News from Indten Country Page 10 Spilyay Tymoo September 30, 2004
Utah canyon holds secrets of ancient civilization R buffalo considered sacred
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RANGE CREEK CAN
YON, Utah (AP) - The newly
discovered ruins of an ancient
civilization in this remote east
ern Utah canyon could reveal
secrets about the descendants
of the continent's original Paleo
Indians who showed up before
the time of Christ to settle much
of present-day Utah.
Archaeologists estimate as
many as 250 households occu
pied this canyon over a span of
centuries ending about 750 years
ago. They left half-buried stone-and-mortar
houses and granary
caches, and painted colorful
trapezoidal figures on canyon
walls.
"It's like finding a van Gogh
in your grandmother's attic,"
Utah state archaeologist Kevin
Jones said.
The so-called Fremont people,
named after a Spanish explorer
who never met them, remain a
poorly understood collection of
widely scattered archaic groups.
Yet they represent a tenuous link
to the earliest inhabitants of
North America, who are believed
to have arrived by way of the
Bering Strait more than 10,000
years ago. As a culture, the Fre
mont were distinguished by their
style of basket weaving, animal
claw moccasins and farming and
hunting skills.
Their everyday tools and pot
tery were different from the
farming-dependent Anasazi
south of the Colorado River -even
as they shared a similar
fate. Both cultures packed up
and left about the same time for
reasons not fully explained.
What became of the Fremont
and Anasazi also is a mystery.
Earliest traces of Fremont
life show up three centuries be
fore the birth of Christ, but they
disappeared around A.D. 1250.
This unlooted canyon - turned
over by a rancher who kept it
secret for more than half a cen
tury - could have been one of
their final strongholds.
It also could reveal why the
Fremont were driven out of Utah
and possibly left in isolated
pockets to die off. More recently,
makeshift sites found in north
west Colorado suggest they were
forced into exile by the Numic
speaking Ute, Pauite and
Shoshone tribes.
Utah's Indian leaders, how
ever, take exception to that, be
lieving the Fremont are their
ancestors. "The sacred belief is
that we are all related," said Mel
Brewster, an archaeologist and
historic preservation officer for
Utah's Goshute tribe.
Range Creek differs from
other, better-known ancient sites
in Utah, Arizona or Colorado
because it has been left virtually
untouched by looters, with the
ground still littered in places with
Among recent finds: a
paddle-like wood shovel; a
rare bundle of arrow
shafts, found wedged in a
canyon wall; a perfectly
preserved beehive-shaped
granary with a cap stone,
still a third full with piles
of parched wild grass seed
and corn; and a pair of
human remains from
surroundingfederal land.
arrowheads, beads and pottery
shards.
"You could stand right on it
and not know it," said Corinne
Springer, an archaeologist and
Range Creek's new caretaker.
Until recently, Range Creek
was all but unknown. An expe
dition from Harvard's Peabody
Museum made a stop in 1929,
but visited only a few sites. In
recent summers, archaeologists
and graduate students have qui
etly conducted a labor-intensive
survey - keeping the area's full
significance under wraps until
news reports surfaced about the
land transfer in June.
Archaeologists have docu
mented about 300 sites - pit
houses, granaries and
petroglyphs - but they've sur
veyed only about 5 percent of
the canyon drainage.
Among recent finds: a
paddle-like wood shovel; a rare
bundle of arrow shafts, found
wedged in a canyon wall; a per
fectly preserved beehive-shaped
granary with a cap stone, still a
third full with piles of parched
wild grass seed and corn; and a
pair of human remains from
surrounding federal land.
To safeguard the canyon, the
Utah Natural Resources De
partment is rushing to adopt a
management plan that will re
strict hunting, prohibit camping
and require visitors to get per
mits and guides. The state Leg
islature also appropriated
$152,000 for ground patrols
and aircraft surveillance.
So far, the canyon's subtle
charms tell two tales: traces of
larger villages just off the can
yon bottom and defensive retreats
as high as 900 feet atop pinnacle
and mesa tops, Jones said.
Archaeologists believe more
carbon-dating will show the Fre
mont retreated to the higher po
sitions toward the end of their
tenure here, suggesting they were
feeling pressure from other
tribes moving through their ter
ritory. The Fremont would have
used ladders, ropes or cords to
reach some of their granaries, set
at impossible heights "where you
risk life and limb getting to
them," Utah journalist and ar
chaeologist Jerry Spangler said.
JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) - A
buffalo considered sacred by
some American Indians because
it was born white has died of
natural causes at the age of 10,
its owner said.
The animal, named Miracle,
drew as many as 2,000 visitors
a day in the year after its birth
in 1994. Miracle died Sunday,
its owner, Dave Hejder, said Fri
day. Although its hide became
darker as it aged, some associ
ated Miracle with the white buf
falo of American Indian proph
ecies. According to lore, such an
animal will reunite all the races
of man and restore balance to
the world.
Some tribe members who vis
ited Heider's rural southern Wis
consin farm to see the animal
had expected its coat to some
day turn from brown back to
white.
Heider said Miracle fulfilled
prophecy by turning from white '
'to black, red and yellow - col
ors of the various races of man
- before developing the typical
dark brown coat of the buffalo. '
"Basically, she did everything
that the prophecy saichhe would
do, except turn white again," he
said.
"The prophecy said she
would turn white when there's'
peace in the world, and we don't
have much peace, do we?"
But he added, "like my wife
said, when people came here to1
see her, she gave them a glim-1
merofhope."
The female buffalo's offspring '
included four surviving female -buffalo,
all born without white
coloring. f
Lewis and Clark group continues journey
CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. (AP)
- A group re-enacting the Lewis
and Clark expedition pressed its
journey up the Missouri River
despite objections from some
American Indians who question
the legacy of the original expe
dition. .
visit opened old wounds.
One sign at a weekend pro
test said the expedition 200 years
ago led to genocide of Indians
and destruction of their cul
ture. As the re-enactors move up
the river and camp this week on
The group set out early last ""the LowefBrule'and Crow Creek"
week under police escort from reservations, White Plume said
Chamberlain, where members
had camped over the weekend.
There were no incidents as the
re-enactors hauled their boats
around Big Bend Dam.
Alex White Plume, a Lakota
from Pine Ridge, had asked the
group to go home, saying the
there would be no interference
from his group.
But he said he would seek
guidance during a spiritual cer
emony and noted future actions
might be considered.
Duane Big Eagle, chairman
of the Crow Creek tribe, said
he welcomed the re-enactors to
his reservation and disapproved
of White Plume's actions.
"We're living in modern
times," Big Eagle said. "We've
got to think modern and mov
ing ahead, not living 150 to 200
years ago."
Jon Ruybalid, a member of
the 25-member expedition who
is also its legal counsel, said the
group seriously considered the
request to go home.
But by continuing their expe
dition, the re-enactors hope to
give a voice to Indian concerns,
he said.
The re-enactors - part of a
nonprofit organization called
The Discovery Expedition of St.
Charles, Mo. - began their Lewis
and Clark trip last year and are
scheduled to continue through
2006.
They expect to be in Pierre
Friday through Sunday for the
city's "Bad River Gathering." It
is one of the last of South
Dakota's National Lewis and
Clark Bicentennial Signature
Events.
When Lewis and Clark
passed through the area of modern-day
Pierre in 1804, a meet
ing with the Teton Sioux nearly
erupted into violence.
Rancher gives buffalo to Lakota family
RYE, Colo. (AP) - Buffalo
rancher Frank Red Cloud says
buffalo represent a new hope for
people on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota.
Thanks to a Rye rancher, an
other family can share in that
hope.
Ken Danylchuk and his wife,
Kathy, gave a small seed buffalo
herd to Ed Iron Cloud.
Iron Cloud's family plans to
raise the animals on the reser
vation and eventually give an
other family a gift herd. The
donation was made through the
Village Earth Pine Ridge Project,
a nonprofit organization in Fort
Collins.
Ken Danylchuk said he al
ready was downsizing his herd
because of drought when he
heard about the project.
"I told them they could have
eight to 12, whatever they could
get in their trailer," Danylchuk
said. "They're taking two 1 -year-old
bulls, some yearling heifers
and a breeding bull."
He said it was difficult to say
how much the herd is worth.
"They were selling for $2,100
a head a couple of years ago
and last year you couldn't give
them away," he said.
To the Lakota, the gift repre
sents self-sufficiency and a return
to their land, some of which is
part of a Bureau of Indian Af
fairs leasing system that rents to
private ranchers for low rent.
"Our approach is land man
agement," project director David
Bartecchi said. "A lot of people
(on the reservation) own 200 or
more acres, but they weren't liv
ing on it."
A survey showed that 77 per
cent of reservation residents
wanted to live on their land and
25 percent wanted to raise buf
falo. Red Cloud said 10 fami
lies have done so thus far.
The buffalo began their trek
to South Dakota Sunday after a
ceremony and symbolic buffalo
barbecue on Danylchuk's ranch.
"It's the eternal dream of
grandfathers and grandmothers
to go back to the natural life,"
Red Cloud said. "We come from
the buffalo. We're part of the
Buffalo nation."
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Remains discovered in Mystic
MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) - The
Mashantucket Pequot tribe says
workers building a house in
Mystic have unearthed the re
mains of some 17th-century
Pequots. Tribal members, in
cluding archaeologist Kevin
McBride, were digging through
piles of gravel last Friday and
depositing any possible artifacts
into a bin for safe keeping. The
tribe is keeping the site's where
abouts secret, fearing vandalism.
Tribal Spiritual Leader Laugh
ing Woman said the apparent
burial site is large and was just
recently uncovered. She said the
tribe needed some time to digest
the significance of its discovery.
"It happened so fast," she
told the Westerly Sun. "We're
just asking people to have re
spect, give us time and space to
deal with this."
MADRAS AQUATIC CENTER
Gallup mulls $300,000 settlement
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) -Gallup
city councilors will de
cide whether to pay $300,000
to settle allegations of racial dis
crimination in hiring leveled by
the U.S. Justice Department
against the city for past actions.
Mayor Bob Rosebrough and
City Attorney George Kozeliski
returned with the settlement
offer last week after meeting
with Justice Department attor
neys in Washington, D.C
The settlement is part of a
proposed Justice Department
consent decree that would spare
the city an admission of wrong
doing in exchange for agreeing
to certain procedures.
The council will consider the
offer Tuesday as a way to keep
the issue out of court
The federal government ear
lier this summer accused Gallup
of employment practices that
excluded American Indians.
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