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2A — THE OBSERVER D AILY P LANNER Ancient Nez Perce village shows ancient human habitation Ellen Morris Bishop TODAY EO Media Group Today is Friday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2019. There are 116 days left in the year. The oldest known human habitation in North America, more than 16,000 years in age, is located at the site of an ancient Nez Perce village known as Nipéhe, near the confl uence of the Snake and Salmon Rivers. Oregon State University anthropologist Dr. Loren Davis and colleagues have dated animal bones and charcoal at the site, also known as Coopers Ferry, to 16,560 years ago. The Nez Perce Tribe participated in the excavations. “Nipéhe is an ancient village founded by a young couple after a flood destroyed their previous home,” said Nakia Williamson, the Nez Perce tribe’s director of cul- tural resources. “Our stories already tell us how long we’ve been here. … This (study) only reaffirms that. This is not just something that happened 16,000 years ago. It’s some- thing that is still important to us today.” The oldest North American known sites previously recog- nized include Paisley Caves in southeast Oregon, dated at about 14,000 years, the Galt site in Texas, dated at 16,000 years, but by a less precise method than Davis used, and another site in Pennslyvania which claims a 16,000 year date, but is controversial due to possible contamination of the dated material. “The Cooper’s Ferry site is located along the Salmon River, which is a tributary of the larger Columbia River basin,” Davis said. “Early peoples moving south along the Pacifi c coast would have encountered the Columbia River as the fi rst place below the glaciers where TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT On Sept. 6, 2006, President George W. Bush acknowl- edged for the fi rst time that the CIA was running secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation had forced terrorist leaders to re- veal plots to attack the United States and its allies. ON THIS DATE In 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mor- tally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan- American Exposition in Buffa- lo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later; Czolgosz was executed on Oct. 29.) In 1909, American explorer Robert Peary sent a telegram from Indian Harbor, Labra- dor, announcing that he had reached the North Pole fi ve months earlier. In 1943, 79 people were killed when a New York- bound Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed and crashed in Philadelphia. In 1949, Howard Unruh, a resident of Camden, N.J., shot and killed 13 of his neighbors. (Found to have paranoid schizophrenia, Un- ruh was confi ned for the rest of his life; he died in a Trenton nursing home in 2009 at age 88.) In 1972, the Summer Olympics resumed in Munich, West Germany, a day after the deadly hostage crisis that claimed the lives of eleven Israelis and fi ve Arab abduc- tors. In 1985, all 31 people aboard a Midwest Express Airlines DC-9 were killed when the Atlanta-bound jet- liner crashed just after takeoff from Milwaukee’s Mitchell Field. In 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record by play- ing his two-thousand-131st consecutive game. In 1997, a public funeral was held for Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in Lon- don, six days after her death in a car crash in Paris. In Cal- cutta, India, weeping masses gathered to pay homage to Mother Teresa, who had died the day before at age 87. In 2002, meeting outside Washington, D.C. for only the second time since 1800, Con- gress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of September 11. LOTTERY Megabucks: $4.6 million 6-8-11-21-27-47 Mega Millions: $139 million 13-20-27-61-62-5-x2 Powerball: $40 million 4-8-30-52-59- PB 2-x10 Win for Life: Sept. 4 7-9-48-57 Pick 4: Sept. 5 • 1 p.m.: 0-0-4-6 • 4 p.m.: 5-9-8-6 • 7 p.m.: 9-0-0-4 • 10 p.m.: 1-3-4-2 Pick 4: Sept. 4 • 1 p.m.: 3-1-0-2 • 4 p.m.: 6-7-6-1 • 7 p.m.: 0-5-5-6 • 10 p.m.: 3-7-5-9 ROAD REPORT Numbers to call: • Inside Oregon: 800-977-6368. • Outside Oregon: 503-588-2941. NEWSPAPER LATE? Every effort is made to deliver your Observer in a timely man- ner. Occasionally conditions exist that make delivery more diffi cult. If you are not on a motor route, delivery should be before 5:30 p.m. If you do not receive your paper please call 541-963- 3161. QUOTE OF THE DAY “The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves.” James A. Garfi eld, 20th president of the United States (1831-1881) FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 LOCAL they could easily walk and paddle in to North America. Essentially, the Columbia River corridor was the fi rst off-ramp of a Pacifi c coast migration route.” Davis’ research is espe- cially important because it supports the idea that the fi rst peoples who arrived in North America came via a coastal route, rather than an ice-free corridor through central Canada which did not open until about 14,800 years ago. The idea of the fi rst human migrations into North America through this central-Canada corridor has faded with the discovery of dates older than 14,000 years for archeological sites. And there is one more compelling argument for ar- rival via a coastal route. The carefully crafted projectile points found at Nipéhe/ Cooper’s Ferry are near- matches for points produced and used at the same time in Japan. “The age, morphology, and technology of Cooper’s Ferry LU3 artifacts share notable similarities with the projectile point traditions dated from ~16,000 to 13,000 cal yr B.P. in Japan,” Davis notes in his pa- per. Davis and his colleagues also concluded that the age and forms of these tools sug- gest a cultural connection with northeastern Asia, which, he says “complements current evidence of shared genetic her- itage between late Pleistocene peoples of northern Japan and North America.” Importantly, the tools found at Nipéhe/Coopers Ferry were manufactured right there, on-site, and are truly North American-made. They were not imports, or tools trans- ported by these hunters from a Japanese site. Davis and his team found multiple flakes that were produced during the manufacture of the points at the site. Or, as he writes, “Lithic tool maintenance is reflected by a burination flake bearing an exhausted unifa- cial working edge and by an igneous toolstone chopper tool edge rejuvenation flake. Arti- fact 73-61176 is an early-stage bifacial overshot thinning flake discovered in situ with a finely faceted bifacial platform and distal termination that removed a square edge from an opposing tool margin.” In addition to providing the oldest known human habita- tion in North America, the site has also revealed a long histo- ry of human occupation, from about 8,300 to 16,560 years ago. The range and sources of dates include charcoal from hearth fires dating to about 9,000 to 9,250 years before present, bone fragments dated from 8,300 years BP to 16,560 BP and charcoal dating from 8,300 to 15,945 years BP. Dates were provided by Davis’ colleagues at Oxford University, using a highly ac- curate radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry technology. There were horses in the landscape in those days. Bone fragments and one partial tooth (all undated so far) indicate the presence of an extinct North American horse, of unknown species. Unfortunately, the frag- ments were found among other large mammal bones at a site that Davis inter- prets as a “food processing station.” The age of the horse tooth is probably between 14,400 and 15,000 years, Davis notes. These tooth fragments, along with the site’s ancient dates, mean that Nipéhe/Cooper’s Ferry is the oldest radio- carbon-dated site in North America that includes clear cut evidence that humans hunted and consumed horses, Davis said. Davis’ work at the Nipéhe / Coopers Ferry site began in the 1990’s as an archeologist for the BLM. Recognizing its probable antiquity and impor- tance, in 2009 he established the Oregon State University archeology field camp there. Students and faculty have been slowly uncovering the past ever since. In 2017, members of the Nez Perce tribe began participating in the research. “Prior to getting these radiocarbon ages, the oldest things we’d found dated mostly in the 13,000-year range, and the earliest evidence of people in the Americas had been dated to just before 14,000 years old in a handful of other sites,” Davis said. “When I fi rst saw that the lower archaeological layer contained radiocarbon ages older than 14,000 years, I was stunned but skeptical and needed to see those num- bers repeated over and over just to be sure they’re right. So we ran more radiocarbon dates, and the lower layer consistently dated between 14,000-16,000 years old.” The dates from the oldest artifacts challenge the long- held “Clovis First” theory of early migration to the Americas, which suggested that people crossed from Siberia into North America and traveled down through an opening in the ice sheet near the present-day Da- kotas. The ice-free corridor is hypothesized to have opened as early as 14,800 years ago, well after the date of the oldest artifacts found at Cooper’s Ferry, Davis said. “Now we have good evidence that people were in Idaho before that cor- ridor opened,” he said. “This evidence leads us to conclude that early peoples moved south of continental ice sheets along the Pacifi c coast.” Exactly how long ago that might have been remains unknown. Encampments along the coast would have been submerged as glacial melt drove sea levels higher. The Columbia River, and Columbia River basin, as Davis noted, would have been “the fi rst off-ramp of a Pacifi c coast migration route.” It is likely that the inhabitants of Nipéhe/ Cooper’s Ferry were not the fi rst people to explore and inhabit the river valleys of the Columbia basin. But much of the evidence of possible earlier habitations along those rivers was likely erased by late Pleistocene Ice Age Missoula fl oods that persisted until about 15,000 years ago and the single Bonneville fl ood that raged down the Snake River 15,500 years ago. It is fortunate that the ancient Nipéhe/Cooper’s Ferry en- campment was high enough to avoid the Bonneville’s fl oodwaters. “We have 10 years’ worth of excavated artifacts and samples to analyze,” Davis said. “We anticipate we’ll make other exciting discoveries as we continue to study the artifacts and samples from our excava- tions.” Gov. Brown’s task force calls for more psychiatric beds for Oregon foster kids By Aubrey Wieber Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon is now housing 37 foster care children in out-of-state facilities, down from its peak of 88 in March. A joint effort between the Oregon Health Authority, De- partment of Human Services and the Governor’s Office hopes to continue to reduce that by finding 15 more beds at in-patient facilities in Or- egon by the end of the year. The move is part of a greater goal to not house any children out of state, but there is no timeline to achieve that. “That’s what we’re working towards,” said Kate Kondayen, Gov. Kate Brown’s spokes- woman. “It’s been a priority for the governor to make sure we have placement in Oregon.” Kondayen referred all other questions to DHS. Oregon’s foster care system has about 7,500 kids, but some need more treatment than what a standard foster home can provide. The state has struggled to find placement for those kids in Oregon, and has resorted to sending some out of state. In response to frequent issues within the system, Brown created a “child welfare oversight board” and embed- ded executives from her staff into DHS. That board recom- mended finding 15 new beds. The beds will be in “psychi- atric residential treatment services” facilities where kids with severe psychiatric needs get 24-hour care. Since 2015, the state lost 67, or half, of these beds available to foster care kids, according to a joint report put out by OHA and DHS this year. The report found the state needed 38 ad- ditional beds in these facilities. The report called for 15 more beds by 2020, and another 15 by June 2020. So far, Brown has only called for the initial 15-bed increase. Jake Sunderland, spokes- man for DHS, said they had to start somewhere, but said there is no timeline to get all kids back in state. “Our intention is to get that number down to zero and to do it in a way that doesn’t disrupt the current treatment that they are undergoing, but also part of that requires build- ing more capacity within the system,” Sunderland said. Sunderland stopped short of saying the state will no longer send kids out of state. That’s the goal, he said, but the state needs to have the facilities within the state to provide the level of care they need. Some of the new beds could be filled by new kids entering the foster care system rather than bringing someone back from out of state. Also, not all kids brought back to Oregon would need to be in a psychi- atric facility. Sunderland said some return to their family or enter a standard foster home as their level of need goes down. State Sen. Sara Gelser, D- Corvallis, said she’s happy to see the increase, but doesn’t want DHS or Brown to view them as a “magic bullet.” PACIFIC NORTHWEST Gelser has been a strident critic of the state’s practice of shipping foster kids out of state. “I believe we also need substantial investments in therapeutic foster care and family supports,” Gelser said. “I would love for us to think of fos- ter care as finding supportive, loving family networks rather than finding beds.” In the spring, the state had 80 kids out of state evaluated and found 69 were receiving the appropriate level of care, six needed more care, two were receiving a higher level of services than necessary and evaluators were unable to come to a determination for five kids. The kids are experienc- ing things like drug abuse, a history of committing sexual assault or other violent acts, repetitive trauma or other intellectual, behavioral and psychological issues. However, some of the places PNDC CLASSIFIED - Daily Newspapers 29 newspapers - 1,187,980 circulation Number of words: 25 Extra word cost: $10 Cost: $540 (Runs 3 consecutive days including wkds.) PNDN 2x2 DISPLAY - Daily Newspapers 27 newspapers - 1,016,864 circulation Size: 2x2 (3.25”x2”) Cost: 1x 2x2: $1,050 More info: Cecelia@cnpa.com or call (916) 288-6011 The issue is Oregon doesn’t have many facilities to take these kids, Sunderland said. “All of the kids that were placed at out of state facilities were placed because there wasn’t capacity for them within the Oregon system,” Sunderland said. “Nearly all of them with a few exceptions had really intensive treatment needs.” Gelser said it’s important to make the investment in the overall foster care system to go alongside this so that kids in intensive treatment also have family support outside of the facility. “Our current system struc- ture does not refl ect that, but I hope someday it can and will,” she said. Sunderland agreed that adding new beds in psychiat- ric facilities does not fi x the division’s issues. “This isn’t the only thing that needs to be done,” he said. THANK YOU TO THE 2019 DRUG FREE RUN SPONSORS 22nd Annual Annuaa l 2019 GOLD LEVEL SILVER LEVEL Barreto Manufacturing Old West Credit Union Grande Ronde Recovery ALASKA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, IDAHO, MONTANA REACH 3 million Pacific Northwesterners with just One Call! where the state has sent kids have proved to be inadequate care providers. One example is Red Rock Canyon in St. George, Utah, which in May held 23 Oregon kids. But me- dia reports describing reports of staff assaulting students, and a brawl, put pressure on the state to reduce its reliance on the facility. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, since 2017, police have been called to the facility 72 times, and 24 staffers were investigated for child abuse. By July, the state reduced the number of kids at Red Rock to 11, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting, and the facility said it would close by the end of the year. Sunderland said Oregon no longer has any kids there. On Wednesday, Brown tasked DHS and OHA with securing new beds. Sunder- land said that work is still in the process, but it will be com- pleted by the end of the year. 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