Oregon coast artifacts vs. Drake -Reply

[Tony Johnson]

LaXayEm kanawi-Laksta,

Nadja's idea is a good one considering those are presumably my
relations.  That is Clatsop country.  If I know which site they are
talking about it is unique because they are not pits in the sense of our
old rectangular plank houses, but instead a community of round pit
houses.  That truly is unusual in our country.  It is also unusual in
the sense that most all of the people buried there were buried
differently than our old people, and did not have flat heads.  The
problem with this sight however is that it may be older that the Drake
expedition.  If he did come to that part of the world he likely met with
straight "Clatsops" and not the round house folks.  I do have dates on
those round houses somewhere, but I would have to dig them up.  I could
of course be talking about a different site, but the talk of pit houses
in the same area makes me think that it is those round house people.
Anyway, honor both Drake and the people there.  Acknowledging, that he
brought the start of big (and detrimental) changes seems fair, but he
should be acknowledged.--T.J.

>>> Mike Cleven <ironmtn at BIGFOOT.COM> 08/08/00 11:45pm >>>
Nadja Adolf wrote:
>
> Actually, I'm a lot more interested in preserving the "original
> pit dwellings" than I am in tracking down Sir Frances Drake.
>
> There are almost none of these dwellings left, and I think the
> "land offered for public sale" should be purchased by the government
> and granted to the descendants of the people who built them.

Agreed.  But if these same ancestors honoured a strangely-attired
visitor in a fat canoe hung with sheets, wouldn't you want to respect
that long-ago welcome, too?  What I meant in my last comments was simply
this; that whatever may have happened since, to be able to locate the
villge - and the descendants of that village - where a world-wandering
adventurer (of whatever extraction) documented his visit to, and was
warmly welcomed by the people there; doesn't that deserve respect as a
mark of distinguishment of THAT village?

I know that pit-house remains are rarer and rarer to find, especially
down oregon-cali way.  Up in the Fraser Canyon and Lillooet they're
still fairly common, and largely unexplored, and all ultimately
threatened by development, roads, or artifact poachers and weekend
archaeologists.  At least the Drake connection with this one location
will see to it that this village is investigated and documented - and
protected.  Isn't that _something_?

MC