This story truncates the quote from Nygren:<p>> “It is crucial to emphasize that the moon holds a sacred position in many Indigenous cultures, including ours. We view it as a part of our spiritual heritage, an object of reverence and respect. The act of depositing human remains and other materials, which could be perceived as discards in any other location, on the Moon is tantamount to desecration of this sacred space.”<p>It also sounds like the more straightforward and avoidable issue is that NASA and the federal government both pledged, decades ago and again recently, to at least consult with the tribe on similar missions and then broke that promise. (cf. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090108193621/http://amarillo.com/stories/011498/LG3057.002.shtml" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20090108193621/http://amarillo.c...</a>)
This is astoundingly vacuous.<p>The moon is a whole planetoid. To speak of 'the moon' as one place is meaningless.<p>Imagine a people that asked "don't bury your dead in the earth's soil! Soil is sacred to us! Everybody please burn them instead!"<p>We'd all laugh. Whose business is it to dictate the activities on an entire world?<p>It's like treaties that forbid certain things 'in space'. Wha? You mean, the entire Universe? Meaningless.<p>For instance: We could dump waste on the moon for centuries, and never see it from the earth. It is as big across as Australia. Dump something in the outback of Australia, and challenge anyone to find it. Silly.<p>A polite answer is required, but by no means should anyone consider such a request as a serious matter.
> Nygren wants the launch delayed and the tribe consulted immediately. He noted the Moon is sacred to numerous Indigenous cultures and that depositing human remains on it is “tantamount to desecration.”<p>What nonsense.<p>> Then-Navajo Nation President Albert Hale said the action was a gross insensitivity to the beliefs of many Native Americans. NASA later apologized and promised to consult with tribes before authorizing any similar missions in the future.<p>This time, NASA should stand up to this idiocy.
" native American sacred sites' has been stretched beyond any useful meaning "<p>very much. there is no natives, we are people of earth and nations.