8
JANUARY 15, 2003
Smoke Signals
Kalapuyan Culture Site Is Right Next To 1-5
Proposed widening project makes effort to save artifacts a race against time.
By Peta Tinda
A team of archeologists from the
University of Oregon are working
to save what information they can
from an ancient Kalapuya site be
fore a proposed widening of the 1-5
highway seals it beneath a layer
of asphalt.
"The main reason we're here is
to try to mitigate the damage done
by the highway construction," said
Guy Tasa, Staff Archeologist at the
Oregon State Museum of Anthro
pology. "We want to find out about
the site and people who lived here.
Otherwise this information would
be lost."
Since November 12, Tasa and his
team of 15 students have been
working at the site. They carefully
dig and sift the damp earth, while
18-wheelers and commuter traffic
rumbles by just a stone's throw
away. They continued working
through mid-December, and will
return next summer.
The site is located about a mile
south of the Interstate 5 and High
way 22 intersection in Salem, a
scant 50 feet off the highway. Pro
posed construction plans include
widening the highway from four to
six lanes and adding a sound wall
similar to the ones bordering resi
dential neighborhoods. Construc
tion is scheduled to begin in Sep
tember 2003.
Evidence found at the site indi
cates that there was large number
of inhabitants occupying the area
for possibly as long as 2000 years.
Numerous stone tools and projec
tile points have been found, as well
as countless stone flakes left over
from the manufacture of such tools.
The archeologists are also finding
lots of fire-cracked rock, used to line
camas ovens.
"It's a pretty important site," said
Tasa. "It may have even been a
house. So far there's only been a
single house identified in the
Willamette Valley."
If that type of house is found to
have been at the location, it would
not only be a significant archeologi
cal find, but also an important ad
dition to the history of the
r
Kalapuya people in the Willamette
Valley.
If it was a house, Tasa explained,
then the residents choose a very
nice place to live. The site was
knowledgeably located between two
very productive eco-zones.
It would have been right next to
a small fishing creek, known as Mill
Creek today. To the northwest,
there was a riparian forest, the kind
that deer like to live in. To the
south, where 1-5 now lies, there
would have been a vast field, which
probably had a lot of camas.
The site has been know about for
15 years, when an earlier U of O
archeological project found it
among several other inhabited sites
grouped closely up and down Mill
Creek.
"We have been working closely
with the Tribe's Cultural Resources
Department," said Hal Gard, Or
egon Department of Transportation
Senior Archeologist. "The Mill
Creek archeological district is huge.
The number of sites is in the doz
ens. It's really impressive." As a
concession to the Tribe for destroy
ing an ancient Native American ar
cheological site, O.D.O.T. has
agreed to build an interpretive cen
ter about the Mill Creek Kalapuya,
as well as funding further research
and distributing literature.
Gard said he feels confident that
the U of O team is doing the best
job possible. "I think we've got the
best people in the state working on
it," he said.
Tribal member Mel Schultz, a
Cultural Resources Site Monitor,
was at the site taking photos and
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Freeway To The Past Archeologists from the University of Or
egon work at the Mill Creek archeological site just 50 feet off of Inter
state 5 in Salem. The site has been identified, as an area inhabited by
the Kalapuya possibly even the site of an ancient village. The site is
threatened by the possible widening of 1-5, which is scheduled to begin
in fall of 2003. This projectile point (left) is just one of the many artifacts
discovered at the site.
filling out forms to give to the
Tribe's Cultural Resources Depart
ment. He said he found the Uni
versities efforts to be satisfactory.
"I think it's too bad about the
highway. I feel a real personal con
nection to the site," he said.
Schultz said that such work is
necessary to prevent the loss of
heritage and the destruction of sites
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important to Native history.
He said he didn't know if any
body had been out to bless the site,
but said he would make the neces
sary arrangements.
"These sites are important to our
culture and we need to be more
aware of what's going on out here,"
said Schultz. "That's why I'm here."
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