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."