Image provided by: Oregon Historical Society; Portland, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2012)
News from I notion Country Page 9 Spilyay Tymoo March 21, 2012 Trove of artifacts in Georgia CANTON, Ga. (AP) - For 15 years, hordes o f shoppers have stream ed into the Wal- Mart Supercenter in Canton. The hilltop along 1-575 is a prime commercial location in Cherokee County, a fast-grow ing community with one foot in metro Atlanta and another in the N orth Georgia mountains. W hat few customers know is they are walking on land that was a hub for Native American life for 10,000 years. A t different times, the patch o f high ground overlooking the Etowah River has been a village, a fort, a trad ing center and, finally, home to a cluster o f Cherokee families desperately trying to co-exist with the white man. During the summer o f 1995, a large crew o f archaeologists and their assistants unearthed a trove o f artifacts that told a story o f the land’s ancient inhabitants. T he property, know n as the H ickory Log Site, yielded 48 graves and thousands o f arti facts that filled 120 boxes. The discovery offered one o f the m ost detailed looks ever at the life o f N ative A m ericans in N orth Georgia. Local officials hope to exhibit the findings — ranging from 10,000-year-old spear tips to a rifle used by the Cherokees — at T he Funk Heritage Center at Reinhardt University. “It’s a rare chance to educate people (about) what happened,” said Paul Webb, the archaeolo gist who headed the 1995 dig an d re tu rn e d to C hero k ee County recently to finally speak about his findings and lay the groundwork for the artifacts to return home. “It’s one thing to know this is Cherokee County and Another thing to have this tangible evidence' o f N ative American and Cherokee life. “It remains one o f the ma jor projects in N orth Georgia in size and scope and in what we found. Hickory Log has prob ably seen 10,000 years o f occu pation,” he said. “You have high g round overlooking H ickory L og C reek an d th e E to w ah River. It had ample water, rich farmland below. It was a good place to live with access to trans portation,” In essence, what made for a good hub for Cherokee County’s N ative Americans later m ade for a perfect Wal-Mart location. Webb walked the site and pointed to spots where the an cients once roam ed. T he hill leading to the reservoir pond is where the Cherokees settled. W hat is now the Wal-Mart gar dening departm ent was the site o f a fort~l,000 years ago. Billy Hasty, a Canton attor ney w hose family ow ned the land and sold i f to the Wal-Mart developers, used to hunt dove there. Hasty had long wondered what happened to the artifacts. A bout a year ago, he spoke With Joseph Kitchens, director o f the Reinhardt museum, which the Legislature named Georgia’s of ficial Frontier and Southeastern In d ia n In te rp re tiv e C en ter. M useum officials had always hoped to bring the artifacts home to Cherokee County, so Hasty and K itch en s track ed dow n Webb. After the dig, Webb had spent a couple o f years cataloging and researching the artifacts, but the grant money ran out. So, for the past few years, he had contin ued the project on his own time in N orth Carolina. “I think he was waiting for us to call,” said Hasty, who at tended! Reinhardt, as did his ! fa- ther, and is the university’s chair man. “These Cherokees were liv ing a mixture o f lifestyles,” said Webb. “They’re using metal tools but also making traditional pot tery. Their kids could have been going to the Baptist school down the road. “They had horses and pigs but were also eating deer, tur key and fish like they had for Recently, Hasty and Kitchens millennia. It was a real dynamic drove up to Chapel Hill, N.C., time,” he said. “Things were and spent an afternoon excitedly changing really quick.” Ultimately, they left in the digging through the boxes o f artifacts. early 1830s, no doubt pressured In a lecture with Cherokee to go. It was a few years before County residents recently Webb th e m ass rem o v al in 1838, ticked o ff the im portance o f known as the Trail o f Tears. w h at w as fo u n d d u rin g th e The site was then taken over $500,000 excavation. The items by white settlers. are from four archaeological “A lot o f the places settled periods spanning a 2,000-year after the American Revolution period and help provide insight were settled by Euro-Americans into the people who came and who burned out the Cherokees,” went but left no written record., said Tyler Howe, the tribal his From 200 B.C. to A.D. 600, toric preservation specialist for Indians o f the Woodland period the Eastern Band o f Cherokee, started building a village in what w hich is based in C herokee, is now Canton. The ruins found N.C. “You see that throughout in 1995 are the largest such the South.” group o f structures from that Hasty said he was struck by era ever found, Webb said. the fact that, through the cen A round A.D. 900, farmers turies, people were drawn to the tilled the floodplains there. But same spot. they feared for their safety and “They would come in, hunt built a log fort, which is “the and farm the land until it wore m o st co m p letely ex cav ated out and then would abandon it. Woodstock (era) fortification.” And then, years later, another Once again, around 1300, in band would come in and start th e M ississip p ian p e rio d , a over again. You know it’s a good group o f people probably tied sp o t; p e o p le keep com ing to th o se w ho lived by the back.” Etow ah m ounds dow nstream T he excavation found the built a hamlet o f wooden post skeletal remains o f at least 48 homes. They and their descen o f the people who lived on the dants were there for about 100 site. O ne was the full skeleton years. o f a girl who was surrounded Finally, in the late 1780s, by toys and personal items. Cherokees, who had been forced T he remains, too, were re w estw ard , se ttle d along th e turned home. Two years ago, in Etowah River. The inhabitants a ceremony overseen by Chero incorporated many E uropean kee descendants, they were re items into their lifestyle. buried in the Canton area. It was a few years before the mass removal in 1838, known as the Trail of Tears. Construction to start on new Indian casino DRY PR O N G , La. (AP) - The Jena Band o f Choctaw In dians has been working toward opening a casino for more than a decade. B. Cheryl Smith, the tribal c h ie f o f the Je n a B and o f Choctaw Indians, said plans for the casino- are finalized, and tribal leaders hope a casino will be open by the end o f this year in the C reola com m unity in south G rant Parish. Smith said the tribe secured all o f its federal approvals and signed loan d o cu m en ts last week, allowing the tribe to move forward with its plans. “It is now official,” Smith said. “The tribe is going to build a casino in G rant Parish. We are elated to be able to provide job o p p o rtu n ities and econom ic grow th to C entral Louisiana, especially in G rant. We have looked forward to the day when we could share the benefits o f the facility with our neighbors.” Julie Wilkerson, an attorney for the tribe, said the Jena Band o f Choctaw Indians would build a Class II casino on a piece of land o ff U.S. Highway 167. She said construction is expected to begin next week. A Class II ca sino can have poker tables and gaming machines, but n ot gam bling tables such as roulette or blackjack that are featured at Class III casinos in Marksville and Kinder. “The bells and whistles are like Class III,” said Wilkerson, adding that many o f the m a chine games are the same as found in other casinos. Smith said the casino will be “full service” — including a buf fet and sports bar — and will em ploy approximately 270 people. M any o f those likely1 will be members o f the tribe, who sup ported building a casino in the Creola area. T h e casino, tribal leaders hope, will generate enough rev enue to enable the tribe to pro vide much-needed governmen tal, health, educational and cul tural services for the tribal mem bers. The tribe receives some federal money, but not as much as other tribes that are older and bigger. Bo Vets o f Colfax, the presi dent o f the G rant Parish Cham ber o f Commerce, believes the casino can have a positive im pact on the parish. “It’s probably going to ben efit the parish in terms o f taxes and getting jobs in the parish,” said Vets, adding his thoughts were his own personal opinions and not an endorsement by the C ham ber o f C om m erce. “It may even attract some people to move into the parish. I can see where it’s beneficial for the parish.” Vets, w ho said he d oesn’t gamble but also doesn’t believe he should push his beliefs on other people, said the new ca7 sino “could have a tremendous impact for G rant Parish.” “It definitely will attract more people to the area, whether they move to the area or just come to visit,” he said. “Those people will be spending money in Grant Parish, and that’s going to help out local businesses. Those busi nesses might even be able to hire more people. It could have a lot o f potential benefits for the parish.” Mike Wahlder, a Creola busi nessman who more than a de cade ago donated to the tribe the 40-plus acres o f land that will be ; the hom e, o f the casino, said he was hap p y to see progress with thé casino. Lumbee council again Idaho tribe touts ‘Mrs. Swing’s ’Indian roots 8H votes against chairman LAURINBURG, N.C. (AP) - The Lumbee Tribal Council is continuing its fight with its chair man, again rejecting his choice for administrator. The council voted 11-10 not to co n sid e r a c o n tra c t fo r Gervais O xendine to becom e administrator because the paper work was not submitted before the meeting last Thursday and the item wasn’t on the agenda. It was the second time a vote went against Oxendine, who is the tribal chairman’s candidate for administrator. A t a meeting March 6, the council tied on whether to hire Oxendine. The council also voted to tear down walls that Brooks ordered built for office space at the Elders Heritage G roup. T he council doesn’t want space taken away from the elders group. B O IS E (AP) M ild red Rinker Bailey was known to fans as “Mrs. Swing,” whose slight, throaty voice won her acclaim as one o f the great white jazz singers o f the 1930s and 1940s But the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe is now hoping to set the record straight once and for all: Bailey, w ho died impoverished in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1951, was an American Indian who spent her childhood on the reservation near DeSmet, Idaho. This week, the tribe in tro duced a resolution h onoring Bailey in the Idaho Legislature, in part to convince the Jazz at Lincoln Center Hall o f Fame in New York City to add her to its in d u cteesJg on grounds she helped blaze a trail for better- known singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. “Mildred was a pioneer,” said Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman Chief J. Allan. “She paved the way for many other female sing ers to follow.” T h o u g h B ailey's C o eu r d'Alene ties may not have been common knowledge among her fans, it clearly wasn't a secret. “Part Indian, she was born Mildred Rinker on a farm near Spokane,” reads her Associated Press Obituary, dated Dec. 13, 1951. Still, in jazz history books, Bailey has gone down largely as a white female jazz stylist. Assisted Living Lacilitu 2321 Ollallie Une (PO Box 6) Warm Springs, OR 97761 Call 541-553-1182 Owned and Operated by the Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs
