I came across this below a while back, passed it on to a person or two, including PWAX who suggested I
post it up here. It took a little while for me to investigate further into the
source of the text, but it didn’t take that long to find that it was a stenographer’s
version of Harry Holstein’s presentation at a January 2007 meeting of the Restoration
Advisory Board (RAB) that allocated Department of Defense Funds for
Investigating a Snake Effigy as well as the cleanup of some Chemical Warfare
Agents and two guys at the meeting talking about fishing.
Please note: The Court Reporter and Commissioner for Alabama
at Large, who transcribed this was apparently someone unfamiliar with some of
Harry’s words, including the term fish
weirs, as illustrated here as HH explains that Native American stone
building technology in the area goes back a long time: “One of the things we
see here in Calhoun County a lot are called fish queers, fish traps. They're
very efficient. Instead of hunting elephants, now they're fishing. And the way
these things worked, they piled rocks up one bank, rocks off another bank, they
leave a little opening, this V, and they anchored a basket facing upstream, and
the fish swim along the rocks right into the basket, Captain D's. They got
themselves a fish dinner, very efficient. This is on Terrapin Creek, by the
way, just a little bit north of here in Calhoun County.”
Intro ~ CURTIS FRANKLIN: “All right. The program tonight is
on the Snake Effigy from Monty Clendenin and Dr. Harry Holstein, and so I'll turn
the program over to them…”
DR. HARRY HOLSTEIN: “Hello everybody. It's nice to be here
tonight. I've never been to the RAB meeting before, but the topic that I'm about
to present, I think, is something that will spark your interest in one degree
or another. I've been at JSU as an archeologist for 25 years now. One of the
things that I've discovered in those 25 years is northeast Alabama has an incredible
heritage, prehistoric heritage and historic heritage and as far as
archaeological resources are concerned, and I've had an opportunity to
investigate a lot of cool sites, interesting sites that range from Hernando de
Soto to Davey Crockett to prehistoric Indians that lived 8,000 years ago.
And one of those
things I'm fortunate enough to be (see? have seen?) here in northeast Alabama
is a phenomenon that archeologists have contended with from the Appalachian
Mountains all the way from Alabama up to New England, which I'll show you in a
couple of minutes. The Midwest has to deal with this resource. It's kind of a
mystery. A lot of archeology is a mystery. We don't know it all. We just know
bits and pieces of it. The ability to study sites like the one we're going to
be talking about, the Snake Effigy. We'll have a better understanding of what
it's all about, and what it's all about, basically are rock piles, piles of
rocks laid across the landscape.
And the controversy comes into, very simply, a lot of people
pile up rocks. I bet everybody in this room has piled up rocks out in your yard
or piled up rocks in your neighbor's yard at one time or another. Like everyday
rock piles, Indian rock piles, the Snake Effigy, is a good example to how this
is to be done…”
You can dive into
and try to translate the rest here: http://www.mcclellan.army.mil/Documents/Restoration%20Advisory%20Board%20Transcripts/2007/January%202007.pdf?articlesPage=3
Some more bits and pieces, links to this and that, including
mention that the U.S. Army recognizes USET:
“The Department of Defense (DoD) has made a strong
commitment to keeping citizens informed and giving communities a voice in
environmental cleanup decisions. In meeting this commitment, DoD makes
information available on environmental restoration activities, provides
opportunities for comment, and seeks public participation on Restoration
Advisory Boards (RABs).”
Fort McClellan established the Restoration Advisory Board
(RAB) to enable affected communities and representatives of Government agencies
to meet and exchange information about Fort McClellan's environmental cleanup
program.
Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge, Calhoun County,
Alabama Unanticipated Site Discovery Plan (Archaeological and Historic Sites)
October 2013 Archaeological and historic investigations at Mountain Longleaf
National Wildlife Refuge were performed by the Department of Defense (DOD)
prior to the Refuge’s establishment in 2003. DOD’s investigations focused on
the mid-19th – 20th century Fort McClellan and other types of historic
properties present on the military reservation, such as precolumbian artifact
scatters, quarry sites, historic period house and industrial sites, historic
period cemeteries, and stone wall and mound complexes. Stone wall and mound
complexes are considered to be part of a tribal ceremonial or sacred landscape
(see USET Resolution No. 2007: 037).
And of course, the link to the report:
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