An Examination of Six “Nutting Stones” from East Texas for Plant Phytoliths

In this article we report on an examination of six nutting stones from East Texas sites as well as an exploratory examination of their possible functions. “Nutting stones” have long been presumed to have been used prehistorically for crushing nuts such as hickory, etc. as foodstuffs. In fact Davis described them as being: A small flat stone, usually made of limestone, sandstone or other sedimentary types of rock which could be carried by hand. The flat surface may have one or more ground or pecked cups of various sizes, shapes and depth. It is postulated that they were used for various purposes such as cracking nuts, mixing pigments, milling herbs and seeds, or as an anvil for flint knapping. While Davis is an avocationalist and numerous professional archaeologists have dealt with nutting stones, we know of neither a more complete definition nor any other effort to empirically test for their function

Report: The 62nd Annual Caddo Conference and 27th Annual East Texas Archeological Conference, Tyler, Texas, February 28 and 29, 2020

The 62nd Caddo Conference and 27th East Texas Archeological Conference was held at the University Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Tyler on February 28 and 29, 2020. The conference was dedicated to the rebuilding of public facilities at Caddo Mounds State Historic Site. These facilities had been destroyed by a tornado in 2019. The conference organizers were Thomas Guderjan, Colleen Hanratty, Cory Sills, Christy Simmons (University of Texas at Tyler), Keith Eppich (Tyler Junior College), Anthony Souther (Caddo Mounds State Historic Site), Amanda Regnier (Oklahoma Archeological Survey), Mark Walters (Texas Historical Commission Steward). Sponsors included The Center for Social Science Research and Department of Social Sciences, University of Texas at Tyler, Humanities Texas, Kevin Stingley, Arkansas Archeological Survey, Beta Analytic, Inc., Friends of Northeast Texas Archeology, East Texas Archeological Society, Maya Research Program, Tejas Archeology, Tyler Junior College, Gregg County Historical Museum, the American Indian Heritage Day of Texas organization, and the Caddo Nation. Before the formal program began, a preconference gathering was held at ETX Brewing Company at 221 S Broadway Avenue in Tyler on Thursday evening, February 27th. Approximately 250 people participated in the joint conferences

Interview with Marty Silvas, 1992

THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES CELEBRRATE NATIVE AMERICANS 1992 INTERVIEW WITH: Marty Silvas DATE: November 14, 1992 PLACE: Institute of Texan Cultures Guderjan: Our next speaker is a remarkable young man who I only met this morning but whom my colleagues have known for some time. Marty Silvas is a Tigua from Pueblo Ysleta del Sur and not only is he a speaker today but he will be leading and singing with the dancers this afternoon and tomorrow. Marty - Silvas: Thank you. First of all I want to apologize for my voice, I've been singing yesterday and I'm kinda losing it. Before I start I would like to thank a special friend of mine, a relative, my cousin, for being here, giving me the honor and his time for being here to hear what I've got to say, my cousin, Vito. When the colonist first arrived to this land the people met them upon their arrival, welcomed them. The Delaware people were in fact responsible for helping them survive. They fed them, clothed them and taught them how to live off their lands. The new arrivals from Europe did not want to share, but instead turned against the people who helped them survive, how to ....... for their lands. The word spread quickly across the many Nations that invaders, rather than guests, were making their way across their lands and many of our people were being killed with that expansion. Our people who came to be known as "Indians" did what any other people would do, they fought back. Recounting the impact of the Federal Education ... educational systems that sought to subjugate rather than educate. We find that the Federal Land and Parochial schools prohibited children from wearing traditional clothing, practicing their religion, from speaking their own languages. Federal officials implemented deliberate policy to invoke shame in Indian youth. Encouraging them to reject all they were and conform to non-Indian society. Imagine, ..... policies meant to destroy the entire fabric of your history, cultural and family values, your religion, your identity and so forth. Sadly, the impact of these policies are still being felt today. In 1879 the great Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe went to Washington to speak for his people. He asked for his people to have the same rights as the white man. Chief Joseph said, and I quote, "Let me be a free man. Free to travel. Free to stop. Free to work. Free to trade what I choose. Free to choose my own teachers. Free to follow the religion of my fathers, and free to think and talk and act for myself." Now in 1992 over a 100 years after Chief Joseph and 500 years after Columbus, we ask again to be free to follow the religion of our ancestors. And because of the spiritual guidance of our ancestors we will succeed, we will survive. Over the last 500 years the Indian and non-Indian people of the land have been engaged in political gridlock. The last Silvas 3 500 years is very recent history for our people whose traditions, teaching, history and culture go back tens of thousands of years. While some people, including many who have offices in our capitol, will prefer the safety and the comfort provided by their historical ignorance, we remember the last 500 years with great clarity. Significance to our entire way of life however, has been devastated. History taught us that we are able to avoid making mistakes of the past. It is my own hope that Indian Nations and the Federal Government have learned something from our two histories. And that when our history is written 500 years from now, it need not show that a past is mutually exclusive. We must embark upon a journey into the next 500 years in partnership with the United States of America. The voices of the tribal leaders and educators are powerful. They believe as most American Indians that we have trouble with destructive past these 500 years, but they also believe that there are many good people in America. People willing to look at this dreadful history and learn from it and then proceed. With the next 500 years in peace, harmony and justice, the legacy of Columbus is that it should never have happened the way it did and the hopes of the present tribal leaders is that it will never happened that way again. The worse problem Native-Americans are faced with today is the destruction of their sacred grounds. In 1956 our grandfathers went to our sacred grounds which are known as Waco Silvas 4 Tanks. They went to pray and dance our ceremonial dances for the last time. If our prayers are answered and if justice prevails, we will hold a celebration there and we will keep up what our grandfathers did back in 1956. If people would only try to understand and listen to our words we would have a better chance of having our sacred grounds back. Speaking with the elders and speaking with people in Washington gives us strength and power in our battle. The battle which has been going on for years. Not only the battle for our lands, but the battle in getting the Westerners and their history book, which they call "educated and the way it really was." We read history books, the ones they use in public schools and parochial schools, until this day I have never read about the battles and difficulty or the pain and suffering that our ancestors went through in order for us to have a future. Not only with a good economic status but education, good health and the following of our traditions and customs. In these books they talk about government, local, state and federal. Let us not forget there is another kind of government - tribal. Indian religion is another thing that is not fully understood by the Westerners. To our tribe, Waco Tanks is considered to be a church. The mountains and the cliff sides are the walls, the sun and the moon are the stainglass, the sky is the ceiling of the roof. Waco Tanks is our church. Our people go there to pray and to come close and visit with Silvas 5 our ancestors. Visitors and tourists go there to play and to climb on our sacred grounds for entertainment, not aware that they are climbing on our church. Would there be a difference if our people did that to their religious grounds? When we go to Waco Tanks we are at peace. There we can still hear the songs, the drum beats, the laughter and the cries. Our ancestors fought for this land and some died for it. Even though the State of Texas has title for this land we feel in our hearts that this land will be in better hands if they turn it back to us. When Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribe was first recognized, the Federal Government and the State of Texas put limits and regulations and difficult procedures and programs. Their govenrment was so desperate that they set a lock on them to make sure that we would soon die out. Even though they may think that they may get rid of us by putting these standards, it cannot be done. It could not be done because we are not people gathered together by monetarial program interests, we are a people gathered together by traditional values. We are a tribe that cares for its customs and ceremonial traditions. The taking of these programs, monies and lands by the govenment will not break us, it will make us stronger. It is obvious where people need the programs for health, education and housing. But our traditions and customs and only that are the things that will insure the survival of our people. I can tell you this, our people are getting more educated every Silvas 6 day in govenmental, federal and state procedures. Every generation gets smarter and better. Our grandfathers started this movement, they passed it down to our fathers, our fathers passed it down to us. We will soon pass it down to our children and they will pass down to theirs and then we will pass it down to our grandchildren. And we will make sure that we keep what we have and never lose it again. We survived the past 500 years and now we are ready for the next 500 years. We will live forever on our reservation, as they call it, our home. We are starting to get our younger people educated to fight the battles that have not yet been finished. We have started programs to keep our people educated, healthy and a roof over their head. Our govenment, which is a very traditional government, and we are few that have this today, are trying to get our people ready for the future. They say that this is a future, it is not that battles are going to get stronger and there will be more problems and survival. We have started and right now we are opening new programs for our people. We've barely started, we will open our new health center back home ... this is to keep our people healthy. We have two restuarants, arts and crafts center, we have our administration offices, housing department, drug abuse and acholism programs to keep our people set and ready. The struggle is hard and the battles are getting worse. Silvas 7 But we know in our hearts that with the guidance of our grandfathers that we will survive, we will be living here for a long time. It's kinda hard for me to come up here and talk. I don't know if you know my title, but I'm tribal War Captain for my tribe. The youngest one there has ever been. It's a great privilege and an honor to receive this great honor. Because it proves to me that people have great trust and depend upon you to hold and to keep traditions and customs. And for me being so young, the youngest one in our tribal council. I heard Mr. Perry talking earlier about the young people that are joining our councils nowadays. It is good because we have to get them ready for when they get older and wiser and this is the only way to do it. My speech is kinda short because I am losing my voice already. But in closing, I would like to thank Leslie Burns, Dan, for giving me the opportunity to send my message out. It's people like them to help educate, not only the American people, but people from all over the world, in the recognition of the Native-American, their life and their culture. I also bring thanks from the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribal members for the help and the participation in introducing the first documentary on our history, past and present. We thank the Institute for letting our people participate in telling the true story of our history. Again, I am sorry, but I'm running Silvas 8 out of words and out of voice. I would like to thank you all for taking the time for being here and listening to what I have, especially my cousin, which I haven't seen in quite awhile. Again I would like to thank you all and hope you have a nice day. Thank you. END OF SPEECH. TAPE II, SIDE 1. ABOUT .. MINUTES

Interview with Eddie Sandoval, 1992

THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES CELEBRATE NATIVE AMERICANS 1992 INTERVIEW WITH: Eddie Sandoval DATE: November 14, 1992 PLACE: Institute of Texan Cultures Guderjan: Our next speaker is Eddie Sandoval. Eddie is from Fort Worth where he teaches at Tarrant County Junior College. He teaches psychology and ... there he is ... I couldn't see him ... thank you ... Sandoval: Well, isn't it beautiful? When I was asked to talk ... I asked what do you want me to do? And they said, well, just pretend you're in class. I'm used to lecturing for at least 3 hours, so the first hour and a half will be lecture and then another hour will be for question and answer. Is that OK? (laughter) Okay, I'm honored to be here, I really am. When they asked I had said that I would, then another thing came up, but I said no I've already given my word to the people in San Antonio and I'll be there. Today, I'm going to skip around, I'm going to talk about various things. In particular some of the things that I want to share with you, are some of the things that are deep in my heart and things that are very dear to me and that is the way I go about every day in working with the people I have to work with, particularly the society, the white-dominant society, that I have to compete with every day in the educational setting. Yes, I am a professor, a professor of psychology and also Sandoval 2 teach engineering and I have to fight battles every day. I have to prove myself every day. Never do the people that I work with, they have to justify their degrees. I have to justify mine every day. And its odd - that they still look and say, "Well, can you do that?" And I'm sorry to say that sometimes it gets under my skin. But that is the reason that I Sun Dance. And my brother, Greg, and I have been Sun Dancing for a number of years, we're both Pipe-Carriers. And so I find myself Sun Dancing so that I can put up with the ignorance and stupidity of the people that I have to deal with every day. They question the way I do things. They question everything from the way I wear my hair to the way I dress. That's a little problem. I'm going to talk about spirituality also that Linda touched on, like I said, I'm going to skip around, but last night I had the honor of listening to the world famous anthropologist, Napoleon. And in his lecture he talked about the ............ defending their territories and their rights because they were fighting for the women, okay? I'm here to tell you that the Apaches, all our Indian people are the same way. We honor the women. We honor the women very highly. Our medicine was brought to us by a woman. So the woman, for us is held in high, high regard and high respect. So, with that, I will talk a little bit about our spirituality, about the lodge, the pipe, etc. When I walked Sandoval 3 into this building, I said the great Spirit was smiling upon this architect, look at this beautiful sweat-lodge in here! I was trying ... as I was sitting next to Linda I was trying to figure out how I could drape enough hides on the sides and make a sweat-lodge out of this place. Then I said my brother, Greg, would have all day long to carry rocks and stones into this place to keep it heated. So, somebody was smiling upon this architect that designed this building because he designed it like our ... like the sweat-lodge that I have out in the country that I run once a month. And it's very dear to me because the prayers and the things that go in there are very powerful and strong. Let me share some of the things that we have experienced in the short time that we've done the things we do. I came to be a Sun Dancer, as I was telling the group last night, I was in Peru, I'm an avid photographer and I was in Peru doing some photography work and I made the mistake of checking out a military vehicle. (knocks) I was checking the thickness of the metal. They thought I was a CIA agent. And all these people came out from nowhere, with machine-guns in hand, with fingers on the trigger, ready to do away with me. And there I was, up against the wall. They kept saying, CIA. I said, uh-huh, schoolteacher. So we argued, we argued for a long time, yes you are, no I'm not, yes you are, what-ever. Finally they said, Where are you from? I said, Texas, and Sandoval 4 as a Texan I'm very proud that I am a Texan. They said, Oh, do you have horses? I said, Everybody in Texas has horses! (laughter) Don't you? I do, I live right in the middle of town and have my horses in my backyard. So, from there, they asked, Is Roy Rogers for real? And I said, Yes. And I started making up stories right and left. And as a psychologist I knew that if I could get them to talk to me I could talk my way out of it. I got out of there with my life and my camera and all my film. They even bought me a beer at the corner pub! (laughter) That night they blew up the Presidential Palace or tried to torch it, so you can see that I was in the middle of a revolution and didn't even know it. But while I was under seige, you might say, there I was with my hands up in the air and I asked .......... deliver me from this crisis and I will Sun Dance. I will Sun Dance. That is the reason, the most important reason that I know that prayer was answered. And to this day I still follow the way of worship of the Sun Dance. Perhaps it was time. My father told me that one day I would. But I was not ready til this crisis came. I laid down my camera and picked up sense. But I do Sun Dance. But the first thing that comes about as a Sun Dancer, one of the first things that you do and we've been doing it for a long time is to purify yourself, the Sweat Ceremony, the ....... Ceremony. And I will talk a little bit about that. Sandoval 5 Like I said, we will come into a sacred area, we're fortunate enough to have a good friend of ours lend us his ranch where we have access to stones, to wood and freedom to worship the way we do in the sweat-lodge. The sweat-lodge is like I said, is a dome like this but is much smaller in dimensions and we bring in the sacred stone of the Stone People to be with us. I can still remember the day, and Greg was there with me, the day that we knew that it had taken. We had four spirits come from the four directions to be with us that day. The ..... spirits came from all directions to meet with us in the middle of the stones. And I knew, then and there, that the land had been approved and the spirits were there with us that day. It came to be a very powerful ceremony in the fact that a young man came to us that day. He had had 15 surgeries already, a non-demoninational citizen, a good friend of mine, young boy, and the doctors told him, "We're going to have to go in there and tear out everything that we've done because it didn't take." So he came to me and said, "Eddie, will you do one of your things that you do?" And I said, "Bim, what are you thinking about? What do you mean, one of the things that I do?" He said, "I understand you go our and do 'Indian things'." And I said, "I'll do it if you come with an open heart, if you come with sincerity in your soul and pray with us." He did. He didn't stay very long simply because he was very weak, he was going into major surgery on that Monday. Two weeks later he Sandoval 6 came out, the doctor said, "You know, we didn't have to do that surgery, he's OK now." The power of prayer was there. The power of the people were there in that sweat-lodge. The story goes on for different other examples that I could go on and on and tell you about the things that have happened in our lodge. Tell you another one about an unborn ... about a child that was born three months premature the uncle who sweats with us regularly, said, "My sister-in-law had a child and it will die soon. Do something." I said, "I'm not a medicine man. I am not a medicine man!" He said, "But, you have your sweat-lodge and you do a lot of praying." I said, "Yeah, that's my way of worship." He said, "Well, let's do something." I said, "Okay." So we had a sweat that he called for this young child that was three months premature and in that time we gave her a feather. I said, "Take this feather and put it in the incubator with the child." So he took it and gave it to his sister-in-law. A week later I asked about that child. I asked, "How is baby Sarah doing?" He said, "I don't know, let's call and find out." So he called the hospital and she's going down-hill. He gets on the phone and tells the sister-in-law, well, what happened? She said, "Well, I can't bring myself to put that nasty, dirty old feather in her incubator." The doctor told her, "Janie, you don't have a choice. This child is dead. Put the feather in there." I don't know ... maybe it was prayer ... maybe it was faith ... the child is now five Sandoval 7 years old. Okay? At that same time there was a black grandmother who went to the white grandmother and said, "I see that your grandbaby has a feather in her incubator. Do you think you Indian friends can do that to my baby? She's dying also." They came to me, we did a ceremony ... sweat-lodge ... and sure enough somewhere in Fort Worth there is a black child with a feather ... an eagle feather ... that child also lived. I'm not saying that we did it. I'm not saying that the prayer was the answer. But somewhere somebody was smiling upon these children. I guess this is what I'm trying to say. I guess that I'm at a crossroads simply because I too had a conflict with organized religion, as Napoleon talked about last night. There were things in that particular way of life that I was brought up in and I didn't understand and I knew it was not for me. And as I grew older, I'm not saying that I was wiser, but I chose to do the things that I'm doing now. And that is following the "Red Road." Linda talked about parallel roads or two roads, we must follow the "Red Road." The other road I call the "Caliche Road," the "White Road" or maybe the "Pink Road" 'cause I really haven't seen very many white people, they're mostly pink to me. So borrowing a term from my anthropology professor at the University of North Texas, he coined this term,"Pink People," I guess, and that's why I can use it. Sandoval 8 In the past, like I said, we had our way of worship and we had our ceremonies and I was recently adopted by the Commanche tribe, Quanah Parker's family took me in. And in doing so we feasted for three days. We sweated together, we prayed together and they called, before I came up here and said, "We'll be doing a Peyote Ceremony for you while you're there in San Antonio." And I was very proud and you people who know about ceremonies, about medicine, you will realize that the medicine came to us through the Apache people from the Mexican people in Mexico, the Indians down there shared it with my people, the Apache. And in turn we shared it with the Commanche. And in turn they shared it with others. So, it is a powerful way of worship, it is ... it is very, very ... if you are "into" peyote, you know that it works, it's a wonderful way of looking into the future. Let me go back a little bit to another situation that we had in the sweat-lodge where ... I get calls every day, every day I get calls of people, that say, I want to do what you do. I said well, get your degree and you can come teach over here. No, no, you don't understand, I want to be like you, I want to be a medicine man like you. I say, I'm not a medicine man, I have to argue with that. I'm not! Well, I want to learn what you know. And I said, "I've been at this for years and I still don't know but about that much ... So they asked to Sandoval 9 come to my lodge and pray. And I said, "Fine. Religion is free." It really turns me off ... it really gets me down here when I read about people that are charging people to come to the sweat-lodge ceremony and worship. Okay? That's a no-no. If you have to charge for religion, you don't need to be doing that. Now, if you're going just to say, "Hey, I've been to an Indian ceremony, I've been to this." Then I guess you need to pay. If you're going there just to say that you've been, then I guess you need to pay. If you're that gullable that somebody's going to take your money when it's supposed to be free, then I guess you do need to pay. Okay? It really angers me when people try to take what we have, what we have developed, what our people have passed down to us, generation to generation, and we are beginning to learn and to use in the right, positive manner and somebody takes it and says, "Hey, I can make money off of this." Religion is free, spirituality is free. The Great Spirit does not charge for that. ........... does not take your money. When we have a ceremony we ask people to bring something to share, i.e. a jar of Gatorade, a loaf of bread, weiners, whatever ... whatever is in your refrigerator that you would like to share with us ... you bring it and this is what we all eat. But we don't charge money. We do say, "Hey, come early, help us gather rocks and stones and wood." But we don't go out and charge you $100 -$150 for you to sweat - that's Sandoval 10 ridiculous. Makes me angry. But people do it. People are out there making money off of this. The story that I'm leading up to - I had this woman that followed me around for a year or a year and a half saying, "I want to sweat with you. I understand that you do it the traditional way." I said I do. I said, "Are you sincere?" "Oh, yeah. I've read all these books ... " Like Linda was saying you can read every book in the library and it's still not there. She was not ready to sweat. She was ready to say that she had been to a sweat-lodge with Eddie and Greg. Okay? The day was beautiful and shiny - a wonderful day to sweat - the lady was with us. If she had one she must have had 500 ant bites on her when she got out of the sweat-lodge. Now, you tell me if she was ready. You tell me if she was ready and sincere from her heart to sweat. Interestingly enough, that the people right next to her did not get one bite. And I grant you that they are there ... the scorpions, the ants, they are there. But nobody else got the stings like she did. And I did not say anything, I just walked away and she said, "You need to put some insecticide in there to kill all your ants." I said, "Oh, okay, I'll do that tomorrow." And I thought to myself later as I prayed for things to happen, that she wanted those things to happen for her. And I'm still dealing with that. But it kinda makes me sad that she's looking for something that she can't have. She wants to be something that Sandoval 11 she cannot be. And when you do that, you're going to hurt yourself, you're going to hurt somebody. The Pipe that Greg and I carry is very sacred to us. It is our way of life. We regard it as probably the most sacred ... most important thing that we have in life. There is such a thing as "dropping your Pipe." When you "drop your Pipe" it means that you've taken and done bad things with it, you can get hurt. Okay? Our Pipe is not a piece of art to exhibit on your mantle. It is kept in a sacred place, bundle, that is secure and safe. It comes to mind ... a friend of mine who is also a "Pipe Carrier," dropped his Pipe and he kept wondering why ... he would come to me and say, "Why are all these things happening to me?" His son was killed in a car wreck, his shop was broken into, police caught him molesting a child, and I'm saying, "Why did you let your Pipe go the way you did?" And he didn't have an answer. He said, "I needed money at the time." Its like selling part of yourself, like selling things that are valuable to you. The stem is man, made out of wood, stem that we use is man, the bowl is the woman. When you put them together they become as one. The bowl is red, red with the earth, the blood that was crushed into the stone, in pipestone where when the great flood came and he was killing all the people, and all the people were being mangled because of the crushing of the waters and the water settled and it settled to make red Sandoval 12 pipestone. And that's why we use the pipestone and that's why when we put them together man and woman become as one. So, to us it is a very powerful symbol, we don't use it just to play, it's for prayer. When I do lectures people want to see ... well, let me see your Pipe. I said it's not for show ... it's not for show and tell. And Linda talked about the Circle, the Sacred Circle. This is a Sacred Circle that we are in now, the Sacred Island. It's again ... it's powerful. When you ask in the sweat-lodge, the Four Directions, the Four Spirits, the Four Grandfathers to come be with you and they come, you can feel them and you can get what you want. We don't pray for us. We don't need to ... we're over the hill. We pray for the young ones, the little ones, the little grandfathers and little grandmothers that are going to be carrying on the traditions. Those are the ones that we pray for. Those are the ones that are important. The children. Because without the children we would be no more, and that's why they are so important to us. So when we are asked to pray and to lead something I offer my prayers in silently to the young ones. To these ........, to the ..........., to the Julies, to the little Sarahs, all the little young mothers and little grandmothers that are going to be coming up and grandfathers, may they grow to be strong and straight and educated enough in our ways to carry on the traditions. That's Sandoval 13 who it is for. And the Four Directions, the Four Spirits, they come to be with us during the prayer, during the lodge. But then we all know that there are three other spirits that we hardly ever talk about, Grandfather Sky and Mother Earth, and then there's that spirit that you and I know it's there but you can't feel, touch or see or hear. And that's our spirit, the ones that we have in our soul. Some day when we get bright enough and intellectual enough and maybe the Mind or Science and Mind Foundation can find a way to retrieve all the thoughts and things that we talk about maybe we'll begin to understand each others spirituality and the spirit that we have. We haven't gotten there yet, one day maybe we will. But that's that other spirit we count on also. So, like I said the sweat-lodge is important. It is probably the first ceremony you must do before you become a Sun Dancer. You must purify. It's one of our religious rites along with a vision quest. That you must purify before you go up on the hill or before you go down and meet the people - you must purify again. So there's many reasons that we do the things that we do. It's interesting to the hear people question of putting together a fire for a sweat-lodge. We don't just go up there and throw a bunch of stones on a pile and then throw some wood on top of it. No. It is done in a spiritual manner, we bless Sandoval 14 the area, we offer tobacco to the Directions, to the Four Directions, and then we set about putting the first 8 logs on the ground in a particular manner, then the stones are placed very carefully on top of these logs with lots of love and care. No, we just don't throw a fire together with stones in it and then expect them to be there for us to pray with. Like I said, everything that we do has a purpose. The way we go into a lodge has a purpose. The depth of the indention on Mother Earth where we put the stone has a purpose. The altar that our buffalo skull sits on has a purpose. The trail that leads from the sweat-lodge to the altar is there because that's our umbilical cord that goes to Mother Earth. We could pretend that we're all the children of Mother Earth in this lodge right now, and that's the way you are in a sweat-lodge. So, yes, we have been pegged as being kinda paganistic you might say, our religion is supposed not to be organized, but it makes me wonder why I get a call at least every other day of wanting to do the things that we do. Is it because that people are not satisfied with what's going on under the roofs in a church or is it because they're looking for something different, they are wanting to belong something that's a little different? I don't know, I don't know the answer. I am ... I guess if I knew it would be a different world ... we could all live in peace. And you've got to realize that when we go in there to pray, Sandoval 15 we don't pray for just us. Our Four Directions have the four ethnic colors of the world, black, red, yellow and white. We pray to all those people, not just for us. If we can't get along with our neighbor, if we can't be in harmony with our neighbor, then we're not going to be happy, he's not going to be happy. So with that we try to pray for all those things to come true. If we can't be in harmony with ourselves and Mother Earth, then we are the losers. I know that it's about time to stop ... I guess that I've covered just about all the things that I need to cover here ... one more thing that I need to share with you real quick, if I may, 2 minutes ... 3 hours? Okay. (laughter) I was one of the five delegates to go to Washington last year to the National Indian Conference. The first historical meeting in the history of the United States, Bush called a Conference for Native People. We were there a week and our wonderful president never showed up. It makes me wonder where his heart was, okay? But the circle comes around. We have another president now. Thank you

The Value of Things: Prehistoric to Contemporary Commodities in the Maya Region

Jade, stone tools, honey and wax, ceramics, rum, land. What gave these commodities value in the Maya world, and how were those values determined? What factors influenced the rise and fall of a commodity’s value? The Value of Things examines the social and ritual value of commodities in Mesoamerica, providing a new and dynamic temporal view of the roles of trade of commodities and elite goods from the prehistoric Maya to the present. Editors Jennifer P. Mathews and Thomas H. Guderjan begin the volume with a review of the theoretical literature related to the “value of things.” Throughout the volume, well-known scholars offer chapters that examine the value of specific commodities in a broad time frame—from prehistoric, colonial, and historic times to the present. Using cases from the Maya world on both the local level and the macro-regional, contributors look at jade, agricultural products (ancient and contemporary), stone tools, salt, cacao (chocolate), honey and wax, henequen, sugarcane and rum, land, ceramic (ancient and contemporary), and contemporary tourist handicrafts. Each chapter author looks into what made their specific commodity valuable to ancient, historic, and contemporary peoples in the Maya region. Often a commodity’s worth goes far beyond its financial value; indeed, in some cases, it may not even be viewed as something that can be sold. Other themes include the rise and fall in commodity values based on perceived need, rarity or overproduction, and change in available raw materials; the domestic labor side of commodities, including daily life of the laborers; and relationships between elites and nonelites in production. Examining, explaining, and theorizing how people ascribe value to what they trade, this scholarly volume provides a rich look at local and regional Maya case studies through centuries of time.https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/mono/1141/thumbnail.jp

Tropical wetland persistence through the Anthropocene : Multiproxy reconstruction of environmental change in a Maya agroecosystem

Wetlands epitomize all forms of the proposed Anthropocene era because they record both past and recent human environmental interaction and because of their abundant resources. This is especially true for tropical wetlands, and a growing body of research demonstrates their important connections with past and Indigenous societies. Maya culture, for example, provides an extraordinary example of wetland use in the “Early Anthropocene”. Through excavations and lidar survey, we demonstrate that ancient Maya farmers managed riparian wetlands in northwestern Belize to a much greater spatial extent than previous estimates. This paper provides new evidence from soil geomorphic and palaeoecological excavations within the Birds of Paradise wetland in Belize. We focus on the timing, extent, and intensity of human management as well as soil pedogenesis and ecological changes over the last c. 2000 years. Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates show the transformation of the wetland from a natural to an agricultural system, starting as early as c. 2100 BP. The Maya were constructing berms on the margin of the wetland by c. 1600 BP, and widespread clearing and canal construction began by c. 1350-1290 BP. These periods coincide with population growth and decline and urban construction and abandonment in this region. This clearing, farming, and channelization ended as late as c. 690-620 BP based on canal sedimentation, pollen evidence reflecting tropical forest replacing cultivars like maize, and soil carbon isotope ratios that reflect C4 plants like maize shifting to more mixed and C3 plants. We demonstrate the complexity and scale of human engineering and modification of soil and water resources, provide a new chronology for ancient wetland use, and present new evidence for the farming of economic plants as well as the succession of tropical wetlands after intensive anthropogenic manipulation ceased