Sunday, December 10, 2000, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Indians' history rises from ashes of wildfire
by Scott Gold
Los Angeles Times
DOME LAND WILDERNESS
AREA, Calif. - A serendipitous
opportunity created by the
summer's devastating fire in the
Sequoia National Forest has led to
the discovery of hundreds of
American Indian relics, prompting
archaeologists to refine the
conventional history of American
Indians in central and southern
California.
Much of the 80,000-acre fire that
blew through this rugged stretch of
pinyon pines and sagebrush in July
and August raged in protected
federal wilderness. There,
development and mechanized travel are banned, making it more difficult for
archaeologists to gain access for digs.
During the blaze, however, bulldozers had to build fire roads. Construction of
roads is one of the few events that can open these areas to archaeologists - and what
was a disaster became, for them, a rare opportunity.
So, amid towering flames and thick smoke, archaeologists strapped on yellow hard
hats and set off on foot with the bulldozers. They say their finds in those August
days, and in the weeks since, were astonishing.
On one cliff side, they discovered an elaborate pictograph adorned with stars, a
diagram that may depict a celebration of the solstice. In a patch of scorched woods
they came upon a full-service kitchen of sorts: a series of grinding areas carved into
granite boulders. Dozens of obsidian shards, scattered across patches of white ash,
are evidence of widespread travel and trade.
"We weren't expecting to find anything of this magnitude," said Loreen Lomax, a
U.S. Forest Service archaeologist leading the mountain expedition.
Fire can be a useful archaeological tool, experts say. It is not uncommon for flames
to clear vegetation obscuring artifacts. Although sites are sometimes destroyed, new
finds have been made after a number of blazes.
Last summer's extensive fires in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado exposed
hundreds of archaeological sites. A fire in Six Rivers National Forest near Eureka
two summers ago led to the discovery of river rocks that were used to extract fibers
from fern stalks - an important step in basket weaving, said Ken Wilson, a U.S.
Forest Service archaeologist and the president of the Society for California
Archeology.
300 years for forest to recover
The fire has changed everything in some areas of the Sequoia National Forest,
including parts of the Dome Land Wilderness, a federally protected area in the
northwest portion of the forest.
Today, many hills are still black with soot and stripped of life. The monotony is
broken only by shoulder-high splinters of dark wood. Even many of the trees that
appeared to survive have roots that were destroyed by the heat. They topple
regularly; firefighters and scientists working each day to coax the forest back to
health call them "widow makers."
A ferocious wind tears relentlessly through flood plains and valleys, with no trees
or vegetation to impede it. Officials are bracing for widespread erosion and floods.
Some fires are considered beneficial to forests. They can clear away underbrush,
bringing more nutrients to trees. Their heat can help acorns release their seeds, and
natural nurseries of oak trees often pop up in the weeks after a blaze.
But not here - not this time. This fire was so hot, and so destructive, that officials
estimate the forest will not recover for 300 years.
The lone benefit of the fire, it seems, is the surprising archaeological discovery,
which is revealing a slice of California history in a stark reminder that the general
understanding of the West's first settlers is still tenuous and incomplete.
So far, archaeologists have documented more than 400 sites in the fire area
containing American Indian relics, some of them more than 3,000 years old, Lomax
said. Worried that looters will disturb the sites, Forest Service officials decline to
say where the artifacts have been found.
Evidence of trade, spirituality
An early analysis of the new finds, she said, suggests that there were about 1,700
members of the Tubatulabal and Kawaiisu bands in the area before cattle ranchers,
miners and Basque sheepherders moved in and, from the late 1700s to the
mid-1800s, began pushing the Indians out.
That population figure is as much as three times higher than some earlier estimates
from historians.
Many historical accounts described the American Indians who lived in the area at the
time as unsophisticated survivalists - hunting-and-gathering clans that scrounged for
a meager existence. Lomax asserts that her finds point to a far richer community,
one touched by extensive trade and travel, interaction with many other American
Indian bands, kinship and spirituality.
Lomax and her team have found hundreds of pieces of obsidian, much of it carved
into tools such as scrapers to clean animal hides.
Obsidian is a volcanic rock that cannot be found naturally in Sequoia National
Forest, Lomax said. It occurs along California's coast - indicating other bands
traveled hundreds of miles to trade hunks of obsidian for items such as the
Tubatulabals' renowned wicker baskets.
Historically, the American Indians in the region have been described as lacking
spirituality, Lomax said.
But she has discovered a series of paintings on the sides of large rocks that suggest
otherwise. Rather than depicting hunts and animals, many of them seem to depict
the heavens - swirling suns and dotted stars, even one that is believed to be some
sort of calendar.
"This was a large, established community," Lomax said. "They were not isolated
and they were not very territorial. As a whole, they worked as a group. And there
was a connection, a spirituality."
Even today, the unearthing of relics has taken on an eerie mysticism. Many
American Indian descendants in the region believe the project is stirring spirits from
slumber, and to cleanse themselves after monitoring the research, they immerse
themselves in the smoke of burning sage and cedar.
Other Indians say some artifacts, such as arrowheads, are too hot to hold when they
are picked up - even though the pieces have been buried in the chilly soil for
hundreds of years.
Lomax conceded that she was "skeptical" of the spirituality surrounding the work.
Then, one recent day, when she found herself alone in the woods at one site, she
believed she heard chanting.
"It's been an experience," she said.
Refinding a lost culture
The finds are introducing many American Indians who still live in the area to a
culture they thought they had lost forever. When Indians were herded onto
reservations in the 1800s, many were funneled into Catholic schools where they
were forbidden to speak about their culture and traditions, said Leonard Manueo
Jr., an American Indian assisting in the archaeological project.
The practice was devastating to an oral tradition with no written language. Today,
for example, there are only six people who speak the language of Manueo's
Bakalachi band, he said.
"It was like we were gone," Manueo said. "But here we are."
None of the artifacts have been taken out of the area. They are documented,
protected and shown to American Indians who are suddenly enmeshed in their
culture.
In one recent instance, a group of Indians working with Lomax at an archaeological
site discovered a pile of obsidian shards. "What's this stuff?" they asked her.
"So I told them how obsidian flakes were used for arrowheads and other tools, and
I told them why that was important," Lomax said, standing in the blackened woods
of the forest, in what was once a settlement of 100 American Indians.
"It was really neat, being able to explain it," she said. "This is their history, or
what's left of it. And now we're just trying to protect that." |
