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