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~1 More News from IncHan Country P^ge 9 Spily^y Tymoo November 16, 2011 Rock circles linked to ancient site BLUEMONT, Va. (AP) - Rock circles on a spit of moun tain land along Spout Run may be the oldest above-ground Paleoindian site in N orth America, according to Alexan dria archaeologist Jack Hranicky. He will deliver an address about the site — which he dates to 10,000 B.C. — to the Society for American Archaeology next April in Memphis, Tenn. The site could put Clarke County “on the Paleo map,” Hranicky said. The set of concentric circles drew the attention of landown ers Chris and Rene White as they were planning to create a medi cine wheel on their 20 acres south of Va. 7 on Blue Ridge Mountain. After talks with his spiritual elder in Utah, Chris, a descen dant of the Cherokee people, and his wife, from the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, decided to open their property to spiri tual leaders of Native American peoples who have business in the Washington area. The area including the rock circles was the location that drew Chris White in. When he was building his house, White said, he would of ten walk by the creek to take a break. There, “a still, small voice said, ‘This land is important.’ I didn’t know what it meant, but I took it to heart,” he said. As White prepared to put his medicine wheel on the site, he realized that a circle of stones was there — actually, several con centric circles. “From my experience as a contractor, I knew that was not natural,” he said. “I realized something was already here.” Som eone suggested that White contact Hranicky, who had studied five other Paleoindian sites in Virginia. He said he saw the pattern in the rocks as soon as he ar rived at the site, noting three concentric circles at the western edge, which he believes was a cerem onial area. The inner circle could outline a bonfire space, he said, while the outer ring may have been an area for participants in the ritual to sit or stand. To the east, touching this area, is another circle that Hranicky calls the observatory. Here, rocks on the edge of the circle align with features on Blue Ridge Mountain to the east. From a center rock, over a boundary rock, a line would in tersect the feature called Bears Den Rocks on the mountain. Standing on that center rock, looking toward Bears Den, a viewer can see the sun rise on the day of the summer solstice, Hranicky said. To prove that point, White and his wife took pictures of the sunrise last June 21, he said. To the right o f this rock around the circle, another lines up to Eagle Rock on the Blue The Thunderbird site is dated to 10,000 B.C. Ridge, and with sunrise at the fall equinox (around Sept. 22- 23), he said. Yet a third points to a saddle on the mountain where the sun makes its appearance at the win ter solstice (around Dec. 21-22). “These are true solar posi tions,” he said. A dozen feet east o f the summer solstice rock is a mound of boulders, piled up, which Hranicky designates as “the al tar.” Hranicky, 69, a registered professional archaeologist who taught anthropology at North ern Virginia community College and St. Johns High School Col lege, has been working in the field o f archaeology, for 40 years. “I had to wait 70 years to find a site like this,” he said. Dating the site took some digging. Hranicky was convinced that it was a Paleoindian site, based on the configuration of the con centric circles, the solstice align ment and the altar he has seen at other such sites. But he wanted an artifact. He picked a five-foot-square area to dig, carefully number ing every rock and setting it aside, to be replaced later. The reason for that, Hranicky said, is that in the fu Tribe requires tenants to prove immigration status ture better methods may be available for dating sites, and he wanted to disturb as little as possible. His test pit turned up three artifacts. One was a thin blade of quartzite. The second was a small piece of jasper, a type of quartz rock and an important find, Hranicky said. Jasper was prized by Paleoindians for making tools. It was hard and durable, but could still be worked by Stone Age methods. They traveled miles to find sites where jasper nodules protruded from native rock, and quarried the stone to make projectile points and tools. The third artifact was the most important. It was a tiny piece of jasper, no bigger than the end of a thumb, but this rock had been worked, Hranicky said. It was a tool, a mini-scraper. “You don’t know how thrilled I was when we found that little bitty tool,” he said. Jasper on the site ties what Hranicky believes was a ceremo nial and heavenly observation site to another proven Paleoindian site just tQ the south of Clarke County in Warren County - the Thunderbird site.' William Gardiner of Catho lic University excavated that site for several years. Indians camped on the east bank of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River and quarried jasper for tool making from bluffs on the west bank. The Thunderbird site is dated to 10,000 B.C. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico mobile home community operated by a Native American tribe is re quiring that all residents show proof they are living in the United States legally. Tesuque Pueblo notified residents o f the Tesuque Trailer Village in a letter dated Oct. 17 that all tenants must sign new rental con tracts and show officials U.S. birth certificates, passports or immigration documents. Neither federal nor state law prohibits renting to ille gal immigrants. However, Tesuque Pueblo is a sover eign nation and is entitled to change policies with the ap proval of its Tribal Council and governor, according to several city, state and federal officials. Tesuque Pueblo officials did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press. The tribe also is raising residents’ rent. For years, ten ants of the Tesuque Trailer Village near Santa Fe paid $300 a month to rent space. As of November, the rent will be $400 plus $26.50 of gross-receipts tax, an official notice showed. The new rules present com plications for some households, such as that of Alicia Olivas. She is in the process of obtaining her le gal residency card, and her youngest daughter was born in the U.S. However, her hus band and older daughter are SMILE Club illegal immigrants. At a meeting with nearly two dozen tenants Friday in a Santa Fe apartment com plex, Olivas said property manager Dan Clavio told her the two illegal immigrants had to leave. “If he doesn’t accept my husband and my daughter, I’m going to have to leave because I’m not splitting my family,” Olivas said. Several residents said they are speaking with local lawyers to see what legal op tions they have. Adonias Mendez, who has become the unofficial tenant leader, said he was collecting statements from residents and is hoping they can per sonally speak with Tesuque Pueblo Gov. Frederick Vigil. Many residents have lived in the community for five to 10 years, Mendez said, and they've never had such prob lems before. Tesuque Pueblo receives money from several federal agencies, including a U.S. De partment of Housing and Ur ban Development grant pro gram. But a HUD spokes woman said the department does not ask that landlords verify residency documents. Under New Mexico law, illegal immigrants do not have to show they are legally in the U.S. to rent housing — or attend public schools and get basic utilities such as wa ter and sewer. Tesuque Trailer Village is 10 miles north of Santa Fe. Toys-Tools-Housewares-Clothing-Crafts-Gifts- A ll N e w A ll T h e T i m e ! ST 71 7 S.W. 5 th St. M a d ra s Or. Yvonne Iverson/Spilyay Students enjoyed all of the experiment stations set up for the annual Family Math and Science Night at Warm Springs Elementary. Cara James examines a sponge through the microscope as Amaya Bisland and Atoria James patiently wait for their turn. , Cherokee chief takes up ‘ffeedmeri question support of untold hundreds of freedmen, who were allowed to vote in the Sept.,24 special elec tion because of a last-minute deal brokered before a federal judge. Baker beat Smith by nearly 1,600 votes. The citizenship issue has landed back in Tulsa federal court and the stakes couldn’t be higher for the 300,000-member tribe, which is based at Tahlequah. In the weeks leading up to a Sept. 24 special election, the government demonstrated what could happen if the freed men are excluded from the tribe: nearly $40 million in federal housing funds was frozen and the assistant secretary for Indian affairs warned that any election the Cherokees held w ithout granting suffrage to the freed men would be illegal. “We’re going to have to do a balancing act,” Baker said as his ceremonial inauguration ap proached. “I’ve taken an oath to p ro tec t and defend the TULSA, Okla. (AP) - After a bitter, drawn-out election that lasted almost four months longer than it should have, new Chero kee N ation C hief Bill John Baker treads into yet another political minefield after his in auguration ceremony: squarely, should descendants of slaves some Cherokees once owned retain their tribal membership? The protracted struggle of the 2,800 or so descendants, known as freedmen, became a major issue on the campaign trail. Baker’s opponent, former Cherokee Chief Chad Smith, was among the major support ers of a 2007 vote by tribal citi zens to kick the freedmen out of the tribe and cut off benefits such as health care, grocery sti pends and housing assistance. Baker, a longtime tribal council man, also backed the measure, but appeared far less vocal about it while he was campaign ing. That strategy likely won the am Cherokee Nation, and we’re go ing to have to protect and de fend the $500 million we get in federal funding. It’s a tightrope,” he said. Baker is keenly aware of the risk. About 12 years ago, when the Seminole Nation voted to oust freedm en descendants from its tribe, the government cut off federal programs and refused to recognize its elec tions. Their freedmen were later allowed back in, but the tribe is still paying the price for its deci sion. “To this day, they still haven’t gotten all their funding back, some of it has been lost for ever,” Baker said. “That’s why when we sit here and talk about if they cut our funding, that’s not just something we’re pick ing off a shelf. We’ve got a roadmap of what could happen in the Seminole case. “It’s no pie in the sky that could happen; we’re sitting there looking at what did,” he said. wyvvu “ 7 - ■ SAte, « / ^ — Now thru December 3 1 s t ■ ■ ■ » " ■ » « ■ ■ I ■ ■ ■ *1 Check out our huge selection of stocking s:u%s, starting at $1.30 ^ v New Shipment of Plush Throws 60 * 4 •» * 1 It f <♦» « h ttp ://w w w .th e o u tp o s ts to re .c o m / Toys-Tools-Housewares-Clothing-Crafts-Gifts-