FyI...........in case you know of anyone that may be interested.
In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com
"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"
Job Title: Program Specialist - Repatriation
Company: Smithsonian Institution
Web Site: http://www.si.edu/ohr
Location: Washington DC
Pay:
Posted: July 18, 2008
Located at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, this position provides high-level administrative support to the 7 member Repatriation Review Committee consisting of distinguished academicians, tribal elders and tribal religious leaders from across the country. Duties include managing meeting logistics, producing meeting minutes, budget management and preparing correspondence. The incumbent also engages in repatriation-related archival activities within the Anthropology Collections and Archives Program. This unique position offers the opportunity for direct contact with top people in academia, Native communities and the museum world as well as practical exposure to archival and collections management. This is a Federal term position not to exceed 4 years. For complete requirements and application instructions go to www.si.edu/ohr and scroll to announcement # 08A-LG-294346-DEU-NMNH. The Smithsonian Institution is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Friday, August 8, 2008
Court rules Snowbowl can use recycled sewage
Court rules Snowbowl can use recycled sewage
Comments 6| Recommend 0
Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
The operators of Snowbowl are entitled to use recycled sewage to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks despite objections from several Native American tribes, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
In a split decision, the court acknowledged arguments by the tribes that the use of artificial snow will decrease the "spiritual fulfillment" they get from practicing their religion on the mountain. And the land on which the ski resort is located is owned by the federal government.
But Judge Carlos Bea, writing for the majority, said that does not run afoul of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
"A government action which decreases the spirituality, the fervor, or the satisfaction with which a believer practices his religion is not what Congress has labeled a 'substantial burden' - a term of art chosen by Congress to be defined by reference to Supreme Court precedent - on the free exercise of religion," he said.
And Bea said there is nothing in the decision of the Forest Service to allow the use of treated effluent that requires the tribes to act against their religion.
The ruling drew fire from Judge William Fletcher who wrote a dissent for himself and two other judges. He said the ruling "misunderstands the very nature of religion."
Friday's decision is significant beyond the future of the ski resort.
In overturning a contrary ruling by its own three-judge panel, the full court adopted a much more restrictive reading of the 1993 law that the tribes used in this case. That has implications for others hoping to use claims of religious freedom to block government action.
It is also a defeat for Howard Shanker, who argued the case for the tribes before the court - and who lists his earlier victory before the three-judge panel as one of his "triumphs" that voters should consider in his bid for Congress from the 1st District.
At issue is a plan by the current owners, who bought the resort in 1992, to build a 15-mile pipeline to carry up to 1.5 million gallons a day of treated effluent from Flagstaff to Humphreys Peak. Plans are to cover about 205 acres with artificial snow at the beginning of the season, with more as necessary.
Various tribes filed suit, citing the 1993 law that requires government agencies to use the "least restrictive" means of interfering with any religious practice when considering projects on federal land.
Shanker said the court got it wrong in concluding that the project does not place a substantial burden on the practices of the tribes he represents. "The court is being the arbiter of religious beliefs, which is not its role," he said.
"The court is supposed to determine whether the religious beliefs at issue are sincerely held, and that's it," Shanker noted. "Once they've made that determination it's not for the court to decide whether or not they agree with the testimony that was presented."
That contention was backed by Fletcher, who said the evidence shows the Indians do not merely require the continued existence of certain plants and shrines, including mountains, but that they be "spiritually pure, undesecrated by treated sewage effluent."
But Bea said the requirement to use the least restrictive means applies only when a government action places a "substantial burden" on religious freedom. He said that can occur in only one of two ways: Individuals are forced to choose between following the tenets of their religion to receive a government benefit, or they are coerced to act contrary to their beliefs under threat of sanctions.
He said neither applies to the tribes' argument that the use of treated effluent will spiritually "desecrate" a sacred mountain and decrease their spiritual fulfillment of practicing their religion on it.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com:80/story/122614
In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com
"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"
Comments 6| Recommend 0
Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
The operators of Snowbowl are entitled to use recycled sewage to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks despite objections from several Native American tribes, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
In a split decision, the court acknowledged arguments by the tribes that the use of artificial snow will decrease the "spiritual fulfillment" they get from practicing their religion on the mountain. And the land on which the ski resort is located is owned by the federal government.
But Judge Carlos Bea, writing for the majority, said that does not run afoul of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
"A government action which decreases the spirituality, the fervor, or the satisfaction with which a believer practices his religion is not what Congress has labeled a 'substantial burden' - a term of art chosen by Congress to be defined by reference to Supreme Court precedent - on the free exercise of religion," he said.
And Bea said there is nothing in the decision of the Forest Service to allow the use of treated effluent that requires the tribes to act against their religion.
The ruling drew fire from Judge William Fletcher who wrote a dissent for himself and two other judges. He said the ruling "misunderstands the very nature of religion."
Friday's decision is significant beyond the future of the ski resort.
In overturning a contrary ruling by its own three-judge panel, the full court adopted a much more restrictive reading of the 1993 law that the tribes used in this case. That has implications for others hoping to use claims of religious freedom to block government action.
It is also a defeat for Howard Shanker, who argued the case for the tribes before the court - and who lists his earlier victory before the three-judge panel as one of his "triumphs" that voters should consider in his bid for Congress from the 1st District.
At issue is a plan by the current owners, who bought the resort in 1992, to build a 15-mile pipeline to carry up to 1.5 million gallons a day of treated effluent from Flagstaff to Humphreys Peak. Plans are to cover about 205 acres with artificial snow at the beginning of the season, with more as necessary.
Various tribes filed suit, citing the 1993 law that requires government agencies to use the "least restrictive" means of interfering with any religious practice when considering projects on federal land.
Shanker said the court got it wrong in concluding that the project does not place a substantial burden on the practices of the tribes he represents. "The court is being the arbiter of religious beliefs, which is not its role," he said.
"The court is supposed to determine whether the religious beliefs at issue are sincerely held, and that's it," Shanker noted. "Once they've made that determination it's not for the court to decide whether or not they agree with the testimony that was presented."
That contention was backed by Fletcher, who said the evidence shows the Indians do not merely require the continued existence of certain plants and shrines, including mountains, but that they be "spiritually pure, undesecrated by treated sewage effluent."
But Bea said the requirement to use the least restrictive means applies only when a government action places a "substantial burden" on religious freedom. He said that can occur in only one of two ways: Individuals are forced to choose between following the tenets of their religion to receive a government benefit, or they are coerced to act contrary to their beliefs under threat of sanctions.
He said neither applies to the tribes' argument that the use of treated effluent will spiritually "desecrate" a sacred mountain and decrease their spiritual fulfillment of practicing their religion on it.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com:80/story/122614
In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com
"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"
Thursday, July 31, 2008
VOICES: Copper thieves at Coldwater
VOICES: Copper thieves at Coldwater
Coldwater Spring House and Reservoir by Susu Jeffrey
By Susu Jeffrey , TC Daily Planet
July 27, 2008
The abandoned Bureau of Mines buildings around Coldwater Spring have been a magnet for gang graffiti, homeless people seeking shelter, and after-hours adventurism since 1995. Homeless people get ushered out, unleashed dog walkers get tickets. So go the priorities at Hennepin County’s last natural spring, a mile south of Minnehaha Falls.
Since 1805 when Lt. Zebulon Pike signed a treaty for a fort on the Mississippi, Coldwater has been “federal.” Good thing, because our state allowed the powerful Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to carve up Fort Snelling’s river bluff with roads and freeways and the airport.
Of course the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, the “meeting of waters,” would traditionally be a place for the meeting of peoples—but the Mississippi is also the drinking water source for 18-million Americans.
MnDOT still plans to expand Highway 55 into a freeway from Interstate 94 south to the 62 Crosstown, further threatening the spring outflow. The other sacred spring in Hennepin County, the Great Medicine Spring (Theodore Wirth Park), was permanently dewatered with construction of Interstate 394 in the late 1980s.
Only federal level protection can force MnDOT to pay for protecting the spring’s source water because most freeway construction money is federal-with-strings.
Native Americans are only recognized at the federal, nation-to-nation, level. Native Americans have legally recognized sacred site rights at majestic landscapes like Bear Butte, or Coldwater. Coldwater still flows at 90-thousand gallons a day above the only true river gorge on the entire Mississippi River.
Coldwater has been flowing at least 10,000 years.
False Economy
Since 1995, the amount of federal money for contract security exceeds the $1.1 million estimated (2001) cost of removing/recycling all 11 buildings and roads inside the 27-acre Coldwater campus.
Early Friday, June 27, a federal security contractor noticed open doors to Building 9—the small, northern-most building closest to the Coldwater entrance. It is the former library for the Bureau of Mines complex where taconite was developed after World War 2. The library was built atop a wetland and is so infected with black mold a respirator is required.
Whoever stripped the copper tubing out of the moldy building could develop respiratory distress—sinus, allergy and asthma complications. Coldwater’s wildlife is probably sensitive enough to toxic odors to keep out.
One hawk got trapped behind a window pane in the Crusher Building, across from Coldwater Reservoir where the pigeons roost. Luckily the hawk was freed by a staffer from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District during a site tour. The Crusher Building is the old Bureau of Mines most popular break-in location. Guards routinely catch bored kids looking to test their manhood inside with the dead pigeons and guano.
What is Security at Coldwater?
Since Coldwater is the last natural spring of size in Hennepin County and has been used as an emergency drinking water supply, protecting and maintaining the 90-thousand-gallon-a-day water source should be the priority.
But in our upside-down economy, abandoned buildings are the focus of security efforts at Coldwater. The Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport directs about 10 percent of all flights over the Main Building and spring. The old buildings get checked daily, sometimes broken windows get boarded. Three months after a solar battery panel was swiped from atop the Crusher Building, the theft was noticed. The panel supplied electricity to MnDOT’s flow measuring box, which has since been removed.
After construction ended on the Highway 55/62 interchange site, MnDOT was court-ordered to monitor the Coldwater reservoir discharge for 30 months. MnDOT’s numbers recorded a 27,500-gallon-a-day drop in the flow. Despite a state law mandating no “loss of flow to or from the spring,” MnDOT sunk the 55/62 interchange 6.5-feet down into the water table. Thirty percent of Coldwater’s flow came through the interchange area according to dye tests.
The 55 reroute was sold to the public for “safety” and as a three-minute time-savings on a trip to the airport from downtown Minneapolis. That’s as corny as mushroom clouds and WMDs in Iraq but information overload shorts out public memory in America.
Nevertheless, flying citizens are protected by a prohibition on tree planting at Coldwater due to height restrictions. Of course, someone with a shoulder mortar could easily bring down a flight, but don’t dare plant a tree. Now that we are in our second airline crisis since 9/11, phantom minute-savings on unaffordable flights seem—well, nostalgic.
The security subcontract at Coldwater is handled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Since 1995 there has been no landscape maintenance on the 27 acres, allowing invasive, exotic buckthorn and garlic mustard to shade out and overtake indigenous plants. Native plants that held the steep Mississippi bluff in place died back. The result has been massive erosion of the hillside behind the spring outflow, the west side of the reservoir.
Coldwater’s reservoir is silting up. Occasionally water cress grows in the shallows, which previously were five feet deep. Last fall, the National Park Service authorized FWS to destroy the labyrinth at Coldwater. FWS directed the destroyers to dump the rocks that outlined the labyrinth into the erosion gully behind and above the spring. Rocks, unlike plant roots, do not hold soil. Increased pressure on the west reservoir wall and freeze-and-thaw weather are toppling the old limestone.
In other words, neglect is causing the destruction of the historic 1880s Spring House and limestone reservoir that furnished water to Fort Snelling until 1920. Eric Evenson, of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, explained that stabilization of the hillside requires work at the bottom and the top of the incline and costs more as the damage wears on.
Bush’s Bureaucratic Do-Nothing Interior Department
Coldwater is a federal orphan left over from Congress’s 1995 dissolution of the US Bureau of Mines, part of the Department of the Interior (DOI). Under Bush-2 the DOI attempted to sell off millions of acres, about a quarter of all its land holdings, to profit from or to privatize America’s natural heritage.
For $6 million, the 27-acre Coldwater campus was scheduled to be sold to the Twin Cities airport for multi-level, off-site parking and storage. They almost “paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” But 9/11 happened and the financial collapse of the country’s airlines caused Northwest to pull out of the contract.
In 2003, former Congressman Martin Sabo won a $750,000 appropriation “to protect the Camp Coldwater Spring and restore the Bureau of Mines property to open green space.” This crashed the dreams of U.S. Fish and Wildlife to move its regional offices out of the Whipple Building to Coldwater’s park-like setting.
FWS handled the daily management of the property, a sort of yard work and handyman nuisance for staff in an office beside the airport in Fort Snelling’s Whipple Building. A hostile relationship developed between Coldwater supporters and the FWS, which landed in federal court with an 1805 Dakota treaty rights case. FWS blinked and the case was dismissed.
The process to determine “the future of former Bureau of Mines” was allotted to the National Park Service (NPS). This duty resulted in an 11-pound Environmental Impact Statement and thousands of hours and pieces of paper that came before and after. Coldwater is part of the Fort Snelling National Historic Landmark, the Fort Snelling National Register Historic District and is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. All the paperwork is in. It has been “in” for years.
Since Sabo’s retirement, no Minnesota champion has pushed for an urban wilderness, a Green Museum where the land is the museum.
While we wait, about 20 carp are circling in the Coldwater reservoir. Somebody dumped the carp last fall. Fish dumping is illegal. The carp didn’t die, they’re not indigenous, and who knows how many carp eggs flushed down the gorge into the Mississippi.
We are trying to figure out why Coldwater’s invisible status is a blessing. July is the time of the Blessing moon, probably an old agriculture reference to lush fruits and vegetables available in mid-summer. Are we waiting for a new federal administration to appoint a new secretary of Interior? Are we waiting for another spring melt to see how much hillside is left behind the spring outflow?
While the government vacillates, the landscape deteriorates.
Susu Jeffrey is the founder of Friends of Coldwater, which recommends National Park Service ownership of 50 acres of Mississippi bluffland from Minnehaha Park to Fort Snelling. Info: www.FriendsofColdwater.org.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/node/12934#
Coldwater Spring House and Reservoir by Susu Jeffrey
By Susu Jeffrey , TC Daily Planet
July 27, 2008
The abandoned Bureau of Mines buildings around Coldwater Spring have been a magnet for gang graffiti, homeless people seeking shelter, and after-hours adventurism since 1995. Homeless people get ushered out, unleashed dog walkers get tickets. So go the priorities at Hennepin County’s last natural spring, a mile south of Minnehaha Falls.
Since 1805 when Lt. Zebulon Pike signed a treaty for a fort on the Mississippi, Coldwater has been “federal.” Good thing, because our state allowed the powerful Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to carve up Fort Snelling’s river bluff with roads and freeways and the airport.
Of course the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, the “meeting of waters,” would traditionally be a place for the meeting of peoples—but the Mississippi is also the drinking water source for 18-million Americans.
MnDOT still plans to expand Highway 55 into a freeway from Interstate 94 south to the 62 Crosstown, further threatening the spring outflow. The other sacred spring in Hennepin County, the Great Medicine Spring (Theodore Wirth Park), was permanently dewatered with construction of Interstate 394 in the late 1980s.
Only federal level protection can force MnDOT to pay for protecting the spring’s source water because most freeway construction money is federal-with-strings.
Native Americans are only recognized at the federal, nation-to-nation, level. Native Americans have legally recognized sacred site rights at majestic landscapes like Bear Butte, or Coldwater. Coldwater still flows at 90-thousand gallons a day above the only true river gorge on the entire Mississippi River.
Coldwater has been flowing at least 10,000 years.
False Economy
Since 1995, the amount of federal money for contract security exceeds the $1.1 million estimated (2001) cost of removing/recycling all 11 buildings and roads inside the 27-acre Coldwater campus.
Early Friday, June 27, a federal security contractor noticed open doors to Building 9—the small, northern-most building closest to the Coldwater entrance. It is the former library for the Bureau of Mines complex where taconite was developed after World War 2. The library was built atop a wetland and is so infected with black mold a respirator is required.
Whoever stripped the copper tubing out of the moldy building could develop respiratory distress—sinus, allergy and asthma complications. Coldwater’s wildlife is probably sensitive enough to toxic odors to keep out.
One hawk got trapped behind a window pane in the Crusher Building, across from Coldwater Reservoir where the pigeons roost. Luckily the hawk was freed by a staffer from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District during a site tour. The Crusher Building is the old Bureau of Mines most popular break-in location. Guards routinely catch bored kids looking to test their manhood inside with the dead pigeons and guano.
What is Security at Coldwater?
Since Coldwater is the last natural spring of size in Hennepin County and has been used as an emergency drinking water supply, protecting and maintaining the 90-thousand-gallon-a-day water source should be the priority.
But in our upside-down economy, abandoned buildings are the focus of security efforts at Coldwater. The Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport directs about 10 percent of all flights over the Main Building and spring. The old buildings get checked daily, sometimes broken windows get boarded. Three months after a solar battery panel was swiped from atop the Crusher Building, the theft was noticed. The panel supplied electricity to MnDOT’s flow measuring box, which has since been removed.
After construction ended on the Highway 55/62 interchange site, MnDOT was court-ordered to monitor the Coldwater reservoir discharge for 30 months. MnDOT’s numbers recorded a 27,500-gallon-a-day drop in the flow. Despite a state law mandating no “loss of flow to or from the spring,” MnDOT sunk the 55/62 interchange 6.5-feet down into the water table. Thirty percent of Coldwater’s flow came through the interchange area according to dye tests.
The 55 reroute was sold to the public for “safety” and as a three-minute time-savings on a trip to the airport from downtown Minneapolis. That’s as corny as mushroom clouds and WMDs in Iraq but information overload shorts out public memory in America.
Nevertheless, flying citizens are protected by a prohibition on tree planting at Coldwater due to height restrictions. Of course, someone with a shoulder mortar could easily bring down a flight, but don’t dare plant a tree. Now that we are in our second airline crisis since 9/11, phantom minute-savings on unaffordable flights seem—well, nostalgic.
The security subcontract at Coldwater is handled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Since 1995 there has been no landscape maintenance on the 27 acres, allowing invasive, exotic buckthorn and garlic mustard to shade out and overtake indigenous plants. Native plants that held the steep Mississippi bluff in place died back. The result has been massive erosion of the hillside behind the spring outflow, the west side of the reservoir.
Coldwater’s reservoir is silting up. Occasionally water cress grows in the shallows, which previously were five feet deep. Last fall, the National Park Service authorized FWS to destroy the labyrinth at Coldwater. FWS directed the destroyers to dump the rocks that outlined the labyrinth into the erosion gully behind and above the spring. Rocks, unlike plant roots, do not hold soil. Increased pressure on the west reservoir wall and freeze-and-thaw weather are toppling the old limestone.
In other words, neglect is causing the destruction of the historic 1880s Spring House and limestone reservoir that furnished water to Fort Snelling until 1920. Eric Evenson, of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, explained that stabilization of the hillside requires work at the bottom and the top of the incline and costs more as the damage wears on.
Bush’s Bureaucratic Do-Nothing Interior Department
Coldwater is a federal orphan left over from Congress’s 1995 dissolution of the US Bureau of Mines, part of the Department of the Interior (DOI). Under Bush-2 the DOI attempted to sell off millions of acres, about a quarter of all its land holdings, to profit from or to privatize America’s natural heritage.
For $6 million, the 27-acre Coldwater campus was scheduled to be sold to the Twin Cities airport for multi-level, off-site parking and storage. They almost “paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” But 9/11 happened and the financial collapse of the country’s airlines caused Northwest to pull out of the contract.
In 2003, former Congressman Martin Sabo won a $750,000 appropriation “to protect the Camp Coldwater Spring and restore the Bureau of Mines property to open green space.” This crashed the dreams of U.S. Fish and Wildlife to move its regional offices out of the Whipple Building to Coldwater’s park-like setting.
FWS handled the daily management of the property, a sort of yard work and handyman nuisance for staff in an office beside the airport in Fort Snelling’s Whipple Building. A hostile relationship developed between Coldwater supporters and the FWS, which landed in federal court with an 1805 Dakota treaty rights case. FWS blinked and the case was dismissed.
The process to determine “the future of former Bureau of Mines” was allotted to the National Park Service (NPS). This duty resulted in an 11-pound Environmental Impact Statement and thousands of hours and pieces of paper that came before and after. Coldwater is part of the Fort Snelling National Historic Landmark, the Fort Snelling National Register Historic District and is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. All the paperwork is in. It has been “in” for years.
Since Sabo’s retirement, no Minnesota champion has pushed for an urban wilderness, a Green Museum where the land is the museum.
While we wait, about 20 carp are circling in the Coldwater reservoir. Somebody dumped the carp last fall. Fish dumping is illegal. The carp didn’t die, they’re not indigenous, and who knows how many carp eggs flushed down the gorge into the Mississippi.
We are trying to figure out why Coldwater’s invisible status is a blessing. July is the time of the Blessing moon, probably an old agriculture reference to lush fruits and vegetables available in mid-summer. Are we waiting for a new federal administration to appoint a new secretary of Interior? Are we waiting for another spring melt to see how much hillside is left behind the spring outflow?
While the government vacillates, the landscape deteriorates.
Susu Jeffrey is the founder of Friends of Coldwater, which recommends National Park Service ownership of 50 acres of Mississippi bluffland from Minnehaha Park to Fort Snelling. Info: www.FriendsofColdwater.org.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/node/12934#
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Trail to Livermore peak opposed by American Indians
Trail to Livermore peak opposed by American Indians
By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 07/30/2008 06:57:15 PM PDT
American Indians are appealing to two park agencies to cancel plans for a trail to the top of an East Bay landmark — Brushy Peak near Livermore — because it's a sacred place to them.
The area around the domed-shaped 1,700-feet-tall peak covered by oak trees has fascinated people for centuries. American Indians worshipped and traded there. Bohemian Club members in the early 1900s organized nature and bird-watching outings there. Cattle ranchers organized wedding and social events there.
The owners — the East Bay Regional Park District and Livermore Area Recreation and Park District — are preparing this summer to build a footpath to the peak in the heart of the 2,000-acre Brushy Peak Regional Park.
"Brushy Peak is one of the last undisturbed sacred sites in the Bay Area that hasn't been developed with a road or trail," said Jakii Kehl, an Ohlone from Stanislaus County. "Why disturb it? The park district has nearly 100,000 acres of land. People can hike elsewhere."
Bushy Peak and Mount Diablo are integral to several American Indian versions of creation stories. In these stories, the world is covered with water except at one rocky high spot where a condor roosts and begins a chain of events that leads to the creation of other animals and humans.
Ohlone and Miwok Indians plan to explain their request to a regional board committee meeting at 12:45 p.m. today at the park district headquarters in Oakland.
narrow footpath to the summit was approved by the East Bay Regional Park Board in 2002 as part of the land-use plan for the Brushy Peak Preserve, a $5 million joint project by the two park agencies
But it's taken years for the East Bay Park district to obtain permits from federal wildlife regulators to build the summit trail — as well as a loop trail at a lower elevation through the preserve.
Park officials were making plans to start construction when complaints by American Indians persuaded the park board to revisit the trail plan.
For their part, East Bay and Livermore park district managers said they believe the plan for a narrow path open only to people on foot — not bikes or horses — would provide public access to a publicly owned place, while showing respect to the Indians' reverence for the site.
Because the peak is such a prominent and steep place, curious people are bound to go to the top, said Brian Wiese, the park district's chief of planning and stewardship.
Park planners figured it is better to steer visitors onto a single narrow trail, rather than try to ban access and have visitors cut cross-country to create unauthorized paths to the summit, Wiese said.
The park district also agreed to put up trail signs saying "contemporary Native peoples still regard Brushy Peak as a special place and prefer that it not be visited."
Kehl dismissed the signs as inadequate.
"Mount Diablo is a sacred place, too, but it's already been damaged by a road and building at the top," Kehl said. "We shouldn't damage Brushy Peak."
While the Livermore park district owns the actual top of Brushy Peak, managers at both agencies agree any decision about the trail should be a joint decision.
Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@bayareanewsgroup.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10048581?nclick_check=1
By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 07/30/2008 06:57:15 PM PDT
American Indians are appealing to two park agencies to cancel plans for a trail to the top of an East Bay landmark — Brushy Peak near Livermore — because it's a sacred place to them.
The area around the domed-shaped 1,700-feet-tall peak covered by oak trees has fascinated people for centuries. American Indians worshipped and traded there. Bohemian Club members in the early 1900s organized nature and bird-watching outings there. Cattle ranchers organized wedding and social events there.
The owners — the East Bay Regional Park District and Livermore Area Recreation and Park District — are preparing this summer to build a footpath to the peak in the heart of the 2,000-acre Brushy Peak Regional Park.
"Brushy Peak is one of the last undisturbed sacred sites in the Bay Area that hasn't been developed with a road or trail," said Jakii Kehl, an Ohlone from Stanislaus County. "Why disturb it? The park district has nearly 100,000 acres of land. People can hike elsewhere."
Bushy Peak and Mount Diablo are integral to several American Indian versions of creation stories. In these stories, the world is covered with water except at one rocky high spot where a condor roosts and begins a chain of events that leads to the creation of other animals and humans.
Ohlone and Miwok Indians plan to explain their request to a regional board committee meeting at 12:45 p.m. today at the park district headquarters in Oakland.
narrow footpath to the summit was approved by the East Bay Regional Park Board in 2002 as part of the land-use plan for the Brushy Peak Preserve, a $5 million joint project by the two park agencies
But it's taken years for the East Bay Park district to obtain permits from federal wildlife regulators to build the summit trail — as well as a loop trail at a lower elevation through the preserve.
Park officials were making plans to start construction when complaints by American Indians persuaded the park board to revisit the trail plan.
For their part, East Bay and Livermore park district managers said they believe the plan for a narrow path open only to people on foot — not bikes or horses — would provide public access to a publicly owned place, while showing respect to the Indians' reverence for the site.
Because the peak is such a prominent and steep place, curious people are bound to go to the top, said Brian Wiese, the park district's chief of planning and stewardship.
Park planners figured it is better to steer visitors onto a single narrow trail, rather than try to ban access and have visitors cut cross-country to create unauthorized paths to the summit, Wiese said.
The park district also agreed to put up trail signs saying "contemporary Native peoples still regard Brushy Peak as a special place and prefer that it not be visited."
Kehl dismissed the signs as inadequate.
"Mount Diablo is a sacred place, too, but it's already been damaged by a road and building at the top," Kehl said. "We shouldn't damage Brushy Peak."
While the Livermore park district owns the actual top of Brushy Peak, managers at both agencies agree any decision about the trail should be a joint decision.
Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@bayareanewsgroup.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10048581?nclick_check=1
UCR gets grant to fund high-tech methods of classifying ancient artifacts
3:53 p.m. July 28, 2008
RIVERSIDE – Developing high-tech methods of recognizing and classifying ancient Native American artifacts will be the focus of a UC Riverside project financed by a National Science Foundation grant, it was announced Monday.
The NSF awarded the university $805,000 to cover three years of expenses connected with the project, officially titled “Tools to Mine and Index Trajectories of Physical Artifacts,” according to UCR.
UCR anthropology professor Sang Hee-Lee and UCR computer science and engineering professor Eamon Keogh will lead a team of researchers tasked with creating a program capable of quickly recognizing Indian artifacts by shape and quality.
University officials said the goal will be archiving data from one place to the next and seeing how it all compares.
“By taking advantage of recent advances in data-mining and indexing, a massive amount of useful information can potentially be extracted from the anthropological resources that abound in North America,” said Keogh.
Among the first challenges is documenting UCR's own collection of more than one million arrowheads, officials said. The roughly 20,000 petroglyphs in New Mexico's Petroglyph Park will also be recorded, according to UCR.
Keogh said building databases of early Native American images, beads and tools might yield clues about the development and spread of different cultural practices.
He cited the use of “spatiotemporal predicates” to solve unanswered questions, such as whether the curved style of an arrowhead found in Oklahoma indicates that the tool originated with the Caddo Indian Tribe and was later adopted by tribes farther south – 6,000 to 9,000 years ago.
The grant-funded research could also address some contemporary concerns, according to UCR. By archiving graffiti styles, law enforcement could use the UCR program to track the propagation of certain street gang “tags,” officials said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/riverside/20080728-1553-ucrgrant.html
RIVERSIDE – Developing high-tech methods of recognizing and classifying ancient Native American artifacts will be the focus of a UC Riverside project financed by a National Science Foundation grant, it was announced Monday.
The NSF awarded the university $805,000 to cover three years of expenses connected with the project, officially titled “Tools to Mine and Index Trajectories of Physical Artifacts,” according to UCR.
UCR anthropology professor Sang Hee-Lee and UCR computer science and engineering professor Eamon Keogh will lead a team of researchers tasked with creating a program capable of quickly recognizing Indian artifacts by shape and quality.
University officials said the goal will be archiving data from one place to the next and seeing how it all compares.
“By taking advantage of recent advances in data-mining and indexing, a massive amount of useful information can potentially be extracted from the anthropological resources that abound in North America,” said Keogh.
Among the first challenges is documenting UCR's own collection of more than one million arrowheads, officials said. The roughly 20,000 petroglyphs in New Mexico's Petroglyph Park will also be recorded, according to UCR.
Keogh said building databases of early Native American images, beads and tools might yield clues about the development and spread of different cultural practices.
He cited the use of “spatiotemporal predicates” to solve unanswered questions, such as whether the curved style of an arrowhead found in Oklahoma indicates that the tool originated with the Caddo Indian Tribe and was later adopted by tribes farther south – 6,000 to 9,000 years ago.
The grant-funded research could also address some contemporary concerns, according to UCR. By archiving graffiti styles, law enforcement could use the UCR program to track the propagation of certain street gang “tags,” officials said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/riverside/20080728-1553-ucrgrant.html
Some question whether burial grounds may be found
Applewood Pointe approved (07/30/2008)
By Sarah Elmquist
Some question whether burial grounds may be found
The Winona Planning Commission approved the final plat for Applewood Pointe, a senior housing cooperative on East Burns Valley Road. But the approval will be contingent on a ruling from the state archeologist to make a final determination on whether the site might be home to Native American burial grounds.
The cooperative, an effort of developer United Properties and Saint Anne, is a planned $6.5 million development to provide 42 units, of which 21 have been spoken for. The project has also been approved for an approximate $500,000 in Tax Increment Financing (TIF), or property tax revenue which will be filtered back into the project for certain development costs.
Although previous developers had already completed more than the required archeological studies on the area, concerns were raised that the site truly may contain remains.
In August 2006, a “Phase 1” archeological study was done on the site, which found some stone shavings that could indicate artifacts. A “Phase 2” study was done by Mississippi Valley Archeology Center, which concluded that there were no obvious burial sites at the location.
That study was then reviewed by the state archeologist’s office, and the city received a memo from him which reaffirmed the study’s findings. It said that the state archeologist would visit the site to ensure that the findings were correct before the area was excavated.
Planning Director Mark Moeller recommended that the plat be approved with the condition that the state archeologist office confirm that the site didn’t contain Native American remains. The Planning Commission concurred, but not before a feisty public hearing on the matter.
Retired Winona State professor and amateur archeologist Carol Jefferson said that earlier in the month, when officials from the Council of Indian Affairs and Chief Leonard Wabasha were visiting, they went on a tour with her to visit some local burial sites. She said that they had a “strong reaction to the site,” and thought that the area looked like such a site.
Jefferson said that there were many burial sites which were documented, but not documented by the State Archeology office. She cited various historical data which indicted that there were many burial mounds stretching from Chief Wabasha’s home site along Burns Creek, and that many of those had been farmed over or destroyed otherwise over the last several hundred years.
Rand Gettler, of Saint Anne, said that rumors that previous excavation at the site had turned up bones were completely unfounded. “That’s an outright lie,” he said. He said that the previous study had found no evidence of remains, and that the groundbreaking planned for August was “time critical.”
Spokeswoman for the project Lania Sacia said that the development had already jumped through many hoops presented by those who didn’t want the project to go through. She said that added archeological studies were done because developers wanted to be supportive of history and if anything had been found, the project would have “stopped dead.” She questioned the timing of the objections, which seemed to fall at the last hour.
Bill McNeil of the Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance said that no one questioning the possibility of burial mounds was “in a conspiracy” against the project, but the concerns were based on the knowledge that there were, indeed, burial sites in the area which had been farmed over. He said that if there were issues about getting the project started, developers could look about a half mile away to the cemetery on Homer Road. “Why not build there?” he asked.
“So much has been lost,” continued McNeil. “I don’t want to lose anymore.”
John Borman, also of the Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance, urged the Planning Commission to formalize the process and require that such archeological studies be done for developments elsewhere. He showed commissioners the state’s version of the federal Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. That state statute exposes a landowner to felony charges if a grave site is disturbed after any knowledge of remains is noted. He said that such a requirement would also protect landowners from such charges.
Commissioner Pam Eyden said she spoke with the state archeologist, who confirmed that there was no evidence that the site contained remains.
The Planning Commission approved the final plat, requiring the state archeologist to sign off on the findings before excavation begins, as long as his visit could be made in a timely manner.
http://www.winonapost.com/stock/functions/VDG_Pub/detail.php?choice=25961&home_page=1&archives=
By Sarah Elmquist
Some question whether burial grounds may be found
The Winona Planning Commission approved the final plat for Applewood Pointe, a senior housing cooperative on East Burns Valley Road. But the approval will be contingent on a ruling from the state archeologist to make a final determination on whether the site might be home to Native American burial grounds.
The cooperative, an effort of developer United Properties and Saint Anne, is a planned $6.5 million development to provide 42 units, of which 21 have been spoken for. The project has also been approved for an approximate $500,000 in Tax Increment Financing (TIF), or property tax revenue which will be filtered back into the project for certain development costs.
Although previous developers had already completed more than the required archeological studies on the area, concerns were raised that the site truly may contain remains.
In August 2006, a “Phase 1” archeological study was done on the site, which found some stone shavings that could indicate artifacts. A “Phase 2” study was done by Mississippi Valley Archeology Center, which concluded that there were no obvious burial sites at the location.
That study was then reviewed by the state archeologist’s office, and the city received a memo from him which reaffirmed the study’s findings. It said that the state archeologist would visit the site to ensure that the findings were correct before the area was excavated.
Planning Director Mark Moeller recommended that the plat be approved with the condition that the state archeologist office confirm that the site didn’t contain Native American remains. The Planning Commission concurred, but not before a feisty public hearing on the matter.
Retired Winona State professor and amateur archeologist Carol Jefferson said that earlier in the month, when officials from the Council of Indian Affairs and Chief Leonard Wabasha were visiting, they went on a tour with her to visit some local burial sites. She said that they had a “strong reaction to the site,” and thought that the area looked like such a site.
Jefferson said that there were many burial sites which were documented, but not documented by the State Archeology office. She cited various historical data which indicted that there were many burial mounds stretching from Chief Wabasha’s home site along Burns Creek, and that many of those had been farmed over or destroyed otherwise over the last several hundred years.
Rand Gettler, of Saint Anne, said that rumors that previous excavation at the site had turned up bones were completely unfounded. “That’s an outright lie,” he said. He said that the previous study had found no evidence of remains, and that the groundbreaking planned for August was “time critical.”
Spokeswoman for the project Lania Sacia said that the development had already jumped through many hoops presented by those who didn’t want the project to go through. She said that added archeological studies were done because developers wanted to be supportive of history and if anything had been found, the project would have “stopped dead.” She questioned the timing of the objections, which seemed to fall at the last hour.
Bill McNeil of the Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance said that no one questioning the possibility of burial mounds was “in a conspiracy” against the project, but the concerns were based on the knowledge that there were, indeed, burial sites in the area which had been farmed over. He said that if there were issues about getting the project started, developers could look about a half mile away to the cemetery on Homer Road. “Why not build there?” he asked.
“So much has been lost,” continued McNeil. “I don’t want to lose anymore.”
John Borman, also of the Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance, urged the Planning Commission to formalize the process and require that such archeological studies be done for developments elsewhere. He showed commissioners the state’s version of the federal Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. That state statute exposes a landowner to felony charges if a grave site is disturbed after any knowledge of remains is noted. He said that such a requirement would also protect landowners from such charges.
Commissioner Pam Eyden said she spoke with the state archeologist, who confirmed that there was no evidence that the site contained remains.
The Planning Commission approved the final plat, requiring the state archeologist to sign off on the findings before excavation begins, as long as his visit could be made in a timely manner.
http://www.winonapost.com/stock/functions/VDG_Pub/detail.php?choice=25961&home_page=1&archives=
Comanche Nation battling Fort Sill over rights to Medicine Bluff
Comanche Nation battling Fort Sill over rights to Medicine Bluff
Posted: July 30, 2008 04:41 PM MDT
Lawton_The Comanche Nation and Fort Sill are in a bit of a battle over Medicine Bluff - one of the post's most famous landmarks. But, Medicine Bluff is far more than a landmark to the Comanches - it's sacred. The tribe believes it is one of its last sites of true medicine. Now, Fort Sill plans to build a training service center at the bottom of the bluff, but tribal members believe that they have had an understanding with Fort Sill that the post would never build on the sacred land. Fort Sill officials say the post has done its part to consult with the tribe - but the Comanche Nation disagrees.
Perhaps the best way to describe what the site means to the Comanche people is to compare it to places that others call sacred - churches, cathedrals, synagogues. The primary difference is that this place of worship was created by nature, and to the Comanches, it's just as important and essential as any man-made structure where others pray.
For William Voelker and the rest of the Comanche tribe, Medicine Bluff is a place of healing power. "There are many sites on Fort Sill that have historic ties, but Medicine Bluff is the most sacred of the sites," he said. He explained that the land in question is an important part of the tribe members' healing process. "[It's] an area that would have been integral to how we approached - how we prepared - to go to this important Tubitsi Puha site, or special medicine site." Voelker says he can't understand why Fort Sill chose this particular site. "In all of these years since Fort Sill was established north of Randolph Road and West of Currie Road, this area has been left open and unencumbered," he said.
A statement from Fort Sill reads:
"The construction will have no adverse effect on Native American traditional, cultural, or religious sites...the Army has fulfilled its responsibility to make a reasonable and good faith effort to consult with the Comanche Nation."
Of this statement from Fort Sill, Voelker says, "This is not true," he said. "They have notified the tribe, there has been no consultation, until last Friday, on the actual site." He says that the tribe was not satisfied with the consultation. "Unfortunately it's gotten to the point our tribal lawyers are involved," he said.
Voelker says he can't understand why - with all the land Fort Sill owns - they have chosen the tribe's sacred ground. He says he hopes they will reconsider and choose another site. The statement from Fort Sill also states that the Comanche Nation did not respond to Fort Sill's letter within the allotted 30-days which is why they say they continued with their planning. The Comanche Nation says that notification is not consultation, and currently Fort Sill has not provided any evidence of any consultation they say they engaged in.
http://www.kswo.com:80/Global/story.asp?S=8763155
Posted: July 30, 2008 04:41 PM MDT
Lawton_The Comanche Nation and Fort Sill are in a bit of a battle over Medicine Bluff - one of the post's most famous landmarks. But, Medicine Bluff is far more than a landmark to the Comanches - it's sacred. The tribe believes it is one of its last sites of true medicine. Now, Fort Sill plans to build a training service center at the bottom of the bluff, but tribal members believe that they have had an understanding with Fort Sill that the post would never build on the sacred land. Fort Sill officials say the post has done its part to consult with the tribe - but the Comanche Nation disagrees.
Perhaps the best way to describe what the site means to the Comanche people is to compare it to places that others call sacred - churches, cathedrals, synagogues. The primary difference is that this place of worship was created by nature, and to the Comanches, it's just as important and essential as any man-made structure where others pray.
For William Voelker and the rest of the Comanche tribe, Medicine Bluff is a place of healing power. "There are many sites on Fort Sill that have historic ties, but Medicine Bluff is the most sacred of the sites," he said. He explained that the land in question is an important part of the tribe members' healing process. "[It's] an area that would have been integral to how we approached - how we prepared - to go to this important Tubitsi Puha site, or special medicine site." Voelker says he can't understand why Fort Sill chose this particular site. "In all of these years since Fort Sill was established north of Randolph Road and West of Currie Road, this area has been left open and unencumbered," he said.
A statement from Fort Sill reads:
"The construction will have no adverse effect on Native American traditional, cultural, or religious sites...the Army has fulfilled its responsibility to make a reasonable and good faith effort to consult with the Comanche Nation."
Of this statement from Fort Sill, Voelker says, "This is not true," he said. "They have notified the tribe, there has been no consultation, until last Friday, on the actual site." He says that the tribe was not satisfied with the consultation. "Unfortunately it's gotten to the point our tribal lawyers are involved," he said.
Voelker says he can't understand why - with all the land Fort Sill owns - they have chosen the tribe's sacred ground. He says he hopes they will reconsider and choose another site. The statement from Fort Sill also states that the Comanche Nation did not respond to Fort Sill's letter within the allotted 30-days which is why they say they continued with their planning. The Comanche Nation says that notification is not consultation, and currently Fort Sill has not provided any evidence of any consultation they say they engaged in.
http://www.kswo.com:80/Global/story.asp?S=8763155
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