Holiday Inns and Wal-Marts aren’t usually constructed over cemeteries. But for many American Indian cultures, instances of companies and roads built on top of sacred burial sites are fairly common.

“There are places where Holiday Inns and golf courses have been built over sacred places,” said Clyde Bellecourt, director of the Peacemaker Center in Minneapolis and advocate for American Indian civil and spiritual rights.

Instances of people exposing sacred Indian sites are not unusual, Bellecourt said.

Bellecourt will speak at 8 p.m. Friday about “Sacred Spaces and Places” in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. The speech will focus on areas sacred to American Indians and what has been happening to many of them. There are many examples of violations of sacred lands, such digging up Indian remains and artifacts or building on top of mounds that house Indian remains. Bellecourt will describe many different circumstances.

Bellecourt, who was a co-founder of the American Indian Movement in 1968, is the keynote speaker for the 33rd annual Symposium on the American Indian, which began Wednesday with a flute performance and will end Saturday with two powwows.

Almost all of America is sacred land to any given American Indian culture, he said.

“All land is sacred because Earth was considered a mother for all tribes … and you shouldn’t violate her by changing her or blowing her up,” Bellecourt said.

Lynn Paxson, associate professor of architecture and adviser for the three American Indian student organizations on campus, said the issue of sacred land is very timely and important. Paxson said such issues have been going on for years, but in the last few years more people have become aware of them.

“People would find it problematic if someone wanted to climb a Mormon Temple or a church. But a landscape, people don’t see as man-made,” Paxson said. “They see landscape as an area to provide something else, like recreation and climbing.”

Violation of sacred lands has also taken place in Iowa. She said there are about 17 Indian tribes with connections to the Iowa landscape, but the only tribe owning land in Iowa is the Meskwaki, and they had to buy their land back.

Museums put many Indian artifacts on public display, she said, even though most American Indians believe artifacts should remain in the earth.

Friday night, Bellecourt will speak about many of the historical perspectives related to sacred land issues, he said.

Bellecourt’s visit has brought excitement to American Indian activists on campus.

“He is a spiritual organizer and leader and very active, and anyone that is interested in activism at all should hear him speak,” said Jeanne Ballanger, senior in animal ecology, and president of the American Indian Rights Organization and the United Native American Student Association.

Ballanger said she and other students were able to meet Bellecourt and lunch with him on a trip to Minnesota for a rally. He expressed an interest in coming to Iowa State to speak.

“I was just fascinated. He’s … passionate and very into the rights of Indians,” Ballanger said. “He was very easy to talk to and very funny.”

Ballanger said hearing him speak would be a great opportunity to learn from someone who has a great deal of experience.

“This is where it’s at; it’s not all tepees and powwows,” she said. “This is going to be the real Indians for you here, not the media images.”