INL cultural historian Hollie Gilbert, center, shows artifacts to EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney.
EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney, center, background, views a cut bank at the Big Lost River on the Idaho Site. Other members of the tour are pictured in the foreground. The sand bags, which will eventually deteriorate on their own, were placed into the cut bank to stabilize it. This is the site of an excavation by archeologists from Texas A&M University.
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Leaders of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, whose ancestral homelands include the 890 square miles containing the DOE's Idaho Site, shared the spiritual and historical importance of the site to the Tribes in a recent cultural resources tour with EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney.
Whitney took the tour with the Tribal leaders, INL cultural resource experts, and employees from the Idaho Site and DOE headquarters.
“The tribal leaders were very passionate in talking about their connection to this land,” Whitney said. “I fully understand why they feel it is important that we do a good job in cleanup, and continue to protect their ancestral homeland, as well as the Snake River Plain Aquifer.”
Whitney viewed the archeological evidence of the Tribes’ historical presence in the area. Native Americans used the land for hunting and gathering of medicinal plants and herbs. Many of the plants on the site have spiritual importance to the Tribes.
The group walked through the high sagebrush desert where they saw shards of obsidian, which were used as tools and weapons hundreds or thousands of years ago, along the trail. As INL Historical Archaeologist Hollie Gilbert sifted through the site of a hearth once used for cooking, she found a trading bead that could date back to the 1700s. Later, Gilbert pointed out a cross section of a river bank that had been excavated by Texas A&M University archaeologists, who found evidence of over 6,000 years of occupation in the area.
Whitney traveled to the Fort Hall Reservation to meet with the Fort Hall Business Council following the tour.
Top EM officials have committed to visiting Indian Reservations and continuing to foster a dialogue with the Tribes.