It seems to be archaeology day at Buffalo Post (see previous post here). This story is about 17 Crow Nation students looking into their own past during an archaeology field school in a remote part of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area on what is now the Montana-Wyoming border.

They’re helping excavate a site that National Park Service archaeologist Chris Finley stumbled upon a year ago while surveying the area in advance of a plan plan by the Western Area Power Administration to rebuild transmission lines through the park, according to this Billings (Mont.) Gazette story by Lorna Thackeray:

Four-poled tepees, unique to the Crow, would have stood tall on the sparsely vegetated campsite, their hide skirts held down by heavy stones gleaned from the rumbling landscape in the foothills of the Pryor Mountains. Whirls of smoke would have been rising from lodges of varying size. There would have been tepees for families large and small. Some may have been used to protect their dogs against brutal weather blowing down the canyon. Dogs were an integral part of nomadic life. Before horses, they were the primary beasts of burden. They barked warnings of an enemy approach and, in times of hunger, provided a food supply. The largest of the tepees may have served communal or ceremonial purposes.

“It really sparks your imagination,” says James Vallie, who last year was part of the first Crow field archaeology school funded through a grant from the National Park Foundation.

Gwen Florio

It’s a common story and an old one – European settlers massacre the Native American people on the land the settlers hope to occupy.

But this particular story is older than most, dating to 1637, in what is now Connecticut.

An archaeological dig, funded by grants from G, is unearthing artifacts from a battle between English settlers and members of the Pequot tribe that saw more than 400 Pequots killed in what historians say was a turning point in the so-called Pequot War, according to this Associated Press story:

The Pequot War, waged from 1636 to 1638, broke out as tensions escalated between that powerful tribe and English settlers, who were bolstered by other tribes angry at the aggressive Pequots.

After the Pequots’ fort was burned, those who escaped were slaughtered as they fled or caught and enslaved, either by the English or their tribal allies.

Today, the Mashantucket Pequots — descendants of survivors given to the Mohegans as slaves — operate the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Another group, the Eastern Pequots, descend from survivors enslaved by the Narragansetts and live in nearby North Stonington.

Both tribes are involved in the project, which the AP story by Stephanie Reitz says is a joint venture between the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center at Foxwoods and the University of Connecticut.

“A lot of people think the Pequot War was just the one massacre, this single site, but it’s so much more than that,” Joseph Peters Jr., 24, a Mashantucket Pequot and UConn student, tells Reitz. “There’s so much culture sitting under the ground, under the earth, for so long just waiting to be discovered.”

Gwen Florio

School can’t oust Lipan Apache boy over braids
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Needville (Texas) Independent School District can’t punish a Lipan Apache boy for wearing his hair in braids. Kenney Arocha and Michelle Betenbaugh had argued that their son’s hair, which has never been cut, conforms to their Native American religious beliefs, according to the Houston Chronicle, here.

Federal disaster declaration for Rocky Boy’s Reservation
President Barack Obama yesterday declared the Rocky Boy’s Reservation a disaster area, making it eligible for federal money for repairs. Flooding on the reservation broke water lines, leaving hundreds of members of the Chippewa Cree tribe without water for two weeks and causing millions of dollars in damage, according to this Associated Press story.

Navajo Nation Supreme Court says no third term for president
The Navajo Supreme Court has denied President Joe Shirley Jr.’s quest for a third consecutive term, the AP reports here. “I respect the decision of our Supreme Court justices,” Shirley said. “They had the final say. They decided and now I know that this is the end of it.”

Report details abuse of indigenous people in Peru
A report by the Missionary Indigenous Council takes a look at the treatment of indigenous people in Brazil. The report shows they are dealt abuse by police and landowners, lack proper nutrition and health care, and crowded out of their homelands by vast public works such as the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the state of Para. Read more in this Agence France-Presse story.

New Nez Perce National Historic Trail map released
A new map of the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail is now available at Forest Service and National Park Service offices and online through Discover Your Northwest, the National Forest Store and the USGS Store, according to the Char-Koosta News, here. The map details locations along the 1,170 mile trail. Or, you can see it online here.

Aboriginal warrior’s remains, once displayed in museum, are reburied
A 19th century Aboriginal warrior named Yagan whose severed head once was displayed in British museum, has been reburied with proper ceremony in western Australia. The Associated Press reports here that the private ceremony was held yesterday by the Noongar Tribe, and coincides with the opening of the Yagan Memorial Park outside of Perth.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the entire story from Kevin Woster of the Rapid City, S.D., Journal:

Former Mount Rushmore National Memorial superintendent Gerard Baker has retired from the National Park Service, less than three months after he was named assistant park service director for Native American relations.

Hugh Dougher, acting superintendent at Mount Rushmore, said Tuesday that Baker retired effective July 3 because of lingering health concerns. Baker suffered a stroke in November but returned to his job as Mount Rushmore superintendent in January. At that time, he said during an interview with the Journal that he was “more fired up than ever” and hoped to stay at Rushmore until he retired in 2016.

But Baker left the superintendent’s job in April to take the assistant director’s job. He had planned on splitting his time between Washington, D.C., and an office in the Black Hills. But Baker’s health concerns increased under the workload of his new job, Dougher said. He said Baker was wise to put his health first.

“I think he made the right decision,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

The nearly 300-foot-high natural stone arch in Utah known as Tsé Naní’áhí (it’s called Rainbow Bridge in English) is one of the country’s most remote national monuments, demanding a 14-mile hike to reach it.

On May 30, representatives of the five tribes who hold it sacred – Navajo, Hopi, San Juan Southern Paiute, Kaibab Paiute and White Mesa Ute – held a ceremony to honor the centennial of its being named a national monument, the Navajo Times reports here.

As Cindy Yurth writes, the arch was considered to be connected with powerful deities who controlled the weather.

Now, there’s a move to remove the arch from U.S. government control and put it back in the hands of the Navajo.

Alex Bitsinnie, the president of Navajo Mountain Chapter, says the timing is good.

“For 100 years, we’ve had to put up with our offerings being disturbed by tourists,” Bitsinnie tells Yurth. “With the move by the tribe to take over Canyon de Chelly, maybe we can include Rainbow Bridge in those negotiations.”

While those negotiations are going on, a new National Park Service plan for the arch includes keeping the site off-limits to tourists while medicine men conduct ceremonies there and limiting foot traffic to 40 visitors at a time. The National Park Service will also look into complaints by locals that loud planes, including military jets, are flying too close to the area.

The National Park Service web page on Rainbow Bridge, here, urges visitors to “please visit Rainbow Bridge in a spirit that honors and respects the cultures to whom it is sacred.”

Gwen Florio

The first interpretive project ever to take place at the Fort C.F. Smith site in southern Montana took place this week as part of a collaboration between the Crow Tribe and the National Park Service.

The site — now deonated only with a stone and metal marker — was built by the U.S. Army on the Bozeman Trail along the Bighorn River to protect people traveling to Virginia City’s gold camps, Brett French of the Billings Gazette writes here.

“Anywhere else in America, this would be a really big site,” says Col. Berris Samples, leader of the Lodge Grass Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, who brought Crow students there this week. He also took the students to the site of the Grapevine Creek battle between the Crow and the Blackfeet.

The sites, on the Crow reservation, are typically closed to anyone other than Crow tribal members, but because of a collaboration with the Junior ROTC group, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area staff was able to accompany the group and give presentations to the students. (Watch a video of the day’s events, here.)

“This is the first interpretive program ever given at the site of Fort C.F. Smith,” Chris Wilkinson, chief of interpretation for the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, tells French.

Wilkinson told the group that the fort — the most isolated along the Bozeman Trail — was built in 1864 to protect white emigrants from raids by the Sioux and Cheyenne:

“Your ancestors, the Crow Nation, were stuck in the middle of this,” Wilkinson told the JROTC students.

Without the help of Crow Indians acting as scouts, mail carriers and providing food to starving soldiers in the winter of 1867, Fort C.F. Smith might not have lasted two years.

“I do not believe there is any greater example of hospitality to the U.S. Army,” Wilkinson said.

“Why do I tell you this today?” he asked rhetorically. “By celebrating your legacy, you are following in your ancestors’ footsteps and extending hospitality. We thank you for allowing us to visit your sites.”

At the site of the Grapevine Creek battle, where the Crow defeated a Blackfeet band, students raised a tepee.

Theo Hugs, who retired last year from the Bighorn Canyon NRA, tells French that the interaction between the tribe and the National Park Service is long overdue.

“I think the kids need to know their heritage,” she says.

Gwen Florio

Gerard Baker, whose tenure as superintendent at Mount Rushmore National Memorial has sometimes been marked by controversy, will be assistant director for American Indian Relations at the National Park Service.

“The National Park Service faces important cultural and natural resource issues with First Americans,” National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said in making yesterday’s announcement.

“I’ve asked Gerard to represent me and the National Park Service with tribes across our country to work on issues I believe will further the goals of the National Park Service and goals of First Americans.”

Baker, who is Mandan-Hidatsa from the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, Baker was the first Native American appointed superintendent of Mount Rushmore, the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal reports here. Throughout his time in the Park Service, he’s worked to include Native American perspectives.

“This is really a natural next step in my career, and it’s what I’ve been doing all my life: learning about people, our history and culture, talking to others and sharing stories and learning to appreciate other perspectives. It’s an opportunity we in the National Park Service can’t miss,” Baker says.

As the Journal reports, Baker went through a rocky patch recently in his 30-year career with the Park Service:

Baker drew fire from his critics last July when Greenpeace demonstrators scaled the monument to unfurl a protest banner. Baker stepped in front of cameras and microphones the next day to assure everyone that the monument’s security systems had worked as designed. A Park Service investigation revealed that parts of the security system were either inoperable or not functioning properly.

Retired South Dakota Highway Patrol officer Terry Mayes of Rapid City said he holds Baker personally responsible for the security breach. Mayes was on a committee that recommended security changes after an earlier demonstration at the memorial. The committee made suggestions that led to the spending of several million dollars for security improvements that were not operating properly last July, he said.

Baker had a stroke last year and took medical leave. He returned to work in Mount Rushmore in January.

Gwen Florio

The National Park Service has announced new rules for dealing with remains of Native people, especially those in museums and exhibits. Those rules are already prompting the University of Michigan, for one, which has about 1,400 remains in storage to re-examine how it deals with such remains. Read that story, here, and the entire story on the new rules from the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal, below:

National Park Service officials on Tuesday announced a final rule that it hopes will clarify and make less cumbersome the process for disposing of Native American human remains that are in scores of museums and exhibits nationwide.

The rule requires museums and federal agencies listing Native American human remains in their collections as unidentifiable to consult with tribes that historically lived in the area where the remains were exhumed.

By allowing the disposition agreements of tribes and museums or federal agencies to be published in the Federal Register as notice of action, 30 days before disposition, rather than requiring each disposition to receive individual approval of the Secretary of the Interior, the process is much less cumbersome.

“The final rule will ensure that the reburial of human remains will get done more expeditiously and streamline the process for all parties involved,” National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said in a news release. “Publication of the rule will go a long way in helping tribes, museums and federal agencies as they work to resolve claims to Native American human remains.”

There are currently more than 124,000 Native American human remains listed under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 as unidentifiable, 4,000 individuals have been returned to tribes for reburial in 82 agreements approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

The rule is a product of years of consultation with tribes, museums and the NAGPRA Review Committee. Key to this rule, and key to each step of the NAGPRA process, is consultation with tribes.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial Superintendent Gerard Baker, who is Mandan and Hidatsa, has been on leave since having a stroke last year. His past Park Service experience includes tenure at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana and the Knife River Indian Villages in North Dakota. Baker is well-known – and sometimes controversial – for his insistence upon including presentations of Native history and culture at his various postings. Here’s the whole story from Steve Miller in today‘s Rapid City Journal:

Mount Rushmore National Memorial Superintendent Gerard Baker said Wednesday that he is fully recovered from a stroke he suffered in November and has felt great since he returned to work full time last week.

“I’m back and I’m more fired up than ever, in a positive sense,” he said.

Baker, 56, is a 31-year National Park Service veteran and said he plans to make Mount Rushmore his last career stop.

“I have no intention of going any other place,” Baker said. “I came here five years ago with the intention that this is my last national park site.”

Baker wants to remain at Rushmore until 2016, the 100th birthday of the National Park Service.

“What better time to retire than that birthday year.”