8 SEPTEMBER 15, 2001
Smoke Signals
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Yurok Tribe: Federal Government did the Right
Thing in Klamath Basin
Needed water down river
kept traditional fishing alive.
KLAMATH FALLS, OR. (AP) - At
the mouth of the Klamath River, there
is no talk of storming head gates.
Members of the Yurok Tribe say the
federal government did the right thing
this spring by shutting off water to Kla
math Basin irrigators. That action
prompted threats, protests and several
successful attempts to force open the
head gates and let the water flow.
The water was held back from farm
ers for Coho salmon in the Klamath
River and two types of sucker in Upper
Klamath Lake, all protected under the
Endangered Species Act.
Yuroks are fishing for fall Chinook.
They have always been salmon fishers.
Their reservation is a narrow ribbon
along the course of the Klamath River,
extending 44 miles inland from the Pa
cific Ocean.
Even though fall Chinook do not en
ter the Klamath Basin debate, Yuroks
say the extra water sent into the Kla
math River helps all the Chinook by
making the river faster and colder.
Although commercial fishing along
the Northern California coast has been
largely closed for a decade and sport fish
ing has been cut sharply, Tribal fish
ing, recognized by law, has continued.
Last year Tribal members caught
29,718 fall Chinook, twice the allowed
This year the administration did the right thing
and put the needs of fish and the Tribes over the
project's Junior water right holders. If you look at it,
there really was no other choice." Troy Fletcher
Executive Director of the Yurok Tribe
harvest of the year before.
This year's Tribal quota is 60,000, the
second-largest quota in 25 years.
Nora Osburne, 28, who pitched a tent
on a sandbar three weeks ago and has
caught 613 fall Chinook in gill nets, will
give the fish she catches to 96 members
of her extended family who live as far
away as San Jose, California.
Catching salmon and giving them to
family members, she said, are impor
tant Tribal traditions.
"If it wasn't for our Elders showing
us what to do, we wouldn't be out here
doing this," she said. "I want my kids
out here doing this and showing their
kids how it's done."
Troy Fletcher, Executive Director of
the Tribe and a Tribal member, said that
by cutting off the farmers' water, the
federal government showed that Tribal
rights for water needed by salmon
trumps irrigators' rights.
"This year the administration did the
right thing and put the needs of fish and
the Tribes over the project's junior wa
ter right holders, Fletcher said. "If you
look at it, there really was no other
choice."
Archaeologists Dig Near Lyon's Bluff Burial Mound
; STARKVTLLE, MS. (AP) - Hundreds
of years ago, Native Americans trod the
earth at this site. They fished in the
creek, planted and gathered crops, wor
shipped and celebrated at the enigmatic
earthen mound that still rises mysteri
ously from the black prairie.
Today, the Oktibbeha County site,
owned by John Clark Sorrels and almost
ringed by Line Creek and Clay County,
is under the sway of Mississippi State
University archaeology students looking
for clues about the site's former inhabit
ants and their customs.
The site, on what is called Lyon's Bluff,
recently hosted a field school for the stu
dents, who are led by Evan Peacock, an
archaeology professor associated with the
Cobb Institute of Archaeology at MSU.
Peacock talks about and shows off the
site with great enthusiasm, calling the
site "extraordinarily well preserved."
"This could possibly be one of the fin
est sites in the Southeast," said Peacock.
"I have to thank the Sorrels for allowing
us to dig here, and for the care they've
taken of the site."
The work follows two earlier digs at
the site, in the 1930s and the 1960s. The
1930s work concentrated on finding ar
tifacts for the state museum, while the
1960s survey of the site revealed several
burial sites.
"I was amazed by the skeletons they
found here (in the 1930s)," said Sorrels.
"(The archaeologists) called them
frames."
Peacock and his students were look
ing to make a more thorough survey of
the site.
"In the last 30 years, archaeological
methods and techniques have improved
tremendously," said Peacock. "This al
lows us to make a more controlled exca
vation here than has been done previ
ously." One of those new methods is techno
logical. With the cooperation of NASA and a
professor from the University of Missis
sippi, the budding archaeologists located
traces of five houses with the help of an
orbiting satellite.
The technique, called remote sensing,
showed horizontal positions of trenches
dug for house walls and artifacts that
lay below the ground, but gave no clues
as to how deep the wall foundations or
artifacts lay.
"This technique (remote sensing) helps
to eliminate random digging, and also
helps to preserve the site," said Peacock.
HOLDERNESS, N.H. (AP)-About
60 American Indians turned out for a
Labor Day demonstration to protest
the expansion of a science center over
what they say are burial grounds.
The Abenakis say construction at
the Squam Lakes Natural Science
Center will harm a sacred burial and
ceremonial site.
Center Director Will Abbott said
there is no evidence burial grounds will
be affected. But those who turned out
for the protest, including Chief Charlie
True, head of New Hampshire's
Abenakis, said otherwise.
"This ground is very sacred to us.
Our ancestors are buried here," said
True.
The demonstrators carried signs,
one of which said "We Don't Bulldoze
Your Graveyards."
There are expansive burials here and
I don't think anyone in New Hampshire
wants to see burials dug up, not in their
cemeteries, not in our unmarked cem
eteries, nowhere," said True.
State Archaeologist, Gary Hume,
has sided with the Abenakis. He has
said the center has listened but not
heard, read but not comprehended.
Though no human bones have been
unearthed at the construction site
the center hired an independent ar
chaeologist to monitor the excavation
work. Hume said mounting evidence
shows the site sits atop New
Hampshire's largest known Abenaki
settlement.
Abbott said the center was sensi
tive to the fact that Native Americans
had used part of its property for at
least 5,000 years, but he said abort
ing the $1.2 million project was not
an option. He claimed the project
would disturb less than one-tenth of
an acre, or 3,700 square feet.
"We want to answer the basic questions
about this site when the site was oc
cupied, how long it was occupied. We
want to look at the artifacts and see how
this site connected to other parts of the
region."
Peacock noted that the Native Ameri
cans in the area were among the first
agriculturalists in Mississippi, but ques
tions still remain about their farming
habits.
"We've found plant remains at the site
here," said Peacock. "The big question
is whether the inhabitants raised crops
here at the mound site, or if the surround
ing sites grew the crops and brought them
here."
In one excavation unit on the site, a
trench was uncovered that had been dug
for wall posts and then filled. The unit
also showed signs that dirt from that
particular unit might have been used to
build the mound.
Another unit, described by Peacock as
a 'garbage site," yielded a wealth of pot
tery shards, deer bones and mussel
shells, among other items of antiquity.
"These things would have been the
waste of this community," said Peacock.
"But they're valuable to us now, to tell
us how the people lived."
Among the day's finds from digging
were the bowl of a tobacco pipe and a piece
of painted pottery, which Peacock said is
not found often at farm sites.
At yet another unit, Angie Steen and a
fellow student worked on digging out a
hole that was already 2 feet deep.
"This is hot, hard work," said Steen.
"But we've found some interesting pot
tery shards."
Steen and Peacock then discussed
what charcoal, of which there was a trace
in Steen's unit, might tell them about
that unit.
Each of the excavated areas at the site
contained what Peacock called "undis
turbed midden," a layer of soil over the
foundations of the Natives' houses, which
is where most of the artifacts are found.
"This site is in extraordinary shape,"
said Peacock. This site used to be used
for row crops, but below the plow line
things look really good."
None of the units being excavated are
actually on the mound, though one unit
sits on a slope off a mezzanine level of
the mound.
That is where the Natives might have
danced or sat during ceremonies taking
place on the apex of the earthen struc
ture. "We have no plans to excavate the
mound itself," said Peacock. The 1930s
excavation dug down to the bottom of the
mound, and it's so well preserved, we
don't want to do any more damage to
it."
Much of what is being excavated is
either bagged as it is dug from the
ground, or sifted from the excavated dirt
using running water and screens.
The site is yielding much more than
some other digs might have, said Pea
cock. "A lot of places have very acidic soil,
but things are extraordinarily preserved
here," he said.
Peacock remarked on the snail shells
that have been uncovered and what they
say about the site.
"These he said, picking some shells
from a group that had already been
sifted, "are 600 to 700 years old, and they
still have their color bands. These snails
probably denote an oak forest, which was
here before the Indians arrived."
"Many people don't think about the
Indians changing things," said Peacock.
"But they did. They cleared land and
burned land. There are different kinds
of snails for every change."
A marker on the mound, placed by the
Daughters of the American Revolution
in 1934, declares the site to be a
"Chocchiuma" village that was wiped out
bytheChickasawsandChoctaws. Pea
cock has his doubts about those conten
tions. The Chocchiuma are poorly known,"
said Peacock. This could have been a
Chocchiuma site, but we can't be sure.
That story was probably folklore that
gained credibility as time went on."
"The styles (of the pottery and other
artifacts) are hard to distinguish, over a
large area, especially in the prehistoric
era," he said. Two thousand years ago
the Choctaws hadn't even appeared."
The field school that Peacock is lead
ing is held every two years.
To do what we really want to do, we
need about two more seasons," said Pea
cock. That would put the completion of this
round of excavation in 2005.