Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2001)
f il AUGUST 1, 2001 Smoke Signals 11 i Makah Whalers Allowed to Hunt Again NEAH BAY, WA. (AP) - The federal government has reaffirmed the right of Makah Indians to hunt gray whales and is easing restric tions in popular hunting areas in cluding the coastlines of Oregon and Washington. After a court-ordered review, the National Marine Fisheries Service said the hunting will be allowed to continue because of the government's treaty obligation and healthy population of gray whales. Furthermore, the agency said there is no reason to restrict hunt ing to the Pacific Ocean in the mi gration period from November through June. The Tribe may hunt gray whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near its reservation. Tribal hunting resumed in 1998 after seven decades, and one whale was killed in May 1999. Anti-whaling activists hoped the review would result in more re strictions, but the government came up with fewer. xl I f w - Chief Seattle's Grave Rededicated After Repair of Vandals' Damage SUQUAMISH, WA. Chief Seattle's grave has been rededicated, two months after vandals knocked a marble cross off the top of the 90 year-old monument. More than 100 people gathered recently at the burial site here on the Port Madison Indian Reservation northwest of Bainbridge Island. The ceremony was designed to heal the wounds the May desecration in flicted on the spirits of Chief Seattle and his ancestors in the Suquamish and Duwamish Tribes. "When there's a desecration, there's a disturbance," said Al Scott Johnnie, Cultural Director for the Lummi Tribe. "This is healing for our people." Tribal leaders suspect the vandals were making a statement opposing plans for low-income housing on the reservation. Investigators found a newspa per article about the project at the scene, said Scott Crowell, the Suquamish Tribe's Acting Executive Director. No arrests have been made. The FBI is investigating the case. Born in the 1780s, Chief Seattle led the Suquamish and Duwamish Tribes as whites settled in the area. He and 80 other Indian leaders ceded Puget Sound to the United States in the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. Settlers showed their gratitude by naming their frontier town after him. "A friend to the whites" is engraved in his headstone. The chief, baptized by Catholic missionaries, died at the Port Madison res ervation in 1866. Many Kitsap County residents and businesses pitched in to help restore the monument. Steel rods have been drilled into the white, Italian marble. Broken pieces from the three foot-tall cross have been glued together. The stone has been polished and cleaned. But there are still open wounds. "The fractures in this cross have been repaired but I don't know what we can do to fix the fractures in this community," Suquamish Tribal Chairman Bennie Armstrong told a recent gathering, which included many Elders. Armstrong noted Chief Seattle's willingness to share the Tribe's culture. "It's the practice of tolerance we need between our cultures now." G.I. James, one of Chief Seattle's descendants and a Tribal Liaison to King County Executive Ron Sims, said: "It's not just his grave they were desecrat ing, but his ideal." Structures in New Mexico may be Ancient Homes of American Indian Family .CIMARRON, N.M. (AP) Arche ologists have found two rock struc tures that may have been seasonal residences used by an American In dian family more than a thousand years ago. If carbon dating confirms a com mon time frame for the two struc tures, archaeologist Warren Lail said he will study whether they were used by the same nomadic Anasazi Indian family. Lail, a doctoral candidate from the TJniversity of Oklahoma, found the structures last year under mounds of dirt near Cimarron, in Northern New Mexico. Recently, a team under his leadership finished 24 days of exca vations at one of the shelters, located on the Boy Scouts-owned Philmont Scout Ranch. The circular house that was exca vated was more than 16 feet in diam eter with rock walls that once stood about 5 feet high, Lail said. He said the building may date back to A.D. 700. When examining the structure's walls on July 1 1, the team found char coal, which can be subjected to car bon dating to determine the age of the dwelling. Smoke from fires set inside the structure was thought to have deposited the charcoal on the walls. Lail and Don Wyckoff, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Uni versity of Oklahoma, said the house was probably a seasonal shelter used only in the fall, when hunting was good and acorns and nuts could be harvested in the area. The excavating team of about a dozen students found blackened pot tery fragments and grinding stones in the structure. The grinding stones have polished surfaces, indicating they were used to grind acorns, nuts and possibly corn, said Lail. Jon Young, an Archaeologist retired from the U.S. Forest Service, agreed the suspected autumn structure was probably seasonal. But he doubted it dates back to A.D. 700. "My guess is under 1,000 years old," Young said after visiting the site. But Lail, 50, said the house likely predates A.D. 850, because that's when Anasazi Indians moved down stream along the Ponil Creek and became corn growers. "If it were A.D. 900, they'd be in a pit house. They wouldn't be living here," said Lail. Next summer, Lail plans to dig out the second structure. Located about 200 feet higher atop a nearby mesa, the dwelling was probably warmer than the first house because it's more exposed to the sun. "I suspect they were up there in the winter," he said. If he determines that the structures were autumn and winter homes, Lail plans to look for spring and summer residences, putting together "the sea sonal round." ufejj m(z (i ufe Win 0 n A DOCUMENTARY FILM NXRAXTED BY PTPs COyOTE XND TXNTOO CXWDINXL. NATIONAL PBS BROADCAST PREMIER ON POINT OF VIEW TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, lOPM (CHECK LOCAL LISTING) "FOR. THOSE WHO KNOW NOTHING XBOUT THE DENIXL OF NXTIVE AMEPJCXN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, THIS FILM WILL CHXNCE MINDS XND OPEN HEXPJS FOR. THOSE OF US XLR.EXDV INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE TO SXVE SXCR.ED LXND, THIS FILM WILL ENERGIZE XND INSPIRE." WXLTEPv ECO-HXWK, NXTIVE AMEPJCXN RIGHTS FUND FREE HOMEMJYER EDUCATION SEMINAR jgg ft3jj fig fffrwnftrgji Learn about credit reports, financing a home and whether you may be a candidate for homeownerhip. Tuesday, August 7 6:30 to 9 pm Tribal Community Center For more information and pre-registration contact Nancy Holmes at 503-879-2445 or 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2445 Sponsored by the Grand Ronde Tribal Housing Authority A
