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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2001)
10 JULY 15, 2001 Smoke Signals Reunion Honors American Indian War -Hero TULSA, OK. (AP) A Medal of Honor recipient and former student at the Chilocco Indian Agriculture School has been honored at a reunion of fellow Chilocco alumni. Ernest Childers joined the National Guard unit at Chilocco in 1937. Seven years later, Childers, while serving as a second lieutenant dur ing World War II, became the first American Indian ever to receive the Medal of Honor. Childers was honored on Saturday by Chilocco alumni and Armed Forces members at the Company "C" Veterans Breakfast, held in connec tion with the Annual Chilocco Alumni Reunion. About 400 alumni from around the nation gather at the reunion to remi nisce about the times they spent at the school near Ponca City, which closed in 1980. Childers, a Creek Indian, is one of two Chilocco alumni to receive the . vi 6 I felt the heat from the bullets, so I came to the conclusion that they were after me." Ernest Childers Photo courtesy of www.okroa.org Medal of Honor. Jack Montgomery also received the medal in 1945. Charles LeClair, a retired Army chaplain and member of Chilocco's class of 1948, said it is very rare to have two Medal of Honor winners from the same school. "I would say that there is no other school in the country that has two medal winners that are heroes of the caliber of these men," LeClair said. Chilocco was established for Ameri can Indian students as a four-year academic and trade school. Many American Indians got their start in the military by serving in the school's National Guard unit. Reunions-have been much more sentimental since the school shut its doors, said Veteran Vernon Tsoodle. "It was a sad occasion to see it close," Tsoodle said. "But it is always neat to come back and meet with your old classmates." Childers earned his Medal of Honor for. action on Sept. 22, 1943, in Oliveto, Italy. Although Childers had previously suffered a fractured foot, he and eight other soldiers advanced up a hill toward enemy machine-gun nests. Moving ahead by himself, he killed two snipers who were firing on him from a nearby house. "I felt the heat from the bullets, so I came to the conclusion that they were after me," Childers said. After taking out both machine-gun nests, Childers continued his ad vance toward a house farther up the hill and single-handedly captured an enemy mortar observer. Childers' nephew said Childers is a hero among military men and women as well as American Indians. . "Everywhere within the Indian community people say 'Ernest Childers is an inspiration to me,'" said Ken Childers, who served in Vietnam as a Navy pilot. Montgomery received his Medal of Honor for action on Feb. 22, 1944. Armed with a rifle and hand gre nades, the first lieutenant crawled into a German infantry position con sisting of four machine guns and a mortar and killed eight of the enemy while capturing four. Archaeological Dig Falls Victim to Vandalism SHADY COVE, OR. (AP) Ar chaeologist Dennis Gray spills the con tents of a yellow envelope into his hands. His crews dug hundreds of "flakes" small pieces of sharpened rock out of the earth at an archae ology site near the Rogue River. "Every piece we find is significant," said Matthew Dowlen, a Southern Oregon University anthropology graduate and an employee of Cascade Research in Ashland. "I've found some really cool projec tile points, or arrowheads." But such treasures are leftovers artifacts that thieves passed over when they looted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) archaeological dig near Shady Cove sometime since its discovery in 1999. "We're not talking mom and pop coming out here to look for an arrow head for their collection," said Ann Ramage, District Archaeologist with BLM. "We're talking about people with the right tools who knew what they were looking for arrowheads that might show up for sale on eBay (an Internet auction site)." The BLM hired Cascade Research, an Ashland archaeology firm, to as sess the damage and determine whether looters picked the site clean or more artifacts could still be found. So far, sample digs show the site may have been a prehistoric camp oc cupied about 1,000 years ago. It's called "prehistoric" because it ex isted before gold-seeking Euro-Americans arrived in the Rogue Valley in the 1800s, said Ramage. American Indians might have spent winters at this camp, making tools and possibly catching and drying salmon from the Rogue River. "Here's a jasper arrowhead made within the last 1,500 years, about the time the bow and arrow was intro duced into this part of the world," said Anthropologist Dennis Gray, Cascade Research owner. He held other leftovers, a diamond shaped tip that may have been used to drill holes in leather or wood and a scraper used for cleaning hides and possibly plants. About half of the BLM's 1,000 ar chaeology sites on federal and private land in Southern Oregon have been looted, Ramage said. The BLM sends an archaeologist to survey forests before timber harvests or road projects to determine if the re gion should be uncovered. Scientists, as a result, are learning more about the region's Stone Age in habitants. - "The culture is here, up and down this river," said Gray. "This has al ways been a pretty nice place to live. You had a dependable food supply, especially the last few thousand years where technology existed to exploit and store anadromous fish runs. There were Camas, Oak and lots of other vegetable bulbs," Gray explains. "In summer, they would probably go to higher elevations and return to the river valleys in the winter. Fish runs were a major source of protein. They could get a lot of it and they could store it." Southern Oregon archaeologists find no signs of fishnets, baskets, hides or bones clues quickly de stroyed by floods, fires, rodents and changing topography. Only rock-solid evidence survives. And what an untrained eye sees as ordinary rock; diggers know might be keys to understanding lost cultures. "This sand tells me that this used to be a great place to sleep," said Cas cade Research employee Jeff Applen, digging 8 inches into the earth. He also owns a company called Sore Foot Archaeology. "People don't like to sleep on rocks; sand is more comfortable." There's no telling what treasures researchers may have found if they would have arrived before the thieves. The penalty for stealing artifacts is a year in federal prison or a $10,000 fine, said Ramage. "It's rather difficult to catch people," she said. "But we will pursue this." Bill Would Provide Federal Recognition of Virginia Tribes WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) Two Virginia members of the House of Rep resentatives introduced a bill recently seeking federal recognition of Virginia's Indian Tribes. "The Virginia Tribes were subdued, pushed off their land and up to the mid-20th century denied full rights as U.S. citizens," said Representative Jo Ann Davis. "Federal recognition would help restore what the government once denied, provide legal protections and honor the obligations the federal government provides all other recognized Tribes." She joined Representative Jim Moran in sponsoring the bill, which would make about 16,000 Indians in Virginia eligible for federal health and educa tion programs. A similar bill died without action last year. More than 550 Tribes in 33 states have federal recognition. Critics, including Governor Jim Gilmore and Representative Frank Wolf claim federal recognition for Virginia's eight Tribes could open the door to Tribes operating casino gambling, as has occurred in some other states. Virginia Tribal leaders have strongly stated they do not intend to operate casinos. State Board of Education Supports Schools on Mascot Issue PIERRE, S.D. (AP) The South Dakota Board of Education passed a resolution recently to show support for schools that want to change American Indian mascots and logos. Several school districts including Woonsocket and Watertown have discussed removing such symbols and mascots because some Indians consider them offensive. The board's resolution is a show of support for those efforts. Incoming board president Pete Gustaf said the board believes Indian mascots and logos can be hurtful to the Indian culture. "We need to be sensitive to other cultures and other people who may not think with us or have other cultures and beliefs," he said. "The American Indians live with us, they are our neighbors and we need to respect them."
