[OR_Archaeology] Interesting article in Bend Bulletin newspaper features pictographs in Millican Valley

Mon Aug 24 08:51:00 PDT 2009

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090822/NEWS0107/908220383/0/NEWS01

Protecting our ancient pictographs
Site in Millican Valley is now listed on National Register of Historic
Places

By Hillary Borrud / The Bulletin
Published: August 22. 2009 4:00AM PST

Over the last century, vandals damaged pictographs at an American
Indian spiritual site in the Millican Valley by drawing on top of them
with chalk, among other things. Now, some people hope the site’s
listing on the National Register of Historic Places will help protect
it.

In the 1950s, Minerva Soucie’s parents often stopped at an American
Indian spiritual site in the Millican Valley, where they showed their
children the pictographs that Northern Paiute people painted hundreds of
years ago.

“It was a place (where) people come and look for direction, or to be
used maybe in a spiritual quest process for their lives,” said Soucie,
who is a Burns Paiute tribal elder. Her father explained the meaning of
some paintings, although others were a mystery.

“It was in very good condition when I was a child,” Soucie said.

Two decades later, she saw that change. People damaged the site during
what appeared to be parties.

“I liked going there until I went one time and it was vandalized,”
Soucie said. “It looked like there were panels trying to be chipped
off, and that to me was a desecration of our teachings or our spiritual
way of life.”

After years of work by local archeologists and other concerned people,
the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
mid-July.

Soucie and others said they hope the new status, which is relatively
rare for archeological sites in Oregon, will bring heightened public
awareness of its importance and encourage people in the area to keep an
eye out for vandals.

Paiute Indians, who are associated with the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs, the Burns Paiute Tribe and the Klamath Tribes, continue to use
the site today. The site is on private property, and the owners played
an integral role in seeking the historic designation for the site, but
they could not be reached for comment.

Archeological sites

Cara Kazer, an architectural historian in the State Historic
Preservation Office, said Oregon has about 33,000 known archeological
sites, but only between 120 and 130 of those are listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.

“It’s pretty rare that we list an archeological site,” Kazer
said.

Oregon has 1,902 listings on the National Register of Historic Places,
and 34 of them are in Deschutes County.

The site’s place on the national register, which is maintained by the
National Park Service, will add to existing protections for
archeological sites under Oregon law, said Susan Lynn White, assistant
state archeologist with the State Historic Preservation Office.

For example, it is a misdemeanor for a person to remove an
archaeological object or “excavate, injure, destroy or alter” an
archaeological site or object in Oregon without a permit from the state.
Another law protects American Indian graves and objects.

The location of the site is not being identified more specifically by
The Bulletin to protect the artifacts. The State Historic Preservation
Office also redacted large sections of the draft nomination form before
releasing it to The Bulletin, citing the need to keep the exact location
of the pictographs secret.

History of the site

In prehistoric times, the Millican Valley east of Bend was covered at
one point by a large lake. Water in the area fluctuated over time,
creating marshes and other water features.

The water attracted people to the area, although they spent less time
there as the water dried up.

The pictographs, which were mostly done with red paint, probably date
from 1500 B.C. to A.D. 1900, “When access to the site by the Paiute
became limited due to their removal to reservations and further
intrusions by Euroamerican settlers,” according to the nomination form
released by the State Historic Preservation Office.

People who stopped at the area might have been hunting, trading or
traveling to Northern Paiute gatherings. But in addition to practical
aspects such as water at the site, people also considered it a powerful
spiritual site, as the pictographs indicate.

The latest paintings at the site were probably created by Northern
Paiute people who moved into Central Oregon within the last 1,000 years,
although there is also faded pigment underneath some of these that could
come from earlier paintings and suggests people used the area even
earlier, according to the nomination form.

Images include human and animal stick figures, lizards, tally marks and
abstract paintings such as grids, zigzags, chevrons and ladder figures,
according to the nomination form.

One image consists of two red-tailed circles with yellow centers and
two yellow dots.

“The tailed circles suggest meteorological phenomena, especially
lightning, which represented a source of strong and dangerous spiritual
power for the Northern Paiute,” according to the form.

“The highly abstract drawings of mazes, rectilinear grids and rakes,
and stylized spirit figures of humans and animals likely reflect dreams
and visions associated with the acquisition of guardian spirits. ...
Some may represent hunting magic or the record of a successful hunt;
others suggest the more powerful spirit helpers of shamans who could
cure illness, control weather, or direct the communal antelope hunt.”

A large boulder shows grinding wear, polish and other marks that
indicate people used it to grind plant foods, as well as possibly
butchering animals and preparing hides.

Vandalism

Graffiti and other vandalism of the site include initials that people
scratched into the rock and bullet holes in one animal pictograph,
although the bullet holes were the only direct damage to a painting.

Since the 1920s, visitors outlined the images with chalk to make them
more visible for photography, and the chalk was offensive to American
Indians who use the site, according to the nomination form. In 1988,
members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs restored the
pictographs by removing the chalk with water and brushes.

Many of the paintings are faint and difficult to see, said Pat Kliewer,
the former historic preservation planner for Deschutes County.

“It depends on the time of day and lighting whether you can see them
at all,” Kliewer said. “It’s really important that people never
touch them.” Even brushing against the images with clothing could
damage them, Kliewer added.

Soucie, the Burns Paiute tribal elder, started working to protect
cultural resources in the 1980s, after she saw that happened to the
Millican Valley pictograph site. Now, she hopes the historic designation
will help protect the site.

“I think having it on the federal register will help preserve the
site,” Soucie said. “I believe that the rock art that was left was
from people long, long ago, and they were trying to provide us with
direction.”

Hillary Borrud can be reached at 541-617-7829 or at
hborrud at bendbulletin.com.