The Air Force’s massive project to replace its 50-year-old Minuteman III nuclear missile system has triggered a review of how hundreds of prehistoric archaeological sites on the Utah Test and Training Range will be protected during the work.
The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, other tribes and Hill Air Force Base will be working together during the Air Force’s planned decommissioning of the Minuteman and the deployment of the Sentinel, the U.S. military’s ground-based nuclear force of the future. The solid rocket motors of 400 Minuteman missiles, arrayed in silos in Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and North Dakota, will be transported to Hill and UTTR, many of them to be destroyed on the test range.
Hill’s cultural resource program has identified 822 archaeological sites on the UTTR, most prehistoric, including at least one that’s 12,000 years old, archaeologist and program manager Anya Kitterman said. One site is considered sacred by the Northwestern Band.
Hill officials and a tribal spokesperson were asked about the potential effects of the Minuteman-Sentinel project’s elements in the UTTR. They said they do not expect any of the work to affect the sacred site, but all voiced the importance of ongoing efforts to monitor and protect the site.
“The tribe really feels the area needs to be protected and to see that our voices are heard,” said Patty Timbimboo Madsen, the Northwestern Band’s cultural resources director. The tribe is headquartered in Brigham City and historically ranged in southern Idaho and Northern Utah.
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
