplex on the privately owned land.

Nancy Sult, a member of the nonprofit Friends of Old Knik, along with her 7-year-old son, Stephen, and her 16-year-old daughter, Caitlin, held a vigil Friday night and Saturday. Sult plans to protect what she says are the remaining graves of an old cemetery on Canon Hill, about a half-mile from the Parks Highway on Knik Goose Bay Road. Saturday, her son helped her plant pansies in the rain to honor those buried in the wooded area.

On the property line, a fence surrounds three graves, one with a weather-beaten wooden cross.

"I've talked to seniors who remember spirit houses on this hill. Who would want to live here? I'm very comfortable in cemeteries, but I wouldn't want to live in one," Sult said.

"With compassion, we can find other places to build," she said.

The Alaska Historic Preservation Act could come to Sult's aid. Last year, state lawmakers amended the act to preserve Native and historical gravesites on all land - not just state-owned parcels - by requiring the permission of involved tribes. Alaska State Troopers could enforce the regulation.

Sult said she plans to call troopers as soon as she hears chain saws.

Friday morning, the Wasilla city planning office approved a special-use permit to property owner Brenda Currier, of Wasilla, for construction of a 4,592-square-foot multi-family residence on her 1.22 acre in Century Park Subdivision.

"I'm going through the right channels to develop my own property," Currier said Friday. "I'm going to build something quite nice with handicap access," she said, adding that it's close to the Wasilla Senior Center.

She said she's held the deed to the land since about 1982, and finally has the capital to build a rental that would generate extra income for her family. This weekend, she posted a "No Trespassing" sign on her land.

The permit application process was required because the landowner planned to build a residential structure in a commercial zone, said city planner Sandra Garley.

The procedure to acquire a permit doesn't require a public meeting, but the city does notify property owners within a 1200-foot radius of the proposed building, she said. Several other entities such as the Mat-Su Borough Code Compliance department and Friends of Old Knik were contacted for written comment, said Garley.

The lot, where the rental unit is proposed to be built, is situated west of KGB Road off Check Drive in the Century Park subdivision. According to journal entries of Orville Herning from the early 1900s and testimonies of local residents, there are gravesites of Natives and a Wasilla settler at the eastern corner of the construction site.

"I have spoken with the property owners regarding the record of three known graves on this property," Fran Seager-Boss wrote in the comment section of the permit-application notice she received. "They (the property owners) have decided to consult the services of an archaeologist to ensure no graves will be disturbed."

Currier said it isn't her intent to disturb gravesites, and to cover her bases, she's invited the Knik Tribal Council and an archaeologist to be present when construction starts. She also plans to build on a concrete slab, rather than digging to make the foundation.

"There are graves all over the Valley, up and down Knik River Road," Currier said, adding that the old cemetery was disturbed when the road was put in. "I'm not trying to do anything funny."

Some of the graves are less than 100 years old, said Sult. She said that historical accounts show a white bachelor named Bill Moffat was buried there. The earth also holds the remains of people whose burial sites were once accompanied by spirit houses, she said.

City planner Sandra Garley said she didn't consider the potential desecration of graves when she approved the application Friday morning because the city does not have any ordinances addressing the disturbance of gravesites. Her job was to ascertain the plan for parking and setbacks.

"There are state and federal laws regarding that issue that (the property owner) will have to comply with," said Garley.

"It's a federal offense. A grave is a grave, and they should leave them alone," said Paul Theodore, chief of the Knik Tribe, who is not affiliated with the Knik Tribal Council. "I should go dig up some graves in the cemetery and build a house there. See if I would get arrested for that."

Theodore said he hoped the Federal Bureau of Investigation would have power to step in and halt the construction if things couldn't be handled on the local level.

"It's in the city limits and it should be protected. The city should protect historical places. If they aren't going to protect it, they should deed the land back to the tribe and pay a penalty for disturbing it," said Theodore.

Sult said one solution might be a land trade between Currier and the Knikatnu, which owns lands along Knik Goose Bay Road.

Sult said her group plans to take the legal route of filing an appeal of the permit once it raises the $250 required for the paperwork.

For now, she's set up camp in front of the tree where Currier has posted "No Trespassing" signs trying to hold her ground to defend the sanctity of the Old Knik gravesites.

Contact Dawn De Busk at

352-2252, or dawn.debusk@

frontiersman.com.