Deschutes County - The landowners want to protect a valued tribal and archaeological site

Monday, February 27, 2006
CHRIS BARKER

BEND -- On Tammera and Clay Walker's property east of Bend, a shallow wash bracketed by basalt walls suggests nothing more than a typical desert draw.

But closer inspection reveals a legacy of at least 13,000 years of human habitation, documented by more than 200 panels of rock art, obsidian tool bits and potential burial sites. Northern Paiute tribal members, who still worship at the site, consider it sacred ground.

The Walkers want to place the site, which experts call the most important archaeological site in Deschutes County, on the National Register of Historic Places.

"We're trying to protect what's already there and to prevent any further damage," Tammera Walker said.

The Walkers decided to try listing their land after nearby property owners proposed constructing a rock mine about a half-mile from the site, Tammera Walker said.

But she said the proposed mine, which has yet to receive a land-use permit from the Deschutes County commissioners, isn't the only reason to register the site.

Adding it to Oregon's roughly 120 other archaeological sites on the historic register could help protect artifacts if the Walkers decide to sell the property, she said.

The Walkers' effort probably won't stop the mine proposal, said Paul Claeyssens, an archaeologist for the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests who knows the site.

But he said a national listing could affect future land-use decisions in the area.

"This isn't a deal breaker -- it won't trump the decision-making process," Claeyssens said. "It just elevates the site's consideration."

State archaeologist Dennis Griffin recently boosted the Walkers' effort, which also has support from the Archaeological Society of Central Oregon.

In a Jan. 30 letter to the Walkers, Griffin said he had determined that the site, which he called the Dry River Gorge at Horse Ridge, is eligible for the historic register.

The site could yield "significant information" on the area's importance to the Paiute, Griffin wrote.
 
Griffin's endorsement is important because the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation must approve the nomination before the National Park Service, which administers the historic register, can review the site, said David Bogan, spokesman for the Heritage Conservation Division of the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department.

It's unclear how long that process will take.

A local panel also is trying to protect the Walker property.

On Jan. 26, the landmarks commission recommended that the Deschutes County Commission add five acres of the parcel to the county's inventory of historic and cultural resources.

If commissioners approve the recommendation, the addition could make county planners "more likely to carefully consider adverse impacts" from surrounding land uses, according to a report authored by Pat Kliewer, a cultural and historic planner who works for the city of Bend.

Of 1,734 surveyed archaeological sites in Deschutes County, the Walker site has been determined most significant by archaeologists and the University of Oregon's archaeology department, Kliewer's report said.

The site is significant for more than its history. Many tribes consider the site sacred and visit it, including the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Burns Paiutes, the Northern Paiutes and the Klamath Tribes, the report said.

"This is more than a place that is just an oddity or a place where there are old things," Kliewer said. "This is part of ongoing culture."

Water, game animals and a nearby supply of obsidian, which tribes used to make tools, drew visitors from British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, the Columbia River Gorge and the Klamath basin.

Since the rock mine was proposed last year, tribes have weighed in on the site.

"This area is one of very few left that has such special meaning to us as a connection to our past, present and future," wrote Perry Chocktoot, a cultural resource protection specialist for the Klamath Tribes.

Wilson Wewa, 49, a Northern Paiute, said he visited the area with his grandmother shortly after graduating from high school.

"We walked down there and that's when she said, 'When you come to this place, you have to pray,' " Wewa said.

"Our people never used to think that those cultural things would be endangered," he said. "They just let it be."