In seeking the historical designation, the Wampanoag tribes -- whose name translates to "people of the first light" -- said their view to the east across Nantucket Sound was integral to their identity and cultural traditions.

"Here is where we still arrive to greet the new day, watch for celestial observations in the night sky and follow the migration of the sun and stars in change with the season," wrote Bettina Washington, historic preservation officer for the Aquinnah Wampanoag, in a letter to federal officials.

"The sound is part of a larger, culturally significant landscape treasured by the Wampanoag tribes and inseparably associated with their history," wrote Janet Snyder Matthews, who was the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places until she left the park service in December.

The tribes also argued that the wind turbines, which would be 440 feet tall, could destroy long-submerged tribal artifacts from thousands of years ago, when the sound was dry land. Such artifacts could "yield further confirmation of our cultural histories," Ms. Washington wrote.