A trio of tribal elders asked a judge in Oregon this week to settle a long-standing dispute with the federal government over sacred burial grounds they contend were destroyed nearly a decade ago to expand a highway near Mt. Hood.

The lawsuit claims the government destroyed a sacred site along a roughly 5-acre parcel on the north side of U.S. 26, about 13 miles west of Government Camp, in 2008 for a widening project. An attorney representing the tribal elders said they tried for years to work with the government to avoid a lawsuit but were unsuccessful.

Wilbur Slockish and Johnny Jackson, the Hereditary Chiefs of the Klickitat and Cascade Tribes of the Yakama Nation respectively, filed a motion for summary judgment in U.S. District Court Monday. Carol Logan, a tribal elder with the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, and two nonprofit groups, also are part of the lawsuit filed against the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The elders are seeking a ruling from the judge that the government violated a key section of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the same law cited by the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the owners of the conservative retailer Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor.

"When it's an endangered species, wetlands, or even a nearby tattoo parlor, the government finds a way to protect it," Luke Goodrich, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement. "But when it's a Native American sacred site, they unleash the bulldozers and chainsaws. Becket is a nonprofit religious liberty law firm.

"After taking this land from the tribes in 1855, the government now has the gall to claim that it can destroy it because it is 'government land.' But it's not 1855 anymore," Goodrich said. Two of the plaintiffs are direct descendants of Sla-kish, the tribal chief who signed the Yakama Treaty in 1855.

A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration declined to comment, saying the agency does not comment on pending lawsuits.

According to court documents, the location near today's Wildwood Recreation Site was used for centuries by tribal members to practice Washat, an ancient Yakama religion.

The tribes used the specific site on the approach to Mt. Hood, named Ana Kwna Nchi chi Patat, or the Place of Big Big Trees, as a resting stop and religious campground.

Tribal members used the area to rest while en route to Celilo Falls, the lawsuit said.

For centuries, the site included an altar made of river rocks and other stone monuments nestled among old-growth trees.

"To me, this site was like a church. One that never had walls, or a roof, or a floor, but it was still just as sacred," Jackson said in a statement. "If the government can callously destroy our place of worship, it could do the same to any other group."

The elders say they were first made aware of a possible highway expansion in 1985. They say BLM officials surveyed the campground and determined the altar was a significant artifact that may be at least several hundred years old, according to the lawsuit.

But it was subsequently destroyed.

Goodrich said in an interview that the elders are not able to obtain a financial settlement under the federal religious freedom act. Rather, they are asking an apology, declaration that there was a significant wrong perpetrated on the native people and they're asking for some remediation of the site.

The group is asking for all or part of an earthen berm installed covering the campsite and burial ground to be removed, and trees and vegetation planted. The government could also install a marker acknowledging the historic nature of the site or allow tribal members to create a replica of the ancient altar on the site.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen

Clarification: This story has been clarified to reflect clearly that the lawsuit involved the tribal elders, not the tribes. A previous version of the story was not clear.