By Greg Lavine and Elizabeth Neff
July 2, 2004
The Salt Lake Tribune
Archaeologists quietly spent the past two years exploring a remarkable and secret community of Fremont Indian sites in eastern Utah's Range Creek. Now, some American Indian groups say they were too quiet and secret.
Melvin Brewster, tribal historic preservation officer for the Goshute Skull Valley Band, said regional American Indian groups have had no say in the exploration of Range Creek. Many Western American Indian groups consider the Fremont to be their ancestors.
"This is part of a long pattern of keeping us in the dark," said Brewster, an archaeologist.
Utah officials involved in the Range Creek work said they had notified the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. They will bring interested Indian groups into the loop soon, said Darin Bird, assistant director for the state Department of Natural Resources.
But Forrest Cuch, director of the Division of Indian Affairs, said his office was unaware of the Range Creek site until recently.
"I'm very disappointed that the folks involved did not notify our office so we could notify the appropriate people," Cuch said.
The Division of Wildlife Resources, which is part of the natural resources department, in February took ownership of a 12-mile stretch of Range Creek, near Price in the Book Cliffs.
Waldo Wilcox sold the Range Creek property to the federal Bureau of Land Management two years ago for $2.5 million. Wilcox and his family kept vandals and looters away from the Fremont sites for more than 50 years.
The Trust for Public Land, a conservation group, brokered the deal between Wilcox and the Bureau of Land Management. Eventually, the federal agency handed the property over to the DWR.
Brewster said several native groups have contacted him, wondering why they had been ignored for so long.
State archaeologist Kevin Jones said his office has not contacted individual American Indian groups in the region, partly because archaeologists are not yet excavating anything.
When digging starts at selected sites, he said, American Indian groups should be involved.
"There's really nothing to consult about yet," Jones explained.
Duncan Metcalfe, of the Utah Museum of Natural History, said that he will talk about the site at an upcoming meeting of the Native American Remains Review Committee.
While some human remains have been found on the site, including at least one set on private property, archaeologists are leaving them untouched, except to protect them from the elements, Jones said.
Sarah George, director of the museum, said Indian Affairs and the Remains Review Committee were invited to Wednesday's media outing at Range Creek, but that no representatives were able to come. She stressed that American Indian groups will be included in the future.
Some American Indians feel that they are being brought on board a little late.
Betsy Chapoose, cultural rights and protection director for the Ute tribe, and Patty Timbimboo-Madsen, cultural resources manager for the Northwestern Band of Shoshone, said they were saddened no one alerted their tribes to the Range Creek site.
"Not having any knowledge of that find really disturbs me, and that it had been kept under wraps for two years," said Timbimboo-Madsen.
Even so, Timbimboo-Madsen says her people are forgiving and hope to work with the state.
"My hope is if those brothers and sisters from [Utah] need our help, that we will be there to support them, because I think an injustice has been done to them by not informing them," she said.
Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, said his tribe also has an interest in the site.
"We do see those people [the Fremont] as our ancestral people," he said. "At a very minimum, I would like to facilitate a Hopi visit."
The three Utah tribes that have claimed Fremont ancestry are the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, the Paiute Indian Tribe and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The other tribes are the Northwestern Band of Shoshone, based in Idaho; in Arizona, the Hopi Tribe and the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians of the Kaibab Indian Reservation; and four Pueblo bands from New Mexico.
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