Monday, September 13, 2004
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By KEITH ROGERS
For more than 1,000 years, tribes from at least three American Indian
cultures came to a place overlooking what is now the Las Vegas Valley to
feast on agave, hunt bighorn sheep and etch symbols of their lifestyles in
the sandstone outcroppings kn- own as Little Red Rocks.
It was a crossroads for bands of Southern Paiute, tribes from the
lower Colorado River and the Anasazi from the Virgin River who have long
since vanished but left reminders of their distinctive, fired pottery and
paintings on rock walls.
This stretch of high desert that reaches from about 3,000 feet to a
mile high in elevation had what the Indians needed to survive in the harsh
climate.
Shallow depressions in these fossilized sand dunes made for natural
water tanks, or "tenajas," to hold rainwater.
Pine trees and steep walls of orange and beige sandstone that jut from
the landscape provided shade, shelter and pine nuts.
It was close to where life began at the foot of the Spring Mountains
as well as where life was celebrated and where it ended for some of these
ancient people.
Now it is a point of controversy with a developer who wants to build
thousands of homes in what will be part of Summerlin West. Some tribes
including Paiute and Hopi don't want the construction to unearth the remains
of their ancient people.
In short, it is private property with a public interest and a
government mandate.
Because some parts of the development will fill washes, a Clean Water
Act permit is required by the Army Corps of Engineers. The permit, as well,
must comply with the National Historic Preservation Act. That means the
owner, The Howard Hughes Corp., must identify cultural resources in the area
for the corps, evaluate them and assess what impact the project will have on
them.
Hughes officials have vowed to preserve the cultural resources and
have had archaeologists document the sites. They have developed a
preservation plan and have discussed it recently at a public informational
meeting.
The plan, said Don Hendricks, an amateur archaeologist who spurred
Hughes to record the sites, "is certainly a good first step but a lot of us
certainly don't think it goes far enough."
What remains on this 75-acre patch of The Howard Hughes Corp. property
are the panels of petroglyphs, the stippled peckings of rock art and some
painted work, or pictographs of the Anasazi, Patayan and Numic traditions
that grace the outcroppings at five different sites. Among the images
depicted are a shaman, or chief, with a horned headdress; stick figures of
people holding hands; a bear paw; a shield; the sun; and a tall, desert
plant, agave.
There are also etchings of what archaeologists believe are white
settlers passing through the area. They show women wearing dresses and men
with cowboy hats, who perhaps were Santa Fe traders from the New Mexico
Territory vintage 1830s and early 1840s, and Mormon pioneers who passed
through later.
It's only been in the past few decades -- and especially within the
past 10 years -- that vandals, too, have left their marks. They came with
paint, tools and guns to mar the surroundings of the ancient artwork,
degrading it with graffiti, ethnic slurs and sexually explicit scenes while
leaving their trash behind.
Hughes' vice president for community relations, Tom Warden, notes that
the corporation has tried every thing to prevent access to the sites by
off-road vehicles, but fences have been yanked down soon after they've been
erected. Boulders placed to block off-road trails have been pushed out of
the way.
"Somebody brought out heavy equipment to do this," he said. "Frankly,
it's a daunting problem."
The corporation has determined the best way to protect the sites is to
surround them with low-density housing, open space or a golf course.
Scattered in between these five sites are about two dozen
doughnut-shape pits where agave was roasted over chunks of limestone. It is
also believed to be near the places, according to Paiutes, where some of
their ancestors were buried.
Kenny Anderson, cultural representative for the Las Vegas Paiute
Tribe, said though the plan has measures to preserve the rock faces and to
prevent destruction of those sites, there is nothing in place to protect the
landscape that represents potential burial sites.
"Basically we'd like to have them É be aware of what's in their back
yards," Anderson said last week.
"If they start digging around in there, they might come across
remains," he said.
But Warden said "we're not going to disturb or build houses on any of
the cultural sites identified in the survey."
The Army Corps of Engineers, in its effort to discuss the permit
publicly, failed to consult the local Paiutes. A letter had been sent to a
former tribal official. Only the Hopi tribe, some 500 miles away, responded
to consultation requests.
"In the beginning, I think they should have notified the Las Vegas
Paiutes," he said.
Hendricks would prefer that Hughes' officials consider a land swap or
sell the land to public ownership to make it part of nearby Red Rock Canyon
National Conservation Area, where other cultural sites exist.
"At some point that whole area is going to be rooftops with a few
pieces of red rocks sticking out," he said.
The preservation plan recommends implementing the Hopi suggestions.
The tribe suggested that future homeowners "be informed of the presence of
the archaeological sites and penalties for illegally disturbing
archaeological sites."
The Hopi suggested making awareness of the sites and preserving them a
provision of the sale agreement.
"The ultimate fate of these sites will be in the hands of the
homeowners or the homeowners associations. Educated citizens could be the
most valuable tools to protect these sites," according to the Hopi
recommendations.