WASHINGTON – The Interior Department secretary has promised to issue a decision this spring on a controversial wind energy project on a shoal off Cape Cod that has been sacred to the Wampanoag people for thousands of years.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at a news conference Jan. 13 that he will render a decision no later than April on the Cape Wind application, which was filed nine years ago. The longstanding project and its conflicts have been “bad for everyone,” Salazar said.

“What I want everyone to understand is that we will bring this process to a conclusion.”

To do so, he must weigh two Obama administration priorities – renewable energy and historic preservation, which in the case of Cape Wind are in conflict.

“We strongly believe in both of these nation’s priorities,” Salazar said.

Interior’s Minerals Management Service drew up a proposed Memorandum of Agreement last June that provides a framework for discussion for all the parties to come together in agreement over the project, but Salazar said he was not sure that could be accomplished.

“There’s a tremendous amount of passion about this issue so we’ll let the process unfold.”

The Cape Wind energy installation would include around 130 wind turbines approximately 44 stories high above the ocean level erected across a 25-mile area as close as four miles offshore.

The wind farm would be clearly visible to the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe on Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard) and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on Cape Cod – the People of the First Light. The nations say Cape Wind would degrade their essential view of the rising sun for ceremonies and of the ocean view shed necessary for other rituals. The shoal itself where the turbines would be erected was once dry land and contains sacred burial sites and other cultural patrimony.

Massachusetts’ own Office of the State Historical Preservation Officer opposed the project, and in early January, the National Park Service said Nantucket Sound, the proposed Cape Wind site, is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as a significant traditional, cultural, historic and archaeological property.

The proposed project is so potentially devastating to the Wampanoags spiritual well-being that it has drawn opposition from tribal nations along the East Coast and as far away as Arizona who recognize their common battle to preserve and protect indigenous peoples’ sacred sites.

The protection of sacred sites is a provision of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the United States has so far failed to endorse, along with Canada and New Zealand. All three countries have large indigenous populations with aboriginal claims to huge tracts of land.

Salazar met in a consultation session with Cheryl Andrews-Maltais and Cedric Cromwell, chairs of the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag Tribes, respectively, followed by a meeting with representatives of the state and local governments, an opposition group called Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, and a support group called Clean Power Now. The final meeting involved the tribal leaders and developers.

Salazar set out a schedule for resolution of the application. A public comment period will extend until Feb. 12. If the parties cannot come to an agreement on the project by March 1, he will end the consultation process and render a decision in April.

While supporters of the project see Cape Wind as a test case for the Obama administration’s commitment to renewable energy, tribal nations see it as a test of Obama’s promises to honor the needs and laws concerning Indian nations.

Brian Patterson, president of the United South and Eastern Tribes, wrote to Salazar on behalf of the organization’s 25 federally recognized member tribes to support the Wampanoags’ efforts to assure that the Cape Wind project is not developed “at the expense of ancient tribal cultural and spiritual practice and beliefs.”

“The waterways around the United States are not vacant spaces. They belong to the history and culture of the coastal peoples of America,” Patterson wrote.

The particular waters of Nantucket Sound are essential to spiritual purposes that go to the heart of the Wampanoags’ identity as the People of the First Light, Patterson wrote.

“For those not familiar with Native culture, it can be hard to see the sacred spaces of America as Native people have seen them for thousands of years, but most Americans would understand that you could never build a wind turbine farm on top of the Gettysburg battlefield.”

Patterson said USET understands the “urgent” nature of moving forward on energy production, but he pointed to other “urgent” issues in the past that ended up only benefitting the needs of non-Indians.

“There is no justification for building the Cape Wind project and by doing so trampling on Native culture and beliefs that preceded the founding of the United States by thousands of years.”

Wendsler Nosie Sr., the chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona, also urged Salazar not to approve Cape Wind, comparing the protection of Nantucket Sound to the protection of his nation’s Oak Flat lands from mining.

“Progression in the name of mining or in this case, the turbines will bring jobs, yes, but at what cost to both the environment and the people who come from these lands? The religious customs and practices are the core of our existence as Native people. It is through these religious practices that we have received our blessings and our guidance that provides us the strength and protection we have carried forward for centuries.”

Nosie also invoked the memory of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who “served as a voice for protecting these Native brothers and sisters” and their lands and customs.