“Pocahontas and Tonto have had their day,” said former Warwick City Councilmember Carlo Pisaturo. “It’s over.”

In a piece in the Warwick Beacon, reporter John Howell reports that former Warwick City Councilmember Carlo Pisaturo (Ward 5), who was appointed to the Warwick Sewer Authority by Mayor Joseph Solomon, said that respecting the graves of Native Americans would be too costly.

“Forget all the stuff with the Indians and do it the conventional way,” Pisaturo said.

Warwick initially planned to use directional drilling, which would allow crews to avoid disturbing “evidence of Indians” that was “unearthed in diggings conducted on Tidewater Drive and surrounding roads.”

“Pocahontas and Tonto have had their day,” said Pisaturo in the Warwick Beacon. “It’s over.”

The Warwick Beacon piece continues:

Pisaturo said he is not aware of Indian gravesites in the path of the sewers, and even should bones be found, who is to say they are human and, if human, who is to say they belong to Native Americans? He noted that there are historic cemeteries throughout the city and he wouldn’t be surprised if burials might be found.

“The cost is going to be excessive,” Pisaturo said of directional drilling, although he didn’t offer cost estimates. “We have to get moving on it [Bayside sewers],” he said.

Pisaturo joins John Dionne this week in being a former City counselor making racist, public comments.

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