Vol. 05 No. 03-04 1971
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SOCIETY FOR CALIFORNIA ARCHAEOLOGY l • WEWSLETTER VOLUME 5 NUMBER 3,4 AB 1788 TO SENATE KNOX BILL TO SENATE FLOOR NEW LAW WILL PROTECT SITES ON NATIONAL REGISTER AB 1788, Assemblyman John Knox's California SB 78, signed into law on May 13 by Governor Reagan, Archaeological Survey Bill, cleared the State Assembly in amends Section 1241. 7 of the Code of Civil Procedure, late July by a bipartisan vote of 62-1. The bill had stating that 'appropriation for :;iuhlic use" of a variety of previously been given a "Do Pass" by the Assembly kinds of property including sites included in the National Committee on Planning and Land Use headed by Paul Register of Historic Places and state-registere'.i landmarks, Priolo {R-Santa Monica) and the Assembly Ways and "establishes a rebuttable presumption of its having been Means Committee headed by Willie Brown (D-San appropriated for the best and most necessary public use." Francisco.\ The bill has passeo through both the Senate This will make it slightly more difficult for such property Committee on Governmental Organization and the Senate to be appropriated for highway and public utility construct Finance Committee •. If it receives a 2/3 majority vote ion purposes. from the Senate, it will proceed to the Governor for The new law also adds Section 762. 5 and amends signature into law. Section 1001 of the Public utilities Code to require the The bill has steadily picked up support in recent Public Utilities Commission to consider "historical values" weeks, and now numbers among its backers the US among other things, in µiaking orders relating to locations Forest Service, the Irvine Corporation of Orange County, of structures and in granting certificates permitting and the Sierra Club. construction of railroads, telegraph and telephone lines, By the time you receive this New setter, the bill may and water systems. already have passed the Senate. NOW IS THE TIME to TOM KING • write Governor Reagan about this bill. SCA NOMINATIONS OPEN SB 215 SIGNED President Margaret Weide has requested Paul J. F. Schumacher to chair the Nominations and Elections Commit tee for the 197 2 Slate of SCA officers. Schumacher would very much appreciate receiving nominations from the entire INTO LAW membership for officers they believe \Vill fonn a hard-working Executive group and lead our Society towards an even strong SB 215, Senator John riarmer and Senator James Mills' er organization. Any nominations sent in should have the bill providing for a task force to draft a California State endorsement of the nominee and be sure that the nominee is archaeological program, has passed both the Senate and a full fledged "paid up" member of the Society. Assembly and has been signed into law. Also, a short biography and current address and SB 215 provides for a group of archaeologists, telephone numbers (office and residence) would be of a great Tndians and other interested parties that can assist in deal of assistance to the Nominations Committee. The slate the organization of the California Archaeological Survey, will include President, President-elect, Vice President of or, if AB 17 88 fails, draft new comprehensive state arch Northern California, Vice President of Southern California, aeological legislation. DARRELL JOHNS Treasurer, and Secretary. October, 1971 Please address all correspondence to Paul J. F. Schumacher, 200 Pinehill Road, Hillsborough, CA 94010. Nominations should be in his hands not later than November 2 2, 1971. Please send in your nominations early. PAUL F. SCHUMACHER • LETTERS FEDERAL TO THE EDITOR: I would like to share with SCA members the chronology of a current piece of site-disturbance. LEGISLATION December, 1970: The National Park Service asked Archaeological Research, Inc., to. conduct a volunteer, • unpaid survey of a flood-control project proposed for Chino NEWS Canyon, north of Palm Springs in Riverside County. January 6, 1971: ARI completed the survey and submitted an eleven-page report to the NPS, reporting the presence of The Moss Bennett Bill's Senate version, S. 2893, has two sites within the area to be affected by the Corps of has passed the US Senate according to recent word from Engineers project, and requesting $1372. SO for a brief Dr. Charles McGimsey of the Arkansas Archaeological salvage investigation of both. Survey. The House version of this epoch-making salvage February 1, 1971: Paul Schumacher of the NPS informed and planning legislation has not yet been scheduled in ARI by letter that " ..• with our funding situation, it is committee. Letters urging early passage of the bill are unlikely that further archaeological work here can be needed for its success. See Vol. 3, No. 4 of the undertaken." NEWSLETTER for details on this important legislation. June 13, 1971: Chris Chaloupka, a student at UC H.R. 9463 is a bill to prohibit the importation into the Riverside, informed me that the Corps of Engineers was well United States of antiquities acquired in violation of the advanced on channel modification in Chino Canyon. I talked principles of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of the situation over with ARI and, because I was leaving for Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and the field, referred it to Phil Wilke, acting District Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Properties. This Conven Archaeologist for SCA District 8. tion has been supported by resolution by the Society for Late June: Wilke visited Chino Canyon and took the American Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of Corps of Engineers supervising engineer to visit the sites. America. For an outline of the Convention see AMERICAN They were unable to locate the smaller of ARI' s two sites, ANTIQUITY 3 6· 3, July 1971. but did go over the larger. The Corps representative indica ted that it would be possible to avoid the site to a large H.R. 9661, introduced in the House of Representa extent, minimizing damage. tives on August 2, provides for the establishment of the September 4: I visited the site, and found that though National Conservation Area of the California Desert and the contractor has very carefully avoided it to the maximum funding of the California Desert Study proposed by the extent possible, an uncertain portion of the site has been Bureau of Land Management. This study contains a cut off by channel modification. A possible structure is • significant archaeological element largely prepared by exposed in profile in the bulldozer cut, out of which are Archaeological Research Inc. and the SCA' s California tumbling potsherds, fire-fractured rock, and a clay pipe Desert Committee. Letters of support are needed for this fragment. Construction is obviously not complete, and bill, which should bring a stop to the uncontrolled des further work will effectively destroy the apparent structure. truction of the desert and provide for its systematic study All right, you say, so what? Just another unfortunate and protection. situation where archaeologists have gotten caught with their funds down. The site is valuable to our Lake Cahuilla Study Senator Alan Bible's Interior Subcommittee on Parks here at UCR, so we will attempt an emergency salvage and Recreation is continuing its study of the effects of project. We resent it, frankly; we have ways to spend our off-road vehicles on public langs, with an eye toward time and very limited funds other than doing for free what control legislation. Senator Bible requests that all the National Park Service is mandated to fund. BUT, let's persons having information on the effects of s.uch vehicles question for a moment WHY the Chino Canyon salvage program on archaeolgocal sites or other resources s,end such couldn't be funded: information to his committee. April 10, 1971: In a letter addressed to a large number of archaeologists across the nation, Hester Davis of the ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Arkansas Archaeological Survey revealed that the federal Despite a last-ditch attempt by archaeologists budget for salvage archaeology then being considered by the across the nation, the budget provided the Natio.nal Park u's Congress amounted to $1,189, 000, a scant bit more than Service's salvage archaeology program for fiscal year HALF what the NPS Division of Archaeology estimated was 1971 is approximately 1/3 the amount needed to meet nece'ssary. This budget was subsequently raised to committments and needs. $1,309,000 by the House and $1, 236,000 by the Senate, according to Senator Tunney on July 21. The budget for the Division of Archaeology is included in that prepared by EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT ACT and for the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. The Emergency Employment Act of 1971 provides federal It appears, therefore, that in the Chino Canyon case- which funds for the employment of displaced aerospace workers, presumably can be duplicated in roughly a million dollars engineers, etc. These workers are to be employed in local worth of other archaeology across the nation- the and state governmental agencies, academic institutions, archaeologists concerned did everything they could, the etc.; presumably most community colleges, state colleges, Corps of Engineers and their contractor were entirely cooper universities and museums would qualify. Presumably among ative and helpful, but the agency that is ultimately those available for employment will be persons with techni responsible for salvage funding, the National Park Service cal abilities applicable to archaeology, so this may be a Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, with full good chance to improve technical operations at minimal understanding and foreknowledge, simply ne lected to reauest cost. Guidelines are a bit vague at present, but the best a sufficient appropriation. bet seems to be to contact your personnel office or local I suggest that this neglect demands explanation by the office of the Department of Human Re sources Development.