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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2011)
News from Indian Country Pgge 11 Spily3y Tymoo June 1, 2011 Prehistoric paintings get laser study C O M ST O C K , Texas (AP) - A co m p le x c o lo rfu l m ural painted on canyon walls some 4,000 years ago in West Texas is getting modern laser treatment as researchers try to unlock its mysteries and protect it from the unintended consequences o f a nearby reservoir. Panther C ave, am ong the best known o f several hundred prehistoric pictograph sites that dot the rugged canyons along the US-Mexico border, is being scanned with lasers to produce a high-resolution 3-D image in efforts to gauge the mural’s de terioration and detect images long ago erased by Mother N a ture. They hope the project will help them preserve and decipher one o f the o ld est stories in North America. “ They are ancient texts, not ju st draw ing on w alls,” says C arolyn B o y d , h ead o f the Shumla School, an archeologi cal research center working with state and federal agencies on the project. “We have knowledge now that these paintings are far more than graffiti. And with knowledge comes responsibility — a respon sibility to take care o f it.” Carbon dating shows the Pan ther Cave paintings — a com bined 150 feet wide and 13 feet high — were made by prehistoric Native Americans at the same time the Egyptians were con structing the pyramids. Som e images have human character istics, som e are unknown and some are animal figures, includ ing the cave’s unmistakable sig nature 12-foot-long leaping red panther. The animal guards the hollowed out cavern overlook ing the Rio G rande about 50 miles west o f Del Rio. The two-week scanning pro cess, extending into early June, will eventually give researchers a precise base line to track what appears to be accelerated dete rioration due to increased m ois ture from the Am istad Reser voir and insects building nests or burrowing into the porous limestone walls. A camera about the size o f a microwave oven passes over a 6- to 10-inch square per scan, collecting im ages accurate to 1mm. C olor photographs are then overlaid on the images to give researchers a clear picture o f how the site has changed over the centuries. Other images taken with color-sensitive photo equipment show parts o f the paintings no longer visible. “ It’s a powerful tool to see how the site has changed,” said C hristopher G oo d m aster, an archaeologist and laser scanning specialist. G o o d m aste r conn ects his equipment to a car battery for power and collects the individual images on a laptop computer. Like building a puzzle, he said he “ mosaics it together to make sure we’re getting it all.” The project is expected to help researchers determine how increased populations o f wasps and environmental effects are changing the paintings over the years. Photos from earlier de cades don’t show the wasp infil tration, and som e researchers speculate that the creation o f the nearby Am istad Reservoir has made it easier for the insects to get their mud and make their nests here. The gigantic reser voir was created in 1969 when dam m ing o f the Rio G rande began flooding the steep can yons. “ I f you have one under your h o u se , you take a p re ssu re washer and whack it off,” said Jack Johnson, a park archaeolo gist for the Am istad National Recreation Area. “You can’t do that here.” One wasp, known as a mud dauber, builds pipe-like nests o f mud that attach to the surface o f the painted walls and harden like concrete. I f and when the nests fall, they can take the paint with it. The second, called a blue dauber, infiltrates the natural holes in the limestone — smaller than the circum ference o f a drinking straw - for its nest and then seals the hole with its plas ter-like mud. When its offspring emerges, it breaks through the. plaster that also takes with it the lim estone su rface — and the paint — around the edge o f the hole. “ I just wish they’d go som e where else,” Johnson said. Before Amistad was built, the floor o f Seminole Canyon was about 300 feet below Panther Cave. N ow the water is close. Although visitors only can reach the area by boat, they need to only climb a couple steel stair cases attached to a dock to see it. The cave itself is corralled by a tall chain link fence topped by curled razor wire to deter vandals or souvenir seekers. The increased moisture from the reservoir also contributes to spalling, the weakening o f the cave surface that causes it to flake off. Boyd believes the prehistoric paint was made o f mineral pig ments that gave it color and deer or bison fat held it together. It also may contain juice from yucca plants. The paint was ap plied with brushes o f animal hair, feathers or fingers. Some o f the images are extremely pre cise, indicating sophisticated m easuring devices were em ployed. Given the height o f the cave and size o f some o f the paint in gs, a fo rm o f sc a ffo ld in g must have been used to reach the upper levels, like the area o f “ the big fat guy,” as Boyd laughingly identified one human like image to some o f her ar chaeology students involved in the project. “ This one’s huge,” she ex claimed. “ Look at him!” For data collection purposes, the figu re d e p icte d is now know n as A n th ro p o m o rp h 0083-A064. H e’s 12 feet tall and 16 feet wide from the atlatl — a spear thrower — in his right hand to a pow er bundle o f spears and a kind o f boomerang in his left hand. He has adornments on his elbow and wrist and what looks like feathers at his hip. He joins at least four pan thers in the cave, painted with shades o f red, brown, yellow and black. Widow sues over suicide in Utah tribal artifacts case SALT L A K E C ITY (AP) - The widow o f a Blanding doc tor who killed him self after his arrest in a Utah ancient ar tifacts theft case has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against two federal agencies. The lawsuit, which Jeanne Redd filed Friday in U.S. D is trict Court in Salt Lake City, claims the Bureau o f Land M an agem en t and the F B I pushed her husband, Jam es Redd, to suicide through “ ex cessive, overreaching and abu sive treatment” o f him, the D eseret N ew s o f Salt Lake City reported. Arm ed federal agents ar rested the Redds along with 22 others on June 10, 2009, after a two-year undercover operation in the Four Corners area o f southern Utah. Jam es Redd was charged with one felony count o f theft o f In dian tribal property, specifi cally an effigy bird pendant worth $1,000. Redd, 60, asphyxiated him self by connecting a hose to the exhaust pipe o f his car the day after his arrest. Another defendant, Steven Shrader, also com m itted suicide in 2009. An undercover infor mant for the government, Ted Gardiner, later took his own life. The FB I declined to com ment on the lawsuit. Calls to the BLM were not returned. Je a n n e R e d d ’s law su it claim s that ag en ts “ m an handled” her husband and in terrogated him for hours at their hom e, and that their “ physical and psychological assault” focused on his fam ily, religion, profession and community. “ His final words connected his death to the defendants’ egregious actions,” the com plaint contends. Redd, a father o f five, was described in the complaint as a religious man and a linchpin in Blanding. He was well-liked in the M orm on and Am eri can Indian communities, ac cording to the lawsuit. The complaint, which also brands the federal undercover operation as overkill, seeks an unspecified amount for emo tional and punitive damages. O f the 24 people arrested in the raid, 18 have been p laced on p ro b atio n after reaching plea agreements. A federal judge last month terminated the remaining 18 m o n th s o f p ro b a tio n fo r Jeanne Redd and the remain ing six months o f probation for her daughter, J erica Redd. Both have paid fines in full and complied with all condi tions o f their probation, ac cording to court records. Shortly after the arrests, U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett accused agents o f going overboard in their show o f force in the raid. Utah’s top two federal law enforcem ent officials at the time said agents acted profes sionally in executing search US attorney in N ew Mexico hiring tribal prosecutor Haskell Indian Nations president to be announced LA W R EN C E, Kan. (AP) - An official says that the new p re sid en t o f H ask ell Indian Nations University in Lawrence is expected to be announced soon. Larry Echo Hawk, the U.S. Interior Departm ent’s assistant secretary for Indian affairs, said that he has com pleted inter views for the Haskell post and will “ soon ” make an appoint- ment. Haskell is the nation’s only four-year, federally run Ameri can Indian college. It has about 1,000 students. The Kansas City Star reports that the school’s last president was Linda Warner, who held the job two years until September 2009, when she was sent to posts in Arizona and Oklahoma. Five interim presidents have run the school since. N.D. tribe says flooding caused reservation disaster B ISM A R C K , N.D. (AP) - T he T h ree A ffiliated T ribes chairman says winter snowfall and heavy spring rainfall has caused severe flooding on the million-acre Fort Berthold Res ervation in western N orth D a kota Tex Hall issued an executive order last Friday declaring a state o f disaster on the reser- vation. Hall says flooding has damaged homes and other build ings on the reservation, which incorporates six counties. He says flooding also has caused h ighw ays to ero d e and has swamped farmland. The disaster declaration is aimed at getting federal aid to repair damage from flooding. Hawaii experts testify at Native language hearing H O N O L U L U (AP) - Three educators from Hawaii are tes tifying about Native language at a U.S. Senate committee hear ing on native language and cul ture-based education. Sen. D aniel A kaka’s office said Thursday Nam aka Rawlins o f the University o f Hawaii at Hilo College o f Hawaiian Lan g u ag e , A lv in P ark er o f a W aianae ch arter sch o o l and Shaw n K a n a ia u p u n i of Kam ehameha Schools traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak before the Senate Com mittee on Indian Affairs. T he hearing is to explore trends and achievements in na tive language and culture-based education including barriers and strategies in meeting educational needs o f students from native communities. Akaka says that out o f more than 300 native languages once spoken in the country only 175 remain and many are at risk o f being lost. A L B U Q U E R Q U E , N .M . (AP) — The statistics are stagger ing, but far from new: Three- fifths o f N ative w om en have been assaulted by their spouses or intimate partners and one- third o f Indian women will be raped during their lifetimes. In some tribal areas, Native American women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average, according to fig u re s fro m Ju s tic e D epartm en t’s O ffice o f V io lence Against Women. But after years o f what some Indian women’s rights activists say has largely been a lack o f inaction by the authorities, U.S. Attorney K en Gonzales is set to announce the hiring o f a tribal prosecutor as special assistant U.S. attorney focused almost ex clusively on domestic and sexual assaults on tribal lands in New Mexico. It’s part o f a pilot program by the Office o f Violence Against Woman, G onzales’ office said, that will give funding for the new prosecutors to a handful o f U.S. attorneys around the country. “ I think a lot o f people will be pleased to see this,” said C o rrin e S an ch ez o f Tew a Women United, an intertribal group that was started as sup p o rt grou p for w om en co n cerned about issues that include the high rates o f domestic and sexual crimes. “There is still such a huge lack o f prosecution on the U.S. attorney’s side on sexual assaults.” Likewise, she said, there is a lack o f tribal resources to deal with the crimes, mistrust among victims and the complications all victims face when they are as saulted or abused by a family member or loved one. “ It’s a multi-layered issue,” she said. “Because there has been this lack o f response there is still a mistrust to report. People feel nothing is being done.” In an interview last week, Gonzales said that the funding is still being finalized but he plans to announce next month the hir ing o f David Adams, the tribal p ro se c u to r fo r the L a g u n a Pueblo west o f Albuquerque. A dam s, he said, will work with tribal authorities as well social service groups to improve law enforcement’s response to domestic crimes and to try and change the culture o f how such crimes have been treated. ‘We are talking about a long history o f this kind o f violence and an unwillingness o f victims to report it,” Gonzales said. Adams will retain his title as a tribal prosecutor, but he will be d e p u tiz e d as a sp e c ia l U.S.district attorney with all the pow ers that accom pany that position. Although funded at the na tional level, Adam ’s hiring fits with a b ro a d e r fo c u s by Gonzales — who was appointed to the top federal law enforce ment job in New Mexico just over a year ago — to “ empower com m unities” to fight crime, whether it be rampant heroin use in Española or drugs, cash and gun smuggling across the border. Gonzales says that in addition to being more aggressive in bat tling domestic and sexual crimes on tribal lands, he has tasked his p r o se c u to r s to w ork m ore closely with local enforcement agen cies to use federal laws against gang leaders and other dangerous criminals when fed eral law has the potential to bring more serious penalties in a case. ‘W e have much more mean ingful consequences on the fed eral side than states have,” he said. “ It’s not what we have in mind for every gang banger out there ... but when you can take one or two (gang leaders) out o f a sm all com m unity it can have a big impact.” Alaska Native remains from museum blessed, repatriated FA IRBA N KS, Alaska (AP) - The rem ains o f hundreds o f Alaska Natives stored at a mu seum were be blessed at a cer emony last weekend, drawing at tention to the repatriation pro cess. The ceremony was held Sat urday at a park across from the University o f Alaska Museum o f the North. Jim Whitney, manager o f the UA museum archaeology collec tion, said remains began arriv ing at the museum in the 1920s, largely through private donations and discoveries during excava tions. He said the Fairbanks m u seum has been w orking with tribes to return the remains but none had been returned since 2008. E v e n t organ izer C andyce Childers said the ceremony was meant to draw attention to the 340 sets o f human remains still in the museum’s possession. Childers said she also hopes the ceremony can spur repatria tion at various museums in the state. The repatriation process has slowed in recent years, which she attributes to a combination o f bureaucracy and lack o f in formation. Adam Walsh Child Protection Act registration By provision of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, the Confeder ated Tribes are also publish ing the sex offender regis tration list. A person is required to register with the administra tor if the person has been convicted of a sex crime, and resides or works in the community, or visits here on a monthly basis. This applies to tribal and non-tribal members. The sex offender registra tion office phone number is 541-553-2214. The administrator’s office is located at 2146 Warm Springs Street, Warm Springs (up stairs in the tribal Court build ing). The following names are added to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs list of registered offenders under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (name followed by date of birth): Lei Walker Calica, date of birth 7/20/1980; Buster Ray Isadore, date of birth 4/8/1980; Richard Ray Wesley, date of birth 7/16/1971. The sex offender registry of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs can be viewed at the website: www.warmsprings.nsopw.gov/ J rti D ' A D no fid OD )ib >rb ul ud Iw ;A Cl sq Jo tifi dì ii'j
