HARDIN — The backhoe excavation of a 2,000-year-old bison bone bed on the Crow Indian Reservation as part of a coal mine expansion has stirred controversy as the tribal election nears.
Former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Dale Old Horn said he supported to the best plan possible when the bone site was discovered east of Hardin because Westmoreland Resources already had a lease to expand its Absaloka Mine onto the reservation.
“The only thing we could do was mitigate or minimize the damage,” he said.
He also argued the bones were discarded.
“The only other culturally important things were arrow heads,” Old Horn argued. “Crow cultural practice for bison bones after the food value is removed is to discard them. … Any intimated cultural significance is conjured up.”
Old Horn said those excavating the site over the past several years saved enough bison bones to nearly fill a semitrailer. He said they will be stored and returned to the site when it is reclaimed.
“It’s not just a pile of bones,” argued Burdick Two Leggins, the tribe’s current historical preservation officer. “It’s a sacred site. It’s a place where some people prayed and left offerings.”
Utah State University anthropologist Judson Finely said there is some evidence of a ceremonial closure of the butchering site, indicated by the discovery of several large stone projectile points that show little sign of wear.
Crow Tribe Cultural Director Burton Pretty On Top argues the mine plans led to the desecration of a sacred site.
“This was a holy shrine for our people,” Pretty On Top said. “No one has a right to do that to another culture and its people.”
He said the area could have been preserved as a tourist attraction.
Old Horn said the Office of Surface Mining had the final authority to approve the plan to dig into the bone pile with a backhoe and sort through the bones using power screens. He would have preferred that the site not be disturbed, but he argued saving a pillar of land within a strip mine rarely works, Old Horn said.
Finley said the excavation work was technically done by the book, but called it “a faulty process at best.” He argued it was done to save time and money.
Finley said the excavation should have been done with hand tools over a period of several years, not with heavy machinery.
Interior Department spokesman Peter Mali said consultations had been in progress since 2005, four years before the site was disturbed. The Interior Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Surface Mining signed off on the 2008 agreement along with Old Horn and Westmoreland Resources, Mali said.
Crow cultural monitors were present at all excavations, Mali added.
Thomas G. Durham, vice president of planning and engineering for Westmoreland, said the company didn’t cut any corners and met all the requirements in having the archaeological work done.
Durham said Westmoreland has a good relationship with the tribe and does not “want to get into the middle of tribal politics.”
Old Horn suggests the allegations are being made against him for political reasons. He notes the excavation was completed more than a year ago and that problems with the archaeological site are only being raised now, two weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
The contest for tribal chairman is between incumbent Cedric Black Eagle and tribal Vice Secretary Darrin Old Coyote, who received the most votes in the primary election. Foes of Old Coyote link him with Old Horn, whom they accuse of agreeing to the mitigation without comment from tribal members.
Analysis of the excavation site so far indicates that more than 2,000 bison were processed at the site, which contained almost no skull bones.