Comanches kick Army's butts

Army loses $650K on project at Fort Sill

Comanche Nation successfully argued that Medicine Bluff area is sacred

By Nolan ClayTaxpayers are out almost $650,000 because the U.S. Army scrapped construction of a warehouse here on sacred American Indian land, records show.

The post’s garrison commander last year changed the warehouse location after a federal judge blocked construction on land south of historic Medicine Bluffs. Judge Timothy DeGiusti acted after the Comanche Nation complained a warehouse near the bluffs would "spoil this sacred site for practitioners of Comanche traditional spiritual beliefs.”

The judge said post officials "turned a deaf ear to warnings” about the site. The judge agreed the area is a sacred site and said "an unobstructed view of all four bluffs is central to the spiritual experience of the Comanche people.”

Last month, U.S. attorneys reported the government paid $421,277 to the Florida construction company that had started work on the Training Support Center warehouse at the original site. The contract with that company was terminated last year.

The government also paid $227,702 in design costs involved in changing the location of the warehouse, officials disclosed in legal papers.Comment:  Just as they did in the old days, Comanches kicked the Army's butts again.

Finally, Indians won a case about protecting a sacred site. This should happen often, but it doesn't.

It's hilarious how the Army said the site near Medicine Bluffs was the only possible one for its warehouse. When the judge ruled against the Army, it inevitably found another site that was just as good.

For more on the subject, see Fort Sill Backs Off and "War" Threatens Medicine Bluffs.