Briggs: Battle lines still drawn in the Ancient One’s case
By Kara Briggs, Columnist
Story Published: Mar 18, 2009
The battle over the ancestral remains of Indian nations along the Columbia River didn’t begin or end with the famous Kennewick Man case.
Throughout the mid-20th century federal hydropower projects sliced the wild river into a series of slack water lakes. The prospect of flooding cemeteries set into motion the government-sponsored excavation of ancient and not-so-ancient cemeteries. It also set into play the natural sloughing of remains into a widened river channel, remains such as a 9,200-year-old known to tribes as the Ancient One.
Now four tribes – the Colville, Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce – are awaiting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determination about which, among hundreds of remains excavated in the 1960s at the Marmes Rockshelter site, will be released to them.
The battle over the ancestral remains of Indian nations along the Columbia River didn’t begin or end with the famous Kennewick Man case.
The Marmes site is located 60 miles east from where the Ancient One was found in 1996. Marmes represents 14,000 individual artifacts, among them human remains. Some are as old as the Ancient One and others are as recent as, literally, the parents and grandparents of today’s tribal elders.
At the winter conference of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the culture and elder committee held emotional meetings in which leaders from these and related tribes reflected on the pending Marmes decision, and on the famed case the tribes lost in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004.
Speaking sometimes in Sahaptian and sometimes in English, Joe Jay Pinkham, a Yakama elder and tribal council member, described the anguish of viewing remains, some of which were accompanied by garments emblazoned with family symbols recognized by descendants.
Pinkham posed the questions which these four Indian nations will have to answer as parts of the Marmes collection are returned: What will we do when we find someone from a related tribe? How will we notify them? How will families cope when the remains of close relatives are returned?
The question before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as it determines which remains from the Marmes site to return to the tribes, are different from what they might have been if the Ancient One had never been unearthed.
The operative question now is how far back in time can tribes assert affiliation; if remains date back to the age of say the Kennewick Man are they indigenous? Or are they the skeletal remains of some Paleocene-era travelers who were circumnavigating the globe?
Since a 2004 ruling telling tribes they had not proved that the Ancient One’s remains were those of an American Indian, an argument has arisen for not returning the oldest remains to the Indian nations whose oral histories claim them.
“The court said oral traditions have limited utility when compared to scientific studies done by people like the plaintiffs,” said Audie Huber, intergovernmental affairs manager for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla’s natural resources department. “That is an affront to tribal beliefs. The oral tradition dates back thousands of years, as it does in many cultures around the world. The fact that some are written down seems to make them more sacred.”
The lingering issue – forgetting for a minute the Ancient One’s remains stored in the University of Washington’s Burke Museum – is that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals left an “opt out” provision for scientists to get around the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, Huber said. NAGPRA provides a process for the return of Native American cultural items, including human remains that are culturally affiliated with tribes, or even Native American remains for which cultural affiliation is unidentifiable. But if scientists argue, as eight did in the case of Kennewick Man, that remains are not the ancestors of contemporary tribes, then they might not have to abide by NAGPRA.
The oral tradition dates back thousands of years, as it does in many cultures around the world.
-- Audie Huber, intergovernmental affairs manager for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla’s natural resources department
Absent oral histories, tribal recourse is limited.
“One of the underlying assumptions is this record has to be demonstrated by archaeologists who are out there digging up our dead,” Huber said. “That’s not what we do. We don’t generally dig up our dead.”
In the ATNI elders and culture committee, Harvey Moses of the Confederated Tribes of Colville brought a resolution to ask the government to release the results of the scientists’ studies of the Ancient One. The resolution was adopted. The Colville Tribes sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking about findings.
But the corps has not received any more information about the plaintiffs’ research than the tribes have, said Jennifer Richman, an attorney in the Portland office of the corps.
Jim Chatters, the forensic archaeologist at the center of the Kennewick Man dispute, the one who first theorized that the remains were those of an ancient Caucasian, said the findings will be published likely through the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University once the reports are finished. Samples were taken from the remains before 2006. Twenty scientists have conducted research.
It’s not clear, Chatters said, whether there is enough material intact to study DNA. The findings to date are more about “the man himself than anything that would get political.”
The battle over Kennewick Man continues to cast a long shadow over Indian nations’ righteous fight for the dignified reburial of remains.
“Let’s let this man have his day. His people don’t exist anymore so let’s find out about him.”
But the battle over Kennewick Man continues to cast a long shadow over Indian nations’ righteous fight for the dignified reburial of remains. In the court of public opinion, Indian claims to ancestral remains could again be challenged, Huber said.
“Any scientist could come out of left field and say these guys are Vikings. Anyone with a Web site could come up with a theory, and have equal access as the tribes to the press.”
Kara Briggs, Yakama and Snohomish, is a columnist with Indian Country Today. She operates Red Hummingbird Media Corp. and lives at the Tulalip reservation in Washington state. Follow her on Facebook.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/41427362.html
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Notice of Inventory Completion: Northwest Museum, Whitman
[Federal Register: March 12, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 47)]
[Notices]
[Page 10764-10765]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12mr09-93]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Inventory Completion: Northwest Museum, Whitman
College, Walla Walla, WA
AGENCY: National Park Service.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the
completion of an inventory of human remains in the possession of the
Northwest Museum (formerly Maxey Museum), Whitman College, Walla Walla,
WA. The human remains were removed from Mason County, WA.
This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3).
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the
museum, institution or Federal agency that has control of the Native
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible
for the determinations in this notice.
A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Whitman
College and Northwest Museum professional staff in consultation with
representatives of the Skokomish Indian Tribe of the Skokomish
Reservation, Washington.
Sometime between 1874 and 1907, human remains representing a
minimum of four individuals were removed from the vicinity of the
Skokomish Reservation, located in present-day Mason County, WA, by
Reverend Myron Eells, Congregational Missionary. After Rev. Eells
death, the human remains were donated to Whitman College by his wife on
February 15, 1907, (WHIT-E-549, Eells2557; WHIT-X-0011, WHIT-
E-550, Eells 2558; WHIT-E-551, Eells 2559, WHIT-E-
552). No known individuals were identified. No associated funerary
objects are present.
While Rev. Eells did not always indicate cultural affiliation, he
collected mainly from the Skokomish and S'Klallam Tribes. Rev. Eells
occasionally noted tribal affiliations and/or places of origin for
items in the collection. Some of Rev. Eells notes on the human remains
are stated in
[[Page 10765]]
museum records, which identify the human remains as Native American. In
addition, the human remains were determined to be Native American based
on skeletal morphology, as well as on museum records of the
provenience.
The human remains are most likely culturally affiliated with tribes
whose aboriginal lands lie in the Hood River region of the Puget Sound
of northwestern Washington. Anthropological evidence, including
continuities of technology and material culture, indicates continuous
occupation by the Skokomish (also known as Twana) peoples over the last
2,000 years in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. The
historical biography and papers of Rev. Myron Eells, and consultation
evidence with tribal representatives of the Skokomish Indian Tribe of
the Skokomish Reservation, Washington, further support Skokomish
occupation.
Officials of the Northwest Museum, Whitman College have determined
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described
above represent the physical remains of four individuals of Native
American ancestry. Officials of the Northwest Museum, Whitman College
also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is a
relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced
between the Native American human remains and the Skokomish Indian
Tribe of the Skokomish Reservation, Washington.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Brian
Dott, Director, Northwest Museum, Maxey Hall, Whitman College, 345
Boyer Ave., Walla Walla, WA 99362, telephone (509) 527-5776, before
April 13, 2009. Repatriation of the human remains to the Skokomish
Indian Tribe of the Skokomish Reservation, Washington may proceed after
that date if no additional claimants come forward.
The Northwest Museum, Whitman College is responsible for notifying
the Skokomish Indian Tribe of the Skokomish Reservation, Washington
that this notice has been published.
Dated: February 26, 2009.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-5326 Filed 3-11-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S
http://regulations.justia.com/view/137721/
[Notices]
[Page 10764-10765]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12mr09-93]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Inventory Completion: Northwest Museum, Whitman
College, Walla Walla, WA
AGENCY: National Park Service.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the
completion of an inventory of human remains in the possession of the
Northwest Museum (formerly Maxey Museum), Whitman College, Walla Walla,
WA. The human remains were removed from Mason County, WA.
This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3).
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the
museum, institution or Federal agency that has control of the Native
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible
for the determinations in this notice.
A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Whitman
College and Northwest Museum professional staff in consultation with
representatives of the Skokomish Indian Tribe of the Skokomish
Reservation, Washington.
Sometime between 1874 and 1907, human remains representing a
minimum of four individuals were removed from the vicinity of the
Skokomish Reservation, located in present-day Mason County, WA, by
Reverend Myron Eells, Congregational Missionary. After Rev. Eells
death, the human remains were donated to Whitman College by his wife on
February 15, 1907, (WHIT-E-549, Eells2557; WHIT-X-0011, WHIT-
E-550, Eells 2558; WHIT-E-551, Eells 2559, WHIT-E-
552). No known individuals were identified. No associated funerary
objects are present.
While Rev. Eells did not always indicate cultural affiliation, he
collected mainly from the Skokomish and S'Klallam Tribes. Rev. Eells
occasionally noted tribal affiliations and/or places of origin for
items in the collection. Some of Rev. Eells notes on the human remains
are stated in
[[Page 10765]]
museum records, which identify the human remains as Native American. In
addition, the human remains were determined to be Native American based
on skeletal morphology, as well as on museum records of the
provenience.
The human remains are most likely culturally affiliated with tribes
whose aboriginal lands lie in the Hood River region of the Puget Sound
of northwestern Washington. Anthropological evidence, including
continuities of technology and material culture, indicates continuous
occupation by the Skokomish (also known as Twana) peoples over the last
2,000 years in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. The
historical biography and papers of Rev. Myron Eells, and consultation
evidence with tribal representatives of the Skokomish Indian Tribe of
the Skokomish Reservation, Washington, further support Skokomish
occupation.
Officials of the Northwest Museum, Whitman College have determined
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described
above represent the physical remains of four individuals of Native
American ancestry. Officials of the Northwest Museum, Whitman College
also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is a
relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced
between the Native American human remains and the Skokomish Indian
Tribe of the Skokomish Reservation, Washington.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Brian
Dott, Director, Northwest Museum, Maxey Hall, Whitman College, 345
Boyer Ave., Walla Walla, WA 99362, telephone (509) 527-5776, before
April 13, 2009. Repatriation of the human remains to the Skokomish
Indian Tribe of the Skokomish Reservation, Washington may proceed after
that date if no additional claimants come forward.
The Northwest Museum, Whitman College is responsible for notifying
the Skokomish Indian Tribe of the Skokomish Reservation, Washington
that this notice has been published.
Dated: February 26, 2009.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-5326 Filed 3-11-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S
http://regulations.justia.com/view/137721/
Friday, March 13, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Cultural preservation practices are evolving, according to a Colorado panel
Cultural preservation practices are evolving, according to a Colorado panel
By Carol Berry, Today correspondent
Story Published: Mar 9, 2009
Story Updated: Mar 9, 2009
DENVER – Southwestern Colorado is a treasure trove of ancient artifacts that recall a vast, complex Native civilization; “anyplace you go is potentially archaeologically significant,” said Ernest House Jr., executive secretary of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs.
But stringent rules apply to items of cultural or sacred significance and if graves or funerary objects are involved those rules include provisions of the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act or a similar state mandate.
Historical preservation was addressed by House, Bridget Ambler, curator of material culture with the Colorado Historical Society and Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, curator of anthropology with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and NAGPRA officer, at a conference Feb. 5.
The need to respect traditional practices underscored their talk, which dealt not only with NAGPRA, but also with the evolving role of museums as a conduit for repatriation and with the place of aesthetics and the sacred in dealing with objects or places of historical interest.
Ambler said the role of museums has evolved, along with the increased sophistication of tribal attitudes, so while museums were the “sole proprietors” of cultural information, with the implementation of NAGPRA in 1990, “they have had to give up sole proprietorship.”
Nevertheless, to date, tribes have not sought to have cultural or sacred items physically returned to them from the Colorado Historical Society because “tribes have elected for us to hold them in safekeeping,” she said, a practice expected to change as tribes are able to house them.
“Tribes have come to share information about collections,” she said. For example, Burton Pretty On Top, of the Crow Tribe (Apsaalooke Nation), was able to identify a recent item as a contemporary medicine shield rather than as a tourist item. The eagle staff of Colorado’s annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run was loaned to the historical society, where we are “just the keepers,” Ambler said.
Photo courtesy Colorado Historical Society
A seed jar from the 1920s by Maria Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso, one of the cultural items in safekeeping at the Colorado Historical Society.
Tribal consultation can create other relationships, she said, citing a Tribal Paths program at the historical society that includes photographs of contemporary Colorado Native residents and a visit with LaForce Lone Bear, a Northern Cheyenne traditional healer, who took her to significant sites near Lame Deer, Mont.
Chanthaphonh, describing the interface of spirituality with objects, talked about a visit with four Hopi cultural advisers to a river in northwestern New Mexico, where the water rose, rumbling and then subsided and the Hopi said of ancestral spirits, “as we are acknowledging them, they are acknowledging us.”
While scholars and archaeologists focus on traditional cultural properties as sites, Natives perceive them as “vital life sources,” he said.
The Hopi have a “living landscape” in which animals, plants and all life are considered sacred, so outsiders may not understand how taking one or two would make any difference. But if that act is considered the equivalent of throwing a stone through just one of many stained glass windows on a church, it may be more readily understood as sacrilege by the majority society.
He said the National Environmental Policy Act’s assessment of environmental impacts on aesthetic values probably comes closest to including a Native perspective, as does the potential impact on a “feeling” aspect of projects or issues under the National Historic Preservation Act.
Dealing more specifically with funerary issues, House said 39 tribes endorsed a state NAGPRA program developed through consultation with about 50 tribes that have called and may continue to call Colorado home. The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes are the only tribal nations federally recognized as currently residing within the state’s boundaries.
The state/tribal planning effort developed the federally approved program to rebury culturally unidentifiable Native remains discovered on non-federal public and private lands in Colorado.
“The hope is to expedite getting remains in the ground in a respectful and culturally appropriate way,” said House, who is Ute Mountain Ute and whose tribe believes “the spirit is not at peace until it is back in the ground where they belong in a timely manner.”
He said the tribes’ preference is for non-disturbance, including that which could occur in the testing of remains, and for reburial as soon as possible near the discovery site.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/tourism/40961307.html
By Carol Berry, Today correspondent
Story Published: Mar 9, 2009
Story Updated: Mar 9, 2009
DENVER – Southwestern Colorado is a treasure trove of ancient artifacts that recall a vast, complex Native civilization; “anyplace you go is potentially archaeologically significant,” said Ernest House Jr., executive secretary of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs.
But stringent rules apply to items of cultural or sacred significance and if graves or funerary objects are involved those rules include provisions of the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act or a similar state mandate.
Historical preservation was addressed by House, Bridget Ambler, curator of material culture with the Colorado Historical Society and Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, curator of anthropology with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and NAGPRA officer, at a conference Feb. 5.
The need to respect traditional practices underscored their talk, which dealt not only with NAGPRA, but also with the evolving role of museums as a conduit for repatriation and with the place of aesthetics and the sacred in dealing with objects or places of historical interest.
Ambler said the role of museums has evolved, along with the increased sophistication of tribal attitudes, so while museums were the “sole proprietors” of cultural information, with the implementation of NAGPRA in 1990, “they have had to give up sole proprietorship.”
Nevertheless, to date, tribes have not sought to have cultural or sacred items physically returned to them from the Colorado Historical Society because “tribes have elected for us to hold them in safekeeping,” she said, a practice expected to change as tribes are able to house them.
“Tribes have come to share information about collections,” she said. For example, Burton Pretty On Top, of the Crow Tribe (Apsaalooke Nation), was able to identify a recent item as a contemporary medicine shield rather than as a tourist item. The eagle staff of Colorado’s annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run was loaned to the historical society, where we are “just the keepers,” Ambler said.
Photo courtesy Colorado Historical Society
A seed jar from the 1920s by Maria Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso, one of the cultural items in safekeeping at the Colorado Historical Society.
Tribal consultation can create other relationships, she said, citing a Tribal Paths program at the historical society that includes photographs of contemporary Colorado Native residents and a visit with LaForce Lone Bear, a Northern Cheyenne traditional healer, who took her to significant sites near Lame Deer, Mont.
Chanthaphonh, describing the interface of spirituality with objects, talked about a visit with four Hopi cultural advisers to a river in northwestern New Mexico, where the water rose, rumbling and then subsided and the Hopi said of ancestral spirits, “as we are acknowledging them, they are acknowledging us.”
While scholars and archaeologists focus on traditional cultural properties as sites, Natives perceive them as “vital life sources,” he said.
The Hopi have a “living landscape” in which animals, plants and all life are considered sacred, so outsiders may not understand how taking one or two would make any difference. But if that act is considered the equivalent of throwing a stone through just one of many stained glass windows on a church, it may be more readily understood as sacrilege by the majority society.
He said the National Environmental Policy Act’s assessment of environmental impacts on aesthetic values probably comes closest to including a Native perspective, as does the potential impact on a “feeling” aspect of projects or issues under the National Historic Preservation Act.
Dealing more specifically with funerary issues, House said 39 tribes endorsed a state NAGPRA program developed through consultation with about 50 tribes that have called and may continue to call Colorado home. The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes are the only tribal nations federally recognized as currently residing within the state’s boundaries.
The state/tribal planning effort developed the federally approved program to rebury culturally unidentifiable Native remains discovered on non-federal public and private lands in Colorado.
“The hope is to expedite getting remains in the ground in a respectful and culturally appropriate way,” said House, who is Ute Mountain Ute and whose tribe believes “the spirit is not at peace until it is back in the ground where they belong in a timely manner.”
He said the tribes’ preference is for non-disturbance, including that which could occur in the testing of remains, and for reburial as soon as possible near the discovery site.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/tourism/40961307.html
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Diné hope to include private land in Mount Taylor pact
Diné hope to include private land in Mount Taylor pact
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Resources Committee has approved an amended cooperative agreement among the Navajo Nation and the pueblos of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni to pursue an application for the permanent classification of Mount Taylor as a Traditional Cultural Property.
A previous agreement approved by Resources was tabled by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee and sent back to Resources for modifications, which included removing the Hopi Tribe as a participant.
The New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee last year granted a one-year emergency listing of a portion of Mount Taylor which included the summit and mesa tops at an 8,000 foot elevation contour line, including Horace Mesa at 7,300 feet.
The current emergency designation boundary, as well as the proposed permanent nomination boundary, does not include privately held land, as provided by the New Mexico Cultural Properties Act.
The goal of the nominating tribes is to protect the unimpaired natural and cultural landscape of Mount Taylor by having it designated a Traditional Cultural Property on the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties. One aspect of the process is determining a proposed boundary.
The Navajo Nation has agreed to produce all maps required for the application, at cost. According to the cooperative agreement, no tribe will bear an unreasonable portion of the costs incurred as part of the nomination.
The Navajo Nation approved the Diné Resources Protection Act in 2005, effectively banning uranium mining and milling on the Navajo Nation, however, the ban does not extend to sacred sites such as Mount Taylor, or Tsoodzil, the sacred mountain to the south.
“Mount Taylor is a cultural resource to us and we will do all we can to protect that area and prevent any development that encroaches on our culture,” Sherrick Roanhorse of Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly’s office said last week.
“It’s our hope that we can get Mount Taylor and the surrounding area designated as a Traditional Cultural Property. It’s important to us, it’s important to the Navajo people. For the pueblos, it’s important to their people.
Mount Taylor is one of the sources of our prayers and our songs.”
The agreement spells out what each tribe is charged to do in the application process. A part of that is sharing resources to pay for some of the costs associated with the application, including GIS mapping.
“The pueblos don’t have the capacity to create maps, but our Natural Resource department has the capacity to create these maps with our technology. We’re trying to save as much money as we can on our part as the Navajo government,” Roanhorse said.
“The biggest hurdle before us right now is a lot of the tribes are facing budget shortfalls. Hopi was a partner with us, but Hopi also is having its own political challenges. We’re doing the best we can to work with what we have.”
The proposed cooperative agreement is expected to go back to the Intergovernmental Relations Committee this week for approval.
“I’m hoping they will move forward on it. Our goal is to have an application out by the end of next month. We’re really trying to push this forward. The cooperative agreement will help,” Roanhorse said.
The Pueblo of Acoma serves as project coordinator and has retained the Chestnut Law Firm to prepare the application for nomination.
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2009/02February/021709dinehope.html
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Resources Committee has approved an amended cooperative agreement among the Navajo Nation and the pueblos of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni to pursue an application for the permanent classification of Mount Taylor as a Traditional Cultural Property.
A previous agreement approved by Resources was tabled by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee and sent back to Resources for modifications, which included removing the Hopi Tribe as a participant.
The New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee last year granted a one-year emergency listing of a portion of Mount Taylor which included the summit and mesa tops at an 8,000 foot elevation contour line, including Horace Mesa at 7,300 feet.
The current emergency designation boundary, as well as the proposed permanent nomination boundary, does not include privately held land, as provided by the New Mexico Cultural Properties Act.
The goal of the nominating tribes is to protect the unimpaired natural and cultural landscape of Mount Taylor by having it designated a Traditional Cultural Property on the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties. One aspect of the process is determining a proposed boundary.
The Navajo Nation has agreed to produce all maps required for the application, at cost. According to the cooperative agreement, no tribe will bear an unreasonable portion of the costs incurred as part of the nomination.
The Navajo Nation approved the Diné Resources Protection Act in 2005, effectively banning uranium mining and milling on the Navajo Nation, however, the ban does not extend to sacred sites such as Mount Taylor, or Tsoodzil, the sacred mountain to the south.
“Mount Taylor is a cultural resource to us and we will do all we can to protect that area and prevent any development that encroaches on our culture,” Sherrick Roanhorse of Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly’s office said last week.
“It’s our hope that we can get Mount Taylor and the surrounding area designated as a Traditional Cultural Property. It’s important to us, it’s important to the Navajo people. For the pueblos, it’s important to their people.
Mount Taylor is one of the sources of our prayers and our songs.”
The agreement spells out what each tribe is charged to do in the application process. A part of that is sharing resources to pay for some of the costs associated with the application, including GIS mapping.
“The pueblos don’t have the capacity to create maps, but our Natural Resource department has the capacity to create these maps with our technology. We’re trying to save as much money as we can on our part as the Navajo government,” Roanhorse said.
“The biggest hurdle before us right now is a lot of the tribes are facing budget shortfalls. Hopi was a partner with us, but Hopi also is having its own political challenges. We’re doing the best we can to work with what we have.”
The proposed cooperative agreement is expected to go back to the Intergovernmental Relations Committee this week for approval.
“I’m hoping they will move forward on it. Our goal is to have an application out by the end of next month. We’re really trying to push this forward. The cooperative agreement will help,” Roanhorse said.
The Pueblo of Acoma serves as project coordinator and has retained the Chestnut Law Firm to prepare the application for nomination.
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2009/02February/021709dinehope.html
Floodwaters threaten Native American ruins at Homol’ovi Ruins State Park
Levee design to be studied for $5.7M
By Ryan Reinhold · February 18, 2009
Homol'ovi Ruins State Park (Courtesy: Arizona State Parks)
WINSLOW – A flood control levee that protects 2,700 residential and business parcels in northern Arizona from the Little Colorado River has diverted water in such a way that it is threatening 700-year-old ruins built by Native Americans, a state archaeologist warns.
The threatened ruins at Homol’ovi Ruins State Park are part of a 4,500-acre preserve located about one mile north of Winslow. The ruins, which include two- and three-story pueblos built of sandstone and adobe bricks, were home to ancestors of the Hopi people who farmed and traded for 500 years along the Little Colorado River.
Rich Lange, an archaeologist at the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says that the 7-mile-long earthen flood control levee, built in 1989 to protect Winslow, has changed the natural flow of the river. In times of high water, the levee diverts the river away from Winslow and towards Homol’ovi, he says. The Little Colorado River has a history of flooding, but before the levee was built, the river jumped the east bank where Homol’ovi is located.
Recent rainstorms in Arizona’s high country have raised the issue again, but Navajo County Public Works Director Homero Vela disputed Lange’s claim that the levee is a threat to Homol’ovi. “The Little Colorado River, like other rivers in the Southwest, is classified as a meandering river and tends to randomly meander whether or not a levee is present,” he says. “It has been meandering for hundreds of years.”
Homol’ovi is a cluster of 300 archaeological sites. Lange said that among seven pueblo ruins at the park, the ruin known as Homol’ovi is the best example of adobe brick pueblo architecture in North America. The Little Colorado River runs by it on its 315-mile trek from the White Mountains in northeastern Arizona to Grand Canyon National Park in northwestern Arizona.
“It is this particular ruin that is most at risk from flood waters because the ruin is only 20 to 25 feet above the elevation of the river bed,” Lange says.
Homol’ovi was a trading center for different Native American groups, a migration route, and a sacred burial site for Hopis. It is a unique site because it features examples of both one-room pit houses and a multi-story, 1,200-room pueblo, says park manager Karen Berggren.
Pit houses built underground were the standard architecture in the period before 1100 A.D., but eventually Native Americans masonry techniques with sandstone and adobe bricks. These sites were occupied during three main periods: 620-850 A.D., 1050-1225 A.D. and 1260-1400 A.D. by farmers who grew cotton, corn, squash, and beans. Homol’ovi served as a crossroads of trade during pre-Columbian times where many artifacts, depictions of kachina, pottery, and petroglyphs have been unearthed.
In 1993, the Little Colorado River jumped the levee and flooded homes in Winslow, causing $1.4 million damage. In 2004, the river crested at 20 feet – twice as high as normal – and caused a four-by-six-foot break in the levee, which was repaired by state and local emergency crews. Since that time, flood control officials have begun a feasibility study to fix the levee.
On February 12, 2009, Navajo County asked Congress for $500,000 so that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could continue the study. It has been estimated the study would cost a total of $5.7 million, plus the cost of aerial photography and mapping.
But help for Homol’ovi is years away. Vela said the feasibility study by Navajo County officials would take four to five years. After that, an engineering study will take another two to three years. Construction would not begin until both studies are completed and funding is approved.
Vela says the study’s results could recommend channeling the streambed; tamarisk removal; channel realignment; elevation of the levee; or a combination of these projects. But archaeologists oppose elevation of the levee unless other methods are developed to protect Homol’ovi.
Vela says he has invited Berggren and Lange to attend a meeting of the Winslow Levee Feasibility Project committee on March 24, 2009. Agencies that will likely attend the meeting include:
The Hopi Tribe
City of Winslow
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Geological Survey
Winslow Levee Advisory Committee
Arizona Game & Fish Dept.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Little Colorado Resource Conservation and Development
Navajo County Flood Control District
Homol’ovi Research Program
Arizona State Parks
For more information, the public is invited to call Navajo County Flood Control District Director Trent Larson for details at (928) 524-4387.
= = =
>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.
http://zoniereport.com/2009/02/floodwaters-threaten-native-american-ruins-23441/
By Ryan Reinhold · February 18, 2009
Homol'ovi Ruins State Park (Courtesy: Arizona State Parks)
WINSLOW – A flood control levee that protects 2,700 residential and business parcels in northern Arizona from the Little Colorado River has diverted water in such a way that it is threatening 700-year-old ruins built by Native Americans, a state archaeologist warns.
The threatened ruins at Homol’ovi Ruins State Park are part of a 4,500-acre preserve located about one mile north of Winslow. The ruins, which include two- and three-story pueblos built of sandstone and adobe bricks, were home to ancestors of the Hopi people who farmed and traded for 500 years along the Little Colorado River.
Rich Lange, an archaeologist at the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says that the 7-mile-long earthen flood control levee, built in 1989 to protect Winslow, has changed the natural flow of the river. In times of high water, the levee diverts the river away from Winslow and towards Homol’ovi, he says. The Little Colorado River has a history of flooding, but before the levee was built, the river jumped the east bank where Homol’ovi is located.
Recent rainstorms in Arizona’s high country have raised the issue again, but Navajo County Public Works Director Homero Vela disputed Lange’s claim that the levee is a threat to Homol’ovi. “The Little Colorado River, like other rivers in the Southwest, is classified as a meandering river and tends to randomly meander whether or not a levee is present,” he says. “It has been meandering for hundreds of years.”
Homol’ovi is a cluster of 300 archaeological sites. Lange said that among seven pueblo ruins at the park, the ruin known as Homol’ovi is the best example of adobe brick pueblo architecture in North America. The Little Colorado River runs by it on its 315-mile trek from the White Mountains in northeastern Arizona to Grand Canyon National Park in northwestern Arizona.
“It is this particular ruin that is most at risk from flood waters because the ruin is only 20 to 25 feet above the elevation of the river bed,” Lange says.
Homol’ovi was a trading center for different Native American groups, a migration route, and a sacred burial site for Hopis. It is a unique site because it features examples of both one-room pit houses and a multi-story, 1,200-room pueblo, says park manager Karen Berggren.
Pit houses built underground were the standard architecture in the period before 1100 A.D., but eventually Native Americans masonry techniques with sandstone and adobe bricks. These sites were occupied during three main periods: 620-850 A.D., 1050-1225 A.D. and 1260-1400 A.D. by farmers who grew cotton, corn, squash, and beans. Homol’ovi served as a crossroads of trade during pre-Columbian times where many artifacts, depictions of kachina, pottery, and petroglyphs have been unearthed.
In 1993, the Little Colorado River jumped the levee and flooded homes in Winslow, causing $1.4 million damage. In 2004, the river crested at 20 feet – twice as high as normal – and caused a four-by-six-foot break in the levee, which was repaired by state and local emergency crews. Since that time, flood control officials have begun a feasibility study to fix the levee.
On February 12, 2009, Navajo County asked Congress for $500,000 so that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could continue the study. It has been estimated the study would cost a total of $5.7 million, plus the cost of aerial photography and mapping.
But help for Homol’ovi is years away. Vela said the feasibility study by Navajo County officials would take four to five years. After that, an engineering study will take another two to three years. Construction would not begin until both studies are completed and funding is approved.
Vela says the study’s results could recommend channeling the streambed; tamarisk removal; channel realignment; elevation of the levee; or a combination of these projects. But archaeologists oppose elevation of the levee unless other methods are developed to protect Homol’ovi.
Vela says he has invited Berggren and Lange to attend a meeting of the Winslow Levee Feasibility Project committee on March 24, 2009. Agencies that will likely attend the meeting include:
The Hopi Tribe
City of Winslow
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Geological Survey
Winslow Levee Advisory Committee
Arizona Game & Fish Dept.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Little Colorado Resource Conservation and Development
Navajo County Flood Control District
Homol’ovi Research Program
Arizona State Parks
For more information, the public is invited to call Navajo County Flood Control District Director Trent Larson for details at (928) 524-4387.
= = =
>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.
http://zoniereport.com/2009/02/floodwaters-threaten-native-american-ruins-23441/
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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.
http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902170317
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.
http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902170317
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