...In May 2021, builders began driving dozens of metal beams into the ground near the Whitney. The Banner sisters jumped into action and asked the Center for Constitutional Rights, the attorneys who represent the Descendants Project, to send a letter to the Louisiana attorney general and the Louisiana Division of Archaeology to demand the building stop, citing the presence of unmarked burial sites.

The attorney general’s office brushed off the letter, saying unless there were actual bones dug up, the state refused to intervene in the building. So in November, the Descendants Project sued St. John the Baptist Parish, ProPublica reports, and in April the judge ruled that the suit could move forward. ...

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