Indian Country Today article displays Maya glyph in Georgia as it disses Mayas in Georgia

From the "People of One Fire" about Track Rock Gap:

News Update
November 26, 2014
Indian Country Today article displays Maya glyph in Georgia as it disses Mayas in Georgia

You will roll over in the floor laughing when you find out who the US Forest Service experts really were! 

It was a beautiful, crisp autumn day and I was going to cut up some dead trees for firewood.  Then a Texas graduate student in anthropology, who is a POOF member,  sent me a link to an article in "Indian Country Today."  Being the proverbial Native America hunter, I smelled blood and went after the game.  The firewood had to wait.

She sent me the article because of the obvious oxymoron.  The US Forest Service had persuaded a New York City freelance writer to put out some more misinformation on Track Rock Gap and provided him the contact info for three individuals, who would say what they wanted said.  For those more idealistic among us, that is defined as propaganda.  Marxists perfected the techniques.  However, in full display of their ignorance, they sent a photo of a Maya glyph on the Track Rock petroglyphs to accompany an article which ended with a USFS "archaeologist" stating that there was no empirical or scientific evidence that any Mayas ever settled in Georgia.   You will see why we put "archaeologist" in quotes later on.

I am jest a simple mountain boy, so I guess the PhD didn't count DNA, words, architecture, agricultural methods and cultural traditions as being empirical or scientific.  He also didn't know diddlysquat about the Mayas, because the glyph he chose was for the Itza Maya word hene, which means "Royal Sun."

The theme of the article was that a small band of evil non-Native Americans in Georgia had schemed to hike on sacred Cherokee land and then claim that non-Native Americans (aka Mayas) had built the stone structures.  In partnership with three Cherokee tribes, the USFS had bravely blocked an illegal trail through the site.  Actually, the trail was a wagon road at least 200 years old that had been used by many generations of Georgians to drive cattle, go on picnics and hike. 

In the article were extensive quotations from  Lisa LaRue-Baker, - the Historic Preservation Officer for the Keetuwah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma.  She took full credit for a half mile of trees being cut down to block Georgians from hiking at Track Rock Gap, AND demanding that neither the History Channel, PBS or National Geo be allowed to film Track Rock Gap.  Her reason stated in the article was that "Track Rock Gap was the last sacred spot that we have left."   Say what-t--t? 

FACTCHECK: The town at Track Rock was first developed around 800-1000 AD. The Cherokees didn't own that land until after 1785.  Actually, very few Cherokees ever lived nearby, and many of the indigenous Upper Creek families never left.  They still consider themselves Creeks. A nearby stream is named Coosa Creek.  The people who formed the Keetoowah Band never lived in the region near Track Rock Gap and left for Arkansas in 1817. 

Lisa LaRue Baker and USFS archaeologist, James Wettstaed,  have been quoted repeatedly in articles in newspapers and archaeological journals over the past three years as the experts on Track Rock Gap.  I decided to find out just who these experts were.  LaRue is the keyboardist for a little known rock band in Oklahoma name K2X.  You can check out her website, if you don't believe me.  In addition, she has the title of the Keetoowah Historic Preservation Officer, but the Keetoowah do not own ANY real estate, much less any historic buildings.  She performs those duties out of her home, whatever those duties actually are.  She has absolutely no educational background in historic preservation, archeology, architecture or Southeastern Native American history.

James Wettstaed, is a PhD biologist, who has worked for the past 27 years out west - mostly in Montana.   He is considered an expert on the migration patterns for bison and  elk. One can only guess why he was demoted and sent to Gainesville, GA to be their Cultural Resources officer in 2012.   

If you want to have a double belly roll full of laughs,  my Examiner article has a link to the Indian Country Today article.  The Examiner article link is:

http://www.examiner.com/article/network-displays-maya-glyph-from-georgia-article-dissing-mayas-georgia

Happy Turkey Day!

Richard Thornton