NEBRASKA
http://www.journalstar.com:80/archives/072199/neb/stox The Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and the Nebraska State Historical Society, bitter enemies a few years ago, now have formed an alliance to put the brakes on the project. The reason: They say the 275 acres planned for quarter-million-dollar homes , a lake and a championship golf course could contain significant Pawnee and Otoe burial sites and historic places associated with Nebraska's early settlement.
KANSAS
http://www.kcstar.com:80/item/pages/local.pat,local/3773b51c.721,.html The Lansing Historical Museum presents the 132-year history of the Kansas State Penitentiary. The museum, a former railroad depot, also focuses on the history of the city and the railroad.
COLORADO
http://www.durangoherald.com/1news879.htm A gun-carrying special agent from the U.S. Forest Service is looking for you. It seems your recent etchings on the sacred burial grounds at the Falls Creek Archaeological Area just outside Durango were not appreciated by either the forest service or the 25 American Indian tribes that claim a cultural connection to the area. Brenda Schultz, the special agent trying to find out who caused the damage in May to the oldest Basketmaker II site in the Southwest, said of the vandals: "The thought wouldn’t occur to these people to go out to their grandmother’s grave and write on the headstone." Still, next to pictographs dating to 300 B.C., initials, names, a sun and perhaps most insulting, a carving of a fire-breathing Godzilla.
http://www.durangoherald.com/1news868.htm The annual San Ignacio Fiesta, started in 1900 by the town’s Hispanics and American Indians, is centered around the 100-year-old Catholic church named after Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
UTAH
http://www.southern-utah.com/Thursday/7_22_99local1.htm Of the Paiute’s 744 members in Utah, less than 40 people speak the language fluently. The tribe is working to preserve the Paiute language, an oral language with various dialects used by different bands. The tribe is working on a Paiute language dictionary. This is a marked turnaround from 50 years ago when Paiutes were discouraged from using the language.
UTAH/ARIZONA
http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/msg00313.html Monday, July 19, 1999 99-381 - Glen Canyon NRA (AZ/UT) - ARPA Case David Dose, a teacher at Kellogg Middle School (KMS, city and state not given), organized and supervised an archaeological field trip to the park for a group of KMS students in the early spring of 1994. The trip was known at the school as the "Lake Powell Expedition, 1994." The students belonged to a school archaeological society that Dose organized and supervised as advisor. The student club was organized and conducted in conjunction with an inter-disciplinary curriculum (history, language arts, math and science) that focused on the study of ancient civilizations which was called "Digging the Past." The field trip was approved by the school's principal, the superintendent of the school district, and the district's board of education. At no time during either the planning stages of this student group activity or the field trip itself did Dose or anyone associated with the school seek guidance, assistance, a student briefing, or any information concerning archaeological resource protection and/or the federal laws and regulations pertaining to them. The itinerary for the expedition included a visit to an archaeological site known as Crumbling Kiva Ruin, located just west of the better known Defiance House archaeological site in Forgotten Canyon. Dose actively encouraged and counseled the students to search for, find, and remove prehistoric artifacts at the ruin. The students disturbed the surface and subsurface of several structures within the ruin by digging with collapsible shovels and removing several artifacts. On May 6, 1999, Dose entered into a pre-trial diversion agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office that included the following: Restoration to the park in the amount of $1,079; Supervised probation for 18 months; A requirement to write, edit and submit a manuscript for publication to the National Council for the Social Studies, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Middle School Association, and the Society for American Archaeology's Public Education Committee; The manuscript, which will be entitled "A Case Study: Students on Field Trip Damage Federal Archaeological Site - Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned by Their Teacher," will be reviewed by the Archeology and Ethnography Program, WASO; Dose will also have to make oral presentations on the manuscript to the Rocky Mountain Regional Council, the National Council for the Social Studies (at their spring, 2000, conference in Colorado), and the Idaho Middle Level Association or Utah Middle School Association; Payment of $1,065 in restitution by the school district to cover the park's investigative costs. Assistant U.S. attorney Wayne Dance was the prosecutor and instrumental in arriving at the successful resolution to a very difficult case. [Jim Houseman, CI, GLCA, 7/9]
ARIZONA
http://www.svherald.com/news/stories/99072106n.html The operator of the Boothill Cemetery will be able to keep donations, which average about $1,800 a month, for the upkeep of the historic Tombstone Arizona graveyard.
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/111-6383.html Wal-Mart has agreed to dig for ancient human remains and ruins on the edge of Casa Grande National Monument. The site likely contains buried ruins that were not recognized when Congress set aside the lands in the late 1800s. Wal-Mart will hire an archaeological firm to dig trenches across the 35-acre site. Hohokam cremation burials could be found. The company was on the verge of breaking ground in May when archaeologists intervened. They say the lack of a local law prevented Wal-Mart from getting adequate warning. They believe Casa Grande was a central site for the Hohokam on the Gila River when it was built around 1350. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, the Jesuit priest, noted the thick-walled ruin called Casa Grande when he explored the area in 1694. Congress authorized the reservation of lands including the Casa Grande in 1889. It became a monument under the National Park Service in 1918. Any burials unearthed by the Wal-Mart dig would be removed and given to the neighboring Gila River Indian Community for reburial on behalf of that tribe and five others with ties to the Hohokam culture. They include the Tohono O'odham west of Tucson and reach as far as the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico.
NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE REJECTS ONATE SCULPTURE COMPLAINT 07/20/99 ALBUQUERQUE (AP) _ The city Human Rights Office has refused to consider a complaint about the proposed construction of a Spanish memorial that would include an image of controversial conquistador Juan de Onate. Onate, the first military governor of New Mexico, was sent back to Spain after atrocities were committed against Indian populations 400 years ago. The complaint against the statue in Tiguex Park, filed by a citizens group called Circle of Voices, says Onate is a symbol of "oppression, genocide and slavery." But Virginia Candelaria-Martinez, director of the city-run Human Rights Office, said her staff determined that the complaint does not fall under her jurisdiction. "I totally disagree," said Circle of Voices spokesman Arturo Sandoval. "I think the human rights ordinance was set up precisely for these kinds of issues, and especially as they pertain to public accommodations." "In this case I think the city (human) rights board took a hike," Sandoval said, "and didn't want to deal with a very real issue."
[ SASIG Ed. Note -- Onate cut off Acoma feet; Acoma amputated Onate's statue. Is there some fetish going on in NM? ]
MEXICO
Forget feet! Gringos captured Santa Anna's leg (and still have it in Illinois): http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/santa-anna-leg.htm http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=2463
http://www.unisci.com/stories/19991/0329995.htm What if claims made by the winners aren't accurate? Aztec reports of annihilation of the Chontal were, in fact, grossly exaggerated. After the fall of the Aztec empire to Hernán Cortéz in 1521, the Chontal, using Spanish law, reasserted their political dominance.
CALIFORNIA
http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/STATE/t000065303.html A team of eight architects, historians and artists are creating a historic record of how the Pasadena Freeway looked when its first segments opened in 1940. The survey is part of the Historic American Engineering Record project. That is a 30-year effort by the National Park Service and professional engineering groups to chronicle pioneering public projects across the country. Bridges, old steel factories and power stations have been previous documentary projects.
CYBERIA
http://unisci.com/stories/19993/0722994.htm A decades-old split between American Indians and archaeologists, and disputes over how to treat Native American remains and artifacts, will likely continue unless scientists and tribal leaders can find common ground. Most Native American people don't know what archaeologists do. They think they always deal with human remains. And most archaeologists, because they deal with the past, have not always made the connection between what they do and the people living today. Just getting the dialogue going makes for better comprehension between the two groups.
http://www.hotcoco.com/news/wrldfront/dan44480.htm MOSCOW -- The Trojan gold seized by the Russians at the end of WW II was excavated by German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1873. He was convinced that it belonged to King Priam (featured in Homer's epic poem, The Iliad). The treasure has been dated to the Bronze Age at about 2500 B.C., long before Homer's time.
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/07/22/timnwsnws03002.html?999 An ancient well uncovered during restoration of the Royal Oak pub, held the promise of a treasure trove of old coins, drinking glasses and pewter tankards.