In this Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, file photo, the sun begins to rise over Nantucket Sound as seen from Popponesset Beach in Mashpee, Mass. The sacred rituals of the Wampanoags require an unblocked view of the sunrise, and they object to the proposed construction of turbines from the 25-square mile Cape Wind project. (AP photo)

By ANDREW MIGA of the Associated Press

WASHINGTON  – Federal officials on Monday agreed to a request by two Indian tribes for special protections for Nantucket Sound, a move that could delay construction of a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod.

The National Park Service said the sound is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places due to its significance as a traditional cultural, historic and archaeological property.

The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes say the designation, which would come with new regulations for activity on the sound, is needed to preserve the tribe’s sacred rituals.

The Wampanoag — the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 17th century and is known as “the people of the first light” — practice sacred rituals requiring an unblocked view of the sunrise. That view won’t exist if the Cape Wind project’s turbines, each over 400 feet tall, are built several miles from the Cape Cod shore. The turbines would be visible to Wampanoag in Mashpee and on Martha’s Vineyard.

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Here’s the entire text of today’s Associated Press story:

PLYMOUTH (AP) – American Indian activists are planning to mark Thanksgiving by holding a “Day of Mourning” in Plymouth.

The United American Indians of New England say they have been holding the annual protest since 1970 to call attention to the disastrous consequences that eventually followed that first feast between European settlers and Native American tribes nearly 400 years ago.

The group’s co-leader Moonanum James, a Wampanoag Indian, said native people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims.

He called Plymouth Rock a monument to racism and genocide.

Organizers said participants in the protest planned to gather at about noon on Thursday by the statue of Massasoit on Cole’s Hill above the Plymouth waterfront.

Gwen Florio

An artist’s conception of the Cape Wind project. (AP photo)

The Wampanoag tribes, whose name translates to “People of First Light,” say the hundreds of square miles in Nantucket Sound must provide an unobstructed view of the rising sun in order for the tribes to continue ceremonies that are centuries old, according to this New York Times story. The story goes on to report that the tribes want the federal government to designate the sound as a “traditional cultural property” and prohibit the project from being built there. Both the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) are involved.

The turbines would be sunk on a shallow ocean bottom that long ago, before being covered by seawater, was a tribal burial site, the tribes say.

“It is a place where our ancestors are buried,” George “Chuckie” Green, a historical officer for the tribe, tells the Times’ Evan Lehmann. “It is a place that is principal to our practices. An unobstructed view of the eastern sun is paramount to our religion.”

Supporters of the wind farm say that if the tribes’ objections stand, it could set a legal precedent that could affect other planned wind farms along the coast.

Gwen Florio