Quechan elders vs. casino

New Quechan casino remains point of contention

Quechan elders call casino building site sacred, hold healing ceremoniesPrior to their day-long ceremony, the handful of tribal elders stressed that construction at the proposed casino site has offended their creator and their ancestral spirits by endangering lands considered sacred for their history and ancient artifacts.

"Now they have destroyed Pilot Knob itself, but cutting into it," said elder Vernon Smith. "They have uncovered something that we as a people need to go back and do a ceremony over there to alleviate the bad feelings that are happening. All of the turmoil, a lot of the morale that's going down, a lot of the deaths that have been happening, it can all be attributed to what is happening."