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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 2009)
News from Indian Country Page 7 SpilyayTymoo July 16, 2009 Rare artifacts date back thousands of years L IS B O N , C o n n . (A P) - Some young m en were walking along a wooded bike path near the Q uinebaug River w hen they found a black spearhead laying in the soil. I t lo o k ed like p a rt o f an A m erican Indian w eapon. So they asked Richard Rogers, who owns the land, if they could dig for more. In two weekends, they found 80 spearheads in an area about the size o f a small bedroom . Rogers decided to see for himself. H e and his son, now 22, walked through the woods, and brought a bucket o f water to clean their discoveries. N ear a stu m p by th e riv er, R ogers picked up an oval stone a litde larger than a silver dollar. Something was carved in it, and he handed it to his son. “H e cleaned it up and said, This is a face, D ad.” The stone was a rare pendant. T hey had stum bled u p o n an ancient A m erican In d ian en cam pm ent and part o f a burial ground dated m ore than 3,000 years ago. T he state Office o f Archae ology has excavated portions o f the p roperty and found h u n dreds o f artifacts, from stone tools to evidence o f a pit where crem ated bodies were buried. Radiocarbon dating a m ethod used to estimate the age o f re mains in an archaeological site places the tim e o f two areas containing charcoal at 3,400 and 4,000 years ago. R e p re se n ta tiv e s o f th e M ohegan and M ashantucket Pequots tribes and the Native A m erican H eritage A dvisory Council have visited the site. T h e A rchaeological C o n ser vancy, a private, nonprofit orga nization that acquires and per manently preserves im portant archaeological sites across the United States, has looked at it. T he conservancy publishes the quarterly m agazine A m erican Archaeology. Andrew Stout, eastern regional director o f the group, said the site has research potential and is eli gible for the National Register o f Historic Places. “It’s a great property in that At 94, Navajo potter not ready to quit SANTA FE , N.M. (AP) - Rose Williams can't under stand why her family keeps telling her to slow down, take a break, get the rest her 94- year-old body has earned. So every morning, the N a vajo matriarch gets up and goes about the business o f melding earth, fire and water into beautifully burnished, collectible pots. “It's neither work nor play for her. That's just w hat she knows,” explained her great- nephew, Ron Martinez, who accompanied her on a recent v isit to th e W h eelw rig h t M useum o f the A m erican Indian. Williams sat at a table in the m useum’s Case Trading Post, next to a plastic bag full o f clay dug from a seam near her hom e in the Shonto area o f the Navajo reservation in far northeastern Arizona. H er tools-were assembled in front o f her: a dried corn cob, an old plastic pill bottle — per fect for sm oothing the inside o f a p o t — and small rocks, for pol ishing. “Sometimes you'll find her outside looking for pebbles. She always finds one in this parking lot,” Martinez said. W illia m s’ b e n t fin g ers grabbed a handful o f the clay and deftly worked it, rolling it between her palms into a long coil, then slowly pinching the coil in to place ato p a bow l shaped chunk o f clay she had just fashioned to serve as the pot's foundation. Rows o f coils sm oothed by the corn cob would form the pot, which would then be fired in an open pit and swabbed with warm, melted pitch from pinon trees. Williams didn't know quite w hat shape this vessel w ould take. “I'm going to take my time making this pot, and I'm n o t sure w hat it's going to be,” she said in Navajo, w ith Martinez interpreting. Williams' pots range in size from about 6 inches or so — the traditional size in which to boil herbs for ceremonies — to one that is nearly 2 feet tall, took two m onths to make and is for sale at the Case Trading P o st for $1,800. It’s a drum jar, which would be filled w ith w ater and have deer skin stretched over the top to form the drum m ing surface for ceremonies. N avajo w om en have been making pottery for hundreds o f years for use at hom e and in cer emonies, although production fell o ff once trading posts made metal and plastic cookware available. Traders rejected the tradi tional dark brow n N avajo p ottery as “m ud pots,” ac co rd in g to th e late Susan Peterson o f Scottsdale, Ariz., a ceramics artist w ho wrote “Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy o f G en erations.” T he book was the exhibition catalog for a 1997 show Peterson curated at the National Museum o f Women in the Arts, in Washington, D.C. ’ Navajo blankets and jew elry were m ore profitable in the tourist market, she wrote. But then m useum curators began to take notice o f tra ditional Navajo potters, and W illiam s was th e first to break into m useum markets and fairs, in the 1950s, ac cording to Peterson. Cayugas win appeal in cigarette tax case A UBURN, N.Y. (AP) - A state appeals court says the Ca yuga Indian N ation can con tinue selling untaxed cigarettes to non-Indians at its two upstate N ew York convenience stores. T he 3-1 decision released in M anhattan reverses an order by state Suprem e C o u rt Ju stice K en n eth Fisher blocking the sales at the LakeSide Trading stores in Union Springs and Sen- eca Falls in central N ew York. Local authorities raided the stores last N ovem ber, saying they were violating state law by selling cigarettes w ithout charg ing the required tax 'and claim in g $485,000 in state excise taxes. T he Cayugas say they are exempt from collecting the taxes because their businesses are pro tected by their sovereign nation status. it is set aside from any major development,” he said. Stout re searches sites on private prop erty from Maine to N orth Caro lina about 1,000 properties per year. State Archaeologist Nicholas B ellantoni said the state has found many American Indian campsites, b u t few this large. T he boundaries are unknown. I “We don't have many that are intact,” he said. “M any have b e e n d istu rb e d by plow ing. M any have had subdivisions been built on them, highways. H ere is a parcel that has been untouched, and so the integrity o f the place is really intact.” H e said the pendant is a rare find. “T here are very few, even in m useum collections,” he said. “We don't see it often. W hen I saw this, and all o f the stone points they were getting here, I realized there is a lot here that could yield im portant activity in the past.” The specific location o f the dig is n o t being publi cized because o f potential un authorized digging. Prescription drugs are Indian County ‘monster’ BRO W N ING , M ont. (AP) - Health officials on northwestern Montana's Blackfeet Indian Res ervation say only about two o f 12 patients at the local treatment center are addicted to alcohol. The rest, they say, are hooked on prescription drugs. Indian Country officials are now calling prescription drug abuse their “newest monster,” the latest in a series o f chemical scourges that started with alco hol, transformed to illegal m eth amphetamine and is now evolv ing to pills. E rm a Skunkcap, a substance abuse counselor in Browning, says “It's affecting everyone.” Many o f the patients buy the drugs illegally, grind them up and either snort them or inject them intravenously. As a result, Indian health of ficials say that instances o f hepa titis C are rising — a disease that in so m e in s ta n c e s re q u ire s $15,000 a year in prescription drugs to treat. ♦. Tribe to dedicate w in d p la n t M c G R E G O R , M inn. (AP) — T he Mille Lacs Band o f Ojibwe is investing in a new type o f w ind turbine designed for use by homes and businesses. O n Thursday, tribal offi cials plan to dedicate a new manufacturing plant where workers will make a part for the Windspire, That's a ver tical-axis wind turbine made by Reno, Nev.-based Mariah Power. • T h e p a rts w ill be a s sembled at MasTech Manu facturing LLC in Manistee, Mich. T hrough its investm ent in Mariah Power, the Mille Lacs Band will be the exclusive dis tributor for any Indian reser vation buying a W indspire turbine, which costs about $6,500. A Windspire is 30 feet tall and spins on a vertical axis unlike the larger turbines seen on wind farms. r i (UN’s Repair & Auto Sales $©7 ApS 7 d Repair Free towing with any bill exceeding $500 475-6618 TBCHNtGAMS tekitfrtM w yo u th drcrtd en fefa ÌBATiTiERIES! _ 330 S.W. Culver Hwy. Madras, OR 97741 Free Battery Check & Installation with purchase
