Eastern Band of Cherokee and archaeologist oppose runway expansion

Tribe, archaeologist oppose runway expansion

By Jon Ostendorff

FRANKLIN – North Carolina could spend more than half a million dollars to
remove American Indian artifacts from the path of a runway expansion at
the Macon County Airport, state and local leaders said on Monday.

But the plan is drawing fire from an archaeologist, who says it doesn't go
far enough, and from the leader of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“We are totally opposed,” Principal Chief Michell Hicks said.

The airport is home to 32 airplanes with an average of 12 landings a day.
The expansion is needed to make the runway safer for those aircraft and to
accommodate larger jets.

The Macon County Airport Authority last week said it would spend up to
$535,000 from the N.C. Department of Transportation's Aviation Division to
have Chapel Hill-based TRC Environmental remove 25 percent of the
artifacts in the expansion zone.

It's that figure that has the tribe and archaeologist Michael Trinkley of
the nonprofit Chicora Foundation in Columbia, S.C., upset.

Hicks said his government had to remove all of the artifacts found during
the recent construction of its new school campus and expected the same
from Macon County.

Trinkley said the limited collection is a scientific travesty.

“It's an abomination, it's vulgar, it's obscene, and it is disrespectful,”
he said.

The additional 600 feet added to the runway will make it 5,000 feet long —
the distance needed for jets to take off and land, said airport board
attorney Joe Collins.

He said Monday the nearby Western Carolina University could use a
jet-length runway as well as Franklin-based software producer Drake
Enterprise and the Caterpillar branch at the county's industrial park.

He also said residents in the county's affluent areas would be interested.

“There are a lot of second homes in Highlands, a lot of folks who have
means there,” he said.

A jet runway would mean more airplanes stopping to refuel during longer
flights, he said. Airports make money on fuel sales.

Significant Native American site
Trinkley's company found 1,500 postholes of ancient structures, 200
archeological features, such as storage pits for food, and 48 possible
burials during a dig in 2000 near the site of the planned runway
expansion.

He said the field surrounding the airport was once a large Cherokee town
and has evidence of pre-Cherokee people as early as 2 AD. He said he
recommended shelving the expansion to the airport board after his survey.

Trinkley said he refused to bid on the project and put the cost for a
proper collection at $2 million.

Burial sites will be paved over, said Trinkley, who estimates there could
be 400 graves near the airport.

“This is perhaps the most significant Native American site that will be
found in the region in our lifetimes,” he said. “There are very few sites
of this size and magnitude. There are very few sites that are left that
haven't been impacted by roads, cultivation and housing developments.”

Hicks said the tribal government had not opposed the plan outright when it
was first floated.

He said tribal representatives tried to compromise with the airport board
so that the artifacts could be collected and the runway built while
respecting the historic significance of the land. But collecting only a
quarter of the artifacts is not good enough, he said.

State archaeologist Stephen Claggett, who regulates these types of
activities, could not be reached Monday.

TRC Environmental will document exactly where it finds artifacts and then
move them to a location acceptable to the Eastern Band, said Collins, the
airport board attorney.

State Rep. Phil Haire, who serves Macon County, said the money is
well-spent despite the $2 billion budget shortfall and the possibility of
cutting state jobs.

“I think it is going to be a real asset,” he said. “Once they extend that
runway they are going to be able to accommodate small jets and other
similar type aircraft. I think it could be a real economic stimulus.”

The N.C. Department of Transportation's Aviation Division provides money
to repair and improve public airports in the same way that the state
maintains roads.

After the archaeological work, the airport board plans to get a federal
grant to pay for 90 percent of the expansion. The county would kick in the
other 10 percent, Collins said.

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