By: Electa Draper
The bones of ancient Indians found on private and nonfederal public lands in Colorado now can be returned to tribes for reburial in as little as 100 days, rather than sitting in storage during years of consultation over cultural identity.
The Colorado Historical Society, Ute tribes, the state Commission on Indian Affairs and 45 regional tribes agreed on a process for remains inadvertently discovered.
"This is a huge step," said Ernest House, a Ute Mountain Ute tribal member and commission spokesman. "The Ute tribes will take the lead, but no tribe is left out."
The state typically experiences seven to 10 inadvertent discoveries of human remains a year, House said. The state's preference is to avoid disturbing or removing remains, yet this is sometimes impossible because construction activities or other circumstances require removal.
The recently approved process also will allow the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes to take responsibility for reburying the last unidentified remains, 37 sets, still housed by the Colorado History Museum in Denver.
"It doesn't seem like a big number, but the process will take care of new finds," said historical society spokeswoman Sheila Goff.
The museum currently houses about 250 additional sets of human remains that technically have been repatriated but not yet transferred by tribes to burial sites. Goff said it is the decision of tribes affiliated with the remains as to when they will claim and rebury them.
Under the new process, House said, any remains temporarily stored will be treated respectfully — no photographs, DNA or other destructive analyses. Remains will be held in cedar boxes, House said, "keeping them in touch with a natural element."
Keep reading here: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9470069
Friday, June 6, 2008
Donated artifacts to be displayed
By: Archie Ingersoll
DICKINSON - From the time he was a boy, Alick Dvirnak spent the spare moments of his life scanning the ground of his family’s ranch.
“No matter where I was at, I was looking,” the 89-year-old said.
He had good reason. The ranch is the site of the 1864 Battle of Killdeer Mountain, and it’s littered with history.
Arrowheads, spear points, bullets, casings, stone pipes, tomahawks and cannonball fragments left by the U.S. soldiers and Sioux warriors who fought on the land were collected by Dvirnak on Sunday walks or while working in the field.
Tomorrow, his collection of about 1,500 artifacts goes on display in Stoxen Library at Dickinson State University. The exhibit will be a permanent part of the school’s Theodore Roosevelt Center.
Clay Jenkinson, the center’s director, praised Dvirnak as not only a collector, but also an amateur historian.
“Lots of people can pick up an artifact or an arrowhead, but Alick did the hard work of reading everything there was to read about the battle and actually meeting people who had been there and working with Indians so that he would get it right,” Jenkinson said.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/articles/index.cfm?id=15680§ion=homepage&freebie_check&CFID=43276627&CFTOKEN=26148978&jsessionid=8830dc7429793560c6d3
DICKINSON - From the time he was a boy, Alick Dvirnak spent the spare moments of his life scanning the ground of his family’s ranch.
“No matter where I was at, I was looking,” the 89-year-old said.
He had good reason. The ranch is the site of the 1864 Battle of Killdeer Mountain, and it’s littered with history.
Arrowheads, spear points, bullets, casings, stone pipes, tomahawks and cannonball fragments left by the U.S. soldiers and Sioux warriors who fought on the land were collected by Dvirnak on Sunday walks or while working in the field.
Tomorrow, his collection of about 1,500 artifacts goes on display in Stoxen Library at Dickinson State University. The exhibit will be a permanent part of the school’s Theodore Roosevelt Center.
Clay Jenkinson, the center’s director, praised Dvirnak as not only a collector, but also an amateur historian.
“Lots of people can pick up an artifact or an arrowhead, but Alick did the hard work of reading everything there was to read about the battle and actually meeting people who had been there and working with Indians so that he would get it right,” Jenkinson said.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/articles/index.cfm?id=15680§ion=homepage&freebie_check&CFID=43276627&CFTOKEN=26148978&jsessionid=8830dc7429793560c6d3
Wyoming company says it won't drill on battlefield
By: Clair Johnson
BILLINGS, Mont. -- Plans for exploring coal-bed methane resources at Rosebud Battlefield State Park in southeastern Montana are on hold for now as the state and parties with minerals interests try to find a way to protect the historic site from energy development.
Wyoming-based Pinnacle Gas Resources Inc. and private mineral rights owners agreed in February to extend Pinnacle's lease until August 2009. Without the extension, Pinnacle would have had to begin test drilling by April to keep its lease.
None of the key parties involved wants to see minerals -- coal, oil and gas -- developed at the battlefield, but finding a solution that satisfies everyone's interests is tricky because of the split-estate ownership of the minerals and the land. In a split estate, the surface owner is different from the owner of the subsurface minerals.
In the case of Rosebud Battlefield State Park, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks owns the surface while most of the minerals are held privately.
"We'd like everybody to wear a white hat," said Chas Van Genderen, assistant administrator of FWP's Parks Division. "It gets complicated and requires some sensitivity. We're working hard."
Located off Highway 314 south of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and east of the Crow Reservation, the 3,000-acre park is well off the beaten path.
The rolling hills forested with pine trees and prairie lands are where Gen. George Crook, assisted by the Crow and Shoshone tribes, battled the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne nations on June 17, 1896. The fight on Upper Rosebud Creek was one of the largest battles of the Indian Wars and occurred eight days before the more famous Battle of the Little Bighorn about 30 miles away. Both sides claimed victory.
The site also has significant cultural and archaeological values, including a buffalo jump.
The battlefield is being considered for designation as a national historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Get the rest of the story here: http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/06/05/news/wyoming/9fb8ab2a35f473c38725745e008083f0.txt
BILLINGS, Mont. -- Plans for exploring coal-bed methane resources at Rosebud Battlefield State Park in southeastern Montana are on hold for now as the state and parties with minerals interests try to find a way to protect the historic site from energy development.
Wyoming-based Pinnacle Gas Resources Inc. and private mineral rights owners agreed in February to extend Pinnacle's lease until August 2009. Without the extension, Pinnacle would have had to begin test drilling by April to keep its lease.
None of the key parties involved wants to see minerals -- coal, oil and gas -- developed at the battlefield, but finding a solution that satisfies everyone's interests is tricky because of the split-estate ownership of the minerals and the land. In a split estate, the surface owner is different from the owner of the subsurface minerals.
In the case of Rosebud Battlefield State Park, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks owns the surface while most of the minerals are held privately.
"We'd like everybody to wear a white hat," said Chas Van Genderen, assistant administrator of FWP's Parks Division. "It gets complicated and requires some sensitivity. We're working hard."
Located off Highway 314 south of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and east of the Crow Reservation, the 3,000-acre park is well off the beaten path.
The rolling hills forested with pine trees and prairie lands are where Gen. George Crook, assisted by the Crow and Shoshone tribes, battled the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne nations on June 17, 1896. The fight on Upper Rosebud Creek was one of the largest battles of the Indian Wars and occurred eight days before the more famous Battle of the Little Bighorn about 30 miles away. Both sides claimed victory.
The site also has significant cultural and archaeological values, including a buffalo jump.
The battlefield is being considered for designation as a national historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Get the rest of the story here: http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/06/05/news/wyoming/9fb8ab2a35f473c38725745e008083f0.txt
State American Indian leader advocates for recognition, education
By: Nicholas C. Stern
In a grade school history class, E. Keith Colston was told by his teacher that American Indians tortured their children.
Colston, a descendant of the Tuscarora and Lumbee tribes, said he tried to remain respectful while informing her that sweat lodge ceremonies, incorrectly interpreted in his textbook, are about spiritual cleansing, not torture.
Colston, now the executive director for the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, has been battling misperceptions and ignorance about his people ever since.
He spoke Tuesday at the Frederick County Law Enforcement Center at an annual Coalition Opposed to Violence and Extremism retreat. The coalition is an alliance of public and private civil rights, human relations, law enforcement, advocacy, religious and educational organizations in Maryland and the Washington area.
Colston said that attempts to eliminate American Indians physically, socially, mentally and spiritually from U.S. society have created deep mistrust, especially as the government claims to help them, Colston said.
"Historically, (Native Americans) have paid the ultimate price," he said.
But the radicalized American Indian movements of the '70s, though necessary at the time, are no longer viable. Instead, a middle road of peaceful activism will help his people, Colston said.
That is why he is encouraged by small yet sure steps like Gov. Martin O'Malley's recent designation of an American Indian Heritage Day.
Keep reading here: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=75878
In a grade school history class, E. Keith Colston was told by his teacher that American Indians tortured their children.
Colston, a descendant of the Tuscarora and Lumbee tribes, said he tried to remain respectful while informing her that sweat lodge ceremonies, incorrectly interpreted in his textbook, are about spiritual cleansing, not torture.
Colston, now the executive director for the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, has been battling misperceptions and ignorance about his people ever since.
He spoke Tuesday at the Frederick County Law Enforcement Center at an annual Coalition Opposed to Violence and Extremism retreat. The coalition is an alliance of public and private civil rights, human relations, law enforcement, advocacy, religious and educational organizations in Maryland and the Washington area.
Colston said that attempts to eliminate American Indians physically, socially, mentally and spiritually from U.S. society have created deep mistrust, especially as the government claims to help them, Colston said.
"Historically, (Native Americans) have paid the ultimate price," he said.
But the radicalized American Indian movements of the '70s, though necessary at the time, are no longer viable. Instead, a middle road of peaceful activism will help his people, Colston said.
That is why he is encouraged by small yet sure steps like Gov. Martin O'Malley's recent designation of an American Indian Heritage Day.
Keep reading here: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=75878
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