DOCUMENTS AND MINUTES OF THE GENERAL FACULTY
REPORT OF THE MEMORIAL RESOLUTION COMMITTEE FOR
J. GILBERT MCALLISTER
The special committee of the General Faculty to prepare a Memorial Resolution for J. Gilbert
McAllister, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, has filed with the Secretary of the General
Faculty the following report.
H. Paul Kelley, Secretary
The General Faculty
IN MEMORIAM
J. GILBERT McALLISTER
J. Gilbert McAllister, “Dr. Mac” to many generations of students, was an extraordinary teacher
who put most of his professional energy into the classroom rather than into research and the politics of
academia. He anticipated that his salary might suffer as a consequence but, characteristically, he figured it
was his career and his business. He did not vacillate, and he had no patience with apologists. He viewed
himself as an anthropologist, a teacher, and a Texas liberal confronting galloping McCarthyism and deep
Texas conservatism.
Primarily a cultural anthropologist, he also carried out significant archaeological research early in
his career, and one of his principal contributions to anthropology other than in the classroom was as an
archaeological administrator. His courses, however, emphasized social anthropology, in Oceania and
among Plains Indians. As the testimonials at the end of this memorial resolution make clear, no student
ever forgot the experience of a MacAllister course. He memorized the names and faces of every
student—in the McAllister classroom there were no anonymous back-row seats—and used this skill to
demand the best of every individual. Survival in his courses required, first, that one study and know the
material; second, that one think, and think critically; and third—most difficult—that one express oneself
cogently. Dr. Mac dispensed biting criticism and warm praise to precipitate challenging and rewarding
classroom encounters. For many students, his class was their most moving and memorable college
experience. No matter what the grade, each student knew that Dr. Mac, more than most professors, cared
what students thought.
J. Gilbert McAllister (he never used his first name, John) was born January 26, 1904, in San
Antonio, Texas. Educated in the public schools of San Antonio, he went on to The University of Texas,
and to graduate school at the University of Chicago. He was on the anthropology faculty of his alma mater
in Austin for most of his career, during which he became one of the most forceful, respected, feared, and
effective teachers ever to practice the art of teaching in the halls of this institution.
Graduating from high school in San Antonio at age seventeen, he worked in a local library for a
year—“for twenty cents an hour,” he says on an oral-history tape recording made in 1980 by the Texas
State Archeologist, Curtis Tunnell. "None of my family had gone to college, but in 1922 I decided I should
go, so I came ... to The University of Texas. The first year I was in business school or something like that
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.... The second year I switched to English or journalism and got an article published in the campus
magazine."
Then he quit college and took a job on the daily San Antonio Light. "The two guys who had the
job before me got fired for getting drunk. All the city editor asked me when I came in was if I drank. I was
floored, and I said, ‘No, but I guess I could learn to drink.’ He hired me anyway and said, ‘Well, you got
the federal room.’ ”
After a year on the Light he returned to The University of Texas, majoring now in Sociology, with
Anthropology as a minor. A few years before, the Anthropology Department had been transformed from
an earlier Department of Institutional History by an inspired teacher, James E. Pearce, who had trained at
Chicago at the turn of the century under Frederick Starr and Cyrus Thomas, and at Paris under Manouvrier
and de Mortillet. Also on the Anthropology staff was George C. Engerrand, a colorful French
anthropologist of the old school, a polymath who expected his students to be as intimately versed as he in
the manners and customs of the peoples of the world. McAllister was much influenced by Engerrand and
even more so by Pearce who, by virtue of a marvelously warm and sincere personality and an evangelical
belief in the worth of anthropology, turned the young student into an anthropologist. In McAllister's words,
"Pearce was a phenomenal individual."
Gaining his Bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1928, McAllister entered the anthropology graduate
program at the University of Chicago where he remained, except when in the field, until 1935, when he
received the Ph.D. degree. "At Chicago," he said, "I studied primarily under Redfield, and there was Cole,
and Sapir." He adds, without elaboration, "Conditions in Chicago were horrible." It is also made clear in
his dissertation that A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, the noted British social anthropologist then visiting at Chicago,
had a strong influence on him and his fellow graduate students.
The Chicago years were interrupted more than once. From 1929 to 1931 he was Ethnologist at the
Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Despite the title, his position was primarily in archaeology and resulted in
two substantial publications in 1933, The Archaeology of O`ahu and The Archaeology of Kahoolawe, the
first systematic surveys carried out on those islands. McAllister recorded every kind of site, adding
ethnohistorical and historical information wherever possible. Years later, not long before his death, he was
contacted by the Hawaiians and participated in a videotaped interview concerning one of the sites he had
recorded in the O`ahu survey, a site that has recently become politically important. Although he did no
more archaeology in the Pacific after 1931, his work there remains a solid piece of research that is a
valuable basic resource.
In the summer of 1931 he was Acting State Director of Archaeology in Indiana, and here his work
was part of a systematic statewide county-by-county survey that was creating the foundations of
archaeological research in the state, much as had been the case in Hawaii. The Archaeology of Porter
County, a 96-page report, was published in l932.
But his primary interest was always in cultural anthropology. In l933-1934 he and his wife Cora
Reveley McAllister (they had no children) were in Oklahoma for a year of field work collecting data for his
dissertation, Kiowa-Apache Social Organization. This was his major piece of research, resulting in his
receiving his doctorate in 1935. In it he reconstructed Kiowa-Apache culture as it had existed some six
decades earlier (before being overwhelmed by White culture) on the basis of detailed information obtained
from the oldest men of the tribe, who recalled those days vividly. He approached his analysis through the
details of kinship structure, acknowledging his intellectual debt to Radcliffe-Brown. The dissertation was
published in condensed form in 1937 as a chapter in the famous Radcliffe-Brown festschrift edited by Fred
Eggan, Social Organization of North American Tribes (Chicago, 1937; 2nd ed, 1955).
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With the degree in hand and a potential career ahead studying Plains Indian cultural anthropology,
McAllister was lured back to Austin in 1935 by his old mentor James Pearce. In the small department they
made a felicitous and charismatic teaching pair. Pearce was toward the close of his career, mellow and
conservative, whereas McAllister was in his early 30s, young, vigorous, and iconoclastic. In later years,
fondly recalling his relationship with Pearce, McAllister often told how they fought over such issues as
race, since Pearce was a racist and McAllister was anything but.
As it turned out, McAllister’s days in research had largely come to an end. He was to make his
name as an archaeological administrator and especially as a remarkable teacher. Pearce died in 1938, and
McAllister found himself not only Chairman of the department but also in charge of Pearce’s
archaeological program, which, as the Division of Research in Anthropology, was sending field parties to
many parts of the state. At first depending on private funds, the Division eventually, in the mid-1930s,
became one of the large Depression-era New Deal archaeological programs financed through the Works
Progress Administration. The largest of the field projects was the salvage archaeology that Pearce’s people
were carrying on in the basins of the then-building Highland Lake reservoirs, one of the earliest reservoir
archaeology programs in the world. Unfortunately, however, this field work suffered from a lack of up-todate
archaeological training on the part of Pearce and his subordinates, whose efforts were characterized
more by conscientiousness and zeal than by sophistication.
Gilbert McAllister, despite considering himself a cultural anthropologist, was now in charge of
the whole archaeological research program. He set about to modernize Texas archaeology by bringing in
well-trained persons, not a task to be accomplished overnight. He accepted the chairmanship of a statewide
committee to examine archaeological methods being used in the state. By the time World War II brought
archaeological work to a halt, a number of archaeologists with solid professional training—such persons as
Campbell, Kelley, Newell, Beattie, Stephenson, and Krieger—were at work in the state, and most of them
had been brought in by McAllister. After the war he was no longer involved in archaeology, but by that
time he had laid a solid foundation for modern archaeological research in Texas.
But beyond his administrative accomplishments, it was as a teacher that he eventually excelled.
By 1950 he was acquiring a reputation as a splendid pedagogue whom the students never forgot, and it is
this reputation that lives on. The list of his courses includes:
Ant. 311 - Man's Biocultural Heritage [Upper-Division General Anthropology]
Ant. 320 - Ethnology of Oceania
Ant. 322 - Indians of the Plains
Ant. 373 - Applied Anthropology
Ant. 376 - Early Social Organization
Ant. 382 - Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology
Ant. 391 - Seminar in Social Anthropology
We can do no better than base the remainder of this essay on a series of reminiscences offered by
former students.
Bill Moyers, National Public Radio, in his Commencement address at The University, May 21,1988:
... If we're to build a common future—your generation and mine—we cannot
talk about the new economics of competition without talking about a new ethic of
cooperation. This means recognizing our capacity to make common cause with others,
between government and the business sector, and the necessity of creating a political
culture that nurtures and honors obligation and trust.
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This is not a new idea, although it is one widely ignored of late. Gilbert
McAllister taught it in his anthropology courses here 30-odd years ago. That's where I
had my first de-programming. I went to see Dr. McAllister this afternoon. He's 85. We
sat and talked for a long time. We talked again about the time he spent among the
Apaches as a young graduate student before he came here to teach. I said, "Do you
remember what you told us all those years ago that you learned from the Apaches?" He
thought a minute and said, "I'm not sure I can remember the exact words but I think I
talked to you about reciprocity." "That's right," I said, "reciprocity." Then he got going.
"You know, in the Apache tongue, the word grandfather is the same word for
grandson—grandfather, grandson—it's all one word. Of course, the Apaches believed in
the reciprocity of generations—in both linking and in locking one generation to another."
Reciprocity. Mutual help. Reinforcing. Time and time again in this class, he'd look
back over the sweep of time to tell us that human beings have advanced more in the past
through having learned the value of cooperative caring behavior than through their ability
to compete successfully.
Edward B. Jelks, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Illinois State University (at the time
of this episode, Dr. Jelks was not a callow freshman but a veteran coming out of World War II):
I met Gilbert in 1947 when, as an undergraduate student at The University of
Texas, I enrolled in his class in introductory cultural anthropology. At the first class
meeting he delivered what I later learned was a stock lecture in which he eloquently
deplored the sloppy use of language by students. Then he said if there was one thing he
hoped we would learn in college, it was how to communicate properly in both the
spoken and written word. As an English major I was duly impressed that an
anthropology professor emphasized the importance of communication skills.
On his first test there was a question asking us to "indicate" which of so and so
was such and such. While it was clear that he wanted a discussion-type answer, I could
not resist the temptation to respond with a brief sentence, stating that one particular so
and so was such and such, with no elaboration. When he returned my paper with no
credit for my answer, and with a marginal note that I should have discussed the matter, I
stopped by his office and, with some trepidation, told him that the word "indicate" does
not mean “to discuss,” but to point out something specific, which was what I had done. I
also reminded him of his lecture on using language properly and said I had been trying to
follow his advice.
Gilbert laughed, expressed his delight that I had called his hand, and gave me
full credit for my answer. From that moment on we were great friends. Later, when I
became employed as an archaeologist in Austin, my wife Judy and I became part of the
University social circle, and we came to know Gilbert and Cora well. Since leaving
Austin in 1968, we have kept in touch with them regularly through Christmas notes.
Gilbert was among the three or four of my professors whose teaching skills and
personal concern for their students were inspirational. He was a faithful mentor, both in
and out of the classroom, and he will be sorely missed by a multitude of former students.
Ronnie Dugger, political observer, in Our Invaded Universities (W. W. Norton, New York, 1974):
This reminded me ... of my experiences with a senior professor of anthropology,
J. Gilbert McAllister. A practitioner of what he called "education by irritation," Doctor
Mac, as we called him, would teach his large classes of Texas freshmen and sophomores
whatever would jolt or infuriate them into thinking about the American culture, and then
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he would grind it in. They got mad as hell, many of them disliked or even detested him,
but he didn't give a damn about that—he was educating them, and that was his work.
Once McAllister said something in class about vocabulary size that I believed
was wrong. I was a feisty and conceited young fellow, and he and I had spirited
exchanges in class, but by this time in the course I was enforcing a silence on myself. He
caught my disagreement on my face, though, and asked me for it, so I gave it. He said
that I was wrong; I said, politely, that I was right. Bring me a written paper to prove it,
he said. I burrowed into the library, worked hard on a paper that proved my case to my
satisfaction, and one morning laid it on his desk as class opened. Without looking it over
he told me to read it to the class. I said I had a cold. Read it, he said. I read it and
received an ovation. He said he still believed he was right, but he let things stand that
way. He was secure: he could let me have my day. And there was something in my
pride that made me ashamed and redoubled my respect for him.
When, therefore, one evening at the home of another professor, McAllister said
to me, "Dugger, you look to me like the kind of smart young guy who's going to sell out,"
he jolted me clear through to my ego, and that was all the way. As years passed I would
hear from students in his classes that he was telling and retelling the story of the paper on
vocabulary size, and telling it at his own expense, but all through college, on campus, in
halls, on the phone, he would say to me, "Well, Dugger, have you sold out yet?" For ten
years, fifteen, he kept asking me this question in the same serious, taunting way. If I had
a chance, I would do a lot for Gilbert McAllister.
Joe D. Gilliland, Professor Emeritus in Humanities, Cochise College, in a letter to the editor in The
Daily Texan, April 6, 1993:
Dr. McAllister was professor of anthropology while I was a student at the
University in 1943 and 1947. He was by any standard one of the great teachers in
America. He was the finest teacher I ever had at the University or at any university I
attended over the years.
Dr. McAllister was a man greatly loved by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
students. At one time or another those same students who loved him probably hated him
for the work he made us do. We loved him, not because he made us feel all warm and
good inside, or because his lectures entertained and charmed, but because he made us
think and often made us angry. But most important he made us aware of our world and
taught us how—not what—to think about that world.
Chad Oliver, Robert D. King Centennial Professor in Liberal Arts—Anthropology, The University of
Texas at Austin, "Some Blues for a Trio,” in Bryan A. Garner, comp. & ed., Texas, Our Texas:
Remembrances of the University. Eakin Press, Austin, 1984:
... One of the professors my fellow students were talking about was a man
named J. Gilbert McAllister of the Department of Anthropology.
Nobody ever referred to him as Dr. McAllister. It was always "Dr. Mac." The
essence of what I heard was this: "Before you get out of this place, you really should
take a course from Dr. Mac."
Why not? I was interested in anthropology, although it had never occurred to
me that I might one day become a professional anthropologist myself. I had a spot for an
elective my senior year. I decided to find out what this Dr. Mac was all about.
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I found out. I walked into his class on "Social Organization" with a casual
respect for anthropology. By the time it was over, I was an anthropologist. I was on fire
with the stuff.
Dr. Mac was like no other teacher I have ever had. He was a somewhat fraillooking
man with a vision. The vision permeated everything that he taught. It was a
belief—totally sincere and with no element of humbug about it—that this world could be
a better place and that anthropology could do a lot to make that happen.
Within a week, he knew every student in the class by name. Within two weeks,
he knew our life histories. Within three weeks, he had a personal battle going on with
every single student. If you were with him, he pushed you relentlessly to do more and
better work. If you were against him, he hammered away to put a dent in your armor.
Years later, when we were colleagues, I would watch former students troop into
Dr. Mac's office in Benedict Hall. Invariably, he would call them by name—and this
with students he had not seen in a decade or more. "Well, Miss Jones," he would say
with a twinkle in his eye, "about that question you missed on the second exam in the
Polynesia course. What do you think about it now?"
Dr. Mac believed in what he was doing. He did not just "teach a class." He
threw himself into it, heart and mind and soul. I have seen him leave a classroom so
spent that he could hardly walk. I remember—and will remember as long as I live—one
warm and humid day in his class on "Applied Anthropology." I was taking the course in
summer session and had driven in from a lakeside cabin I was renting. I was in high
good spirits. We were due to get a test back, and I knew that I had knocked that test dead
in its tracks.
Dr. Mac returned the tests. I had a grade of ninety-nine.
Dr. Mac went to work on me. "Mr. Oliver," he said, "I'll bet you think you're
really something."
I started to laugh in an aw-shucks manner, figuring that I was about to be singled
out as an example. I was indeed, but not in the way I was anticipating.
"You are capable of making 100 on any test I give," Dr. Mac said. "This is an
insult. I don't ever want it to happen again."
I began searching for a hole to crawl into. I could hardly believe my ears. I had
missed one point on an exam, and this man was angry.
Dr. Mac was not kidding. He may have calculated his performance a bit, but he
meant what he was saying. His point—which he made at considerable length—was that
if I was thinking of going to graduate school in anthropology I had to learn to give my
best. Anything less was unsatisfactory.
I left that class chagrined, angry, and determined. I never missed a point on one
of Dr. Mac's exams again. I knew I never wanted to go through that experience again.
The grade, of course, was not all that important. The lesson that he taught me, however,
was invaluable; whatever you do, give it your best shot or don't do it at all.
I have no idea how many students Dr. Mac inspired to seek professional careers
in anthropology or in related disciplines. There were a lot of us, and we all still make
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occasional pilgrimages to his home in Tarrytown. I do know that he gave us more than a
vision. Dr. Mac had been trained at the University of Chicago under Radcliffe-Brown,
one of the founders of modern social anthropology. When I went to graduate school at
U.C.L.A.—which had a very high-powered department of anthropology—I found that I
was as well prepared as students from anywhere else in the world. I attribute this largely
to the training I received from Dr. Mac.
Oddly enough, I never had a chance to take one of his most popular courses,
which was "Indians of the Plains." I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the Plains Indians,
but after I joined the faculty at Texas I did not teach the course until Dr. Mac retired. It
was not that he had any objection; Dr. Mac was always a generous colleague and friend.
It was simply that "Indians of the Plains" was his course, and I was in no hurry to
compete with a legend.
Dr. Mac's favorite question in class was, "So what?" He would summarize the
contribution of some distinguished anthropologist and then ask his question. It meant:
"What difference does it make? What did this person do that affects how you look at the
world around you?"
Former students of mine may recognize the question. That is where it came
from, along with my addiction to hand-woven Indian ties.
Gilbert McAllister had—and has—a massive integrity about him. I do not
believe that he ever did anything that he thought was wrong. I do not believe that he ever
gave a dishonest answer to a question. We talk a lot about role models these days. He
was one of the good ones.
This seems an appropriate place to say in public what I have said to him many
times in private: "Thank you, Dr. Mac."
Dr. Mac retired in 1968 after thirty-three years of teaching. Maintaining contact with a host of former
students around the country, he and Cora lived quietly in Tarrytown, the old residential section of Austin,
until his death on March 20, 1993.
This Memorial Resolution was prepared by a special committee consisting of Professor Emeritus
E. Mott Davis (Chair) and Professor Claud A. Bramblett.
Distributed to Voting and Emeritus Members of the faculty of the Department of Anthropology, the Dean
of the College of Liberal Arts, the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the President on August 31,
1995.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Native American Burial Grounds Porter County, Indiana
Native American Burial Grounds
Index of Native American Burial Grounds in Porter County . . . .
Numerous Native American burial grounds have been identified in Porter County.
The burial customs of Native Americans have varied widely, not only geographically,
but also through time. Differing environments, social structure, and spiritual
beliefs led to various burial practices. In the region surrounding and including
Porter County, the common Native American burial practice included the construction of earthen
mounds, some of which were chambered mounds and others that were crematory
mounds. Several prominent Native American burial mounds once existed in Porter
County; it has been reported that a total of at least 42 Native American mounds
existed at one time in Porter County. Most of these mounds have been leveled due to farming practices, development, and
destruction from early archaeological digs and curiosity seekers.
Below is an enumeration, listed alphabetically by township, of known Native American burial grounds located within the boundaries Porter County. It should be noted that not all mounds were constructed and used by Native Americans as burial tombs. For instance, piles of earth were heaped into mounds for the purpose of elevating wigwams in low, wet areas. As such, we do not provide a list of all known mounds, both existing and obliterated, in the county. Rather, we review only those Native American mounds that are known to have yielded human skeletal remains upon excavation.
Below is an enumeration, listed alphabetically by township, of known Native American burial grounds located within the boundaries Porter County. It should be noted that not all mounds were constructed and used by Native Americans as burial tombs. For instance, piles of earth were heaped into mounds for the purpose of elevating wigwams in low, wet areas. As such, we do not provide a list of all known mounds, both existing and obliterated, in the county. Rather, we review only those Native American mounds that are known to have yielded human skeletal remains upon excavation.
Boone Township
A. In a history of Boone Township published
in 1936 in The Vidette-Messenger, it is reported that:
"Even today it is not uncommon to find arrow heads and stone
hatchets in Boone Township. Immediately across what is now
State Road No. 152 from Hod Morrow's house near the Kankakee
is an old Indian burial ground. J. M. Morrow recalls that together
with his brother Hod and other boys of the community he has
unearthed many arrow heads, hatchets and bones. He has a
collection of these early relics. Some of the skeletons had been
buried in a horizontal position, others in a sitting position. One
tiny grave was uncovered and was encased on clam shells but
containing no bones. This undoubtedly was the grave of an infant
whose bones were not as yet ossified. It was not an uncommon
practice for infants to be buried in hollow logs. We can well imagine
that over these burial mounds the Indian squaws blacked their
faces and cooked and ate their food as was their custom in
mourning their departed. It is small wonder when they revisited
these mounds, after they have moved westward, that they were
shocked by the fate of the sacred burial places. In a visit to the
burial ground just mentioned the writer in company with M. E.
Dinsmoore found, in a matter of a few minutes, three arrow
heads, a part of an Indian axe and several human bones. A corn
field now covers the mound."
The aforementioned burial ground is referred to in McAllister's report on the archaeology of Porter County as Site 32. McAllister places the exact location of this Native American burial site at the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 26, Township 33 North, Range 7 West. As of 2012, the site is under cultivation for agricultural purposes. With regard to this burial site, McAllister states that:
"...the Morrow family has come upon burials in the sandy elevation,
twenty rods east of the highway. A pipe is said to have been found
with one burial. It is also reported by U. H. Morrow that mussel
shells were placed with the burial, usually over the body. This was
noted a number of times in burials found in several places on the
sandy elevation. The site is now planted in corn."
B. A Native American burial ground is located upon a sandy ridge in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 27, Township 33 North, Range 7 West, which is the land located directly southwest of the intersection of Indiana State Route 2 and US Route 231. McAllister's report on the archaeology of Porter County refers to this Native American burial site as Site 32, and states that:
"This is known generally throughout the region as an Indian
burial ground."
Today, this land contains several residential homes.
C. The Vergin Mound was a rather isolated and undisturbed mound until 1932 when J. Gilbert McAllister and his archaeological team excavated the site. The mound is named after Richard and Doshia Vergin, owners of the property on which the mound is located at the time of its scientific excavation. The mound's exact location is the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 5, Township 33 North, Range 6 West. The 50 foot diameter mound rose 4.5 feet above the surrounding elevations. Portions of five different skeletons were uncovered during excavation.
"Even today it is not uncommon to find arrow heads and stone
hatchets in Boone Township. Immediately across what is now
State Road No. 152 from Hod Morrow's house near the Kankakee
is an old Indian burial ground. J. M. Morrow recalls that together
with his brother Hod and other boys of the community he has
unearthed many arrow heads, hatchets and bones. He has a
collection of these early relics. Some of the skeletons had been
buried in a horizontal position, others in a sitting position. One
tiny grave was uncovered and was encased on clam shells but
containing no bones. This undoubtedly was the grave of an infant
whose bones were not as yet ossified. It was not an uncommon
practice for infants to be buried in hollow logs. We can well imagine
that over these burial mounds the Indian squaws blacked their
faces and cooked and ate their food as was their custom in
mourning their departed. It is small wonder when they revisited
these mounds, after they have moved westward, that they were
shocked by the fate of the sacred burial places. In a visit to the
burial ground just mentioned the writer in company with M. E.
Dinsmoore found, in a matter of a few minutes, three arrow
heads, a part of an Indian axe and several human bones. A corn
field now covers the mound."
The aforementioned burial ground is referred to in McAllister's report on the archaeology of Porter County as Site 32. McAllister places the exact location of this Native American burial site at the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 26, Township 33 North, Range 7 West. As of 2012, the site is under cultivation for agricultural purposes. With regard to this burial site, McAllister states that:
"...the Morrow family has come upon burials in the sandy elevation,
twenty rods east of the highway. A pipe is said to have been found
with one burial. It is also reported by U. H. Morrow that mussel
shells were placed with the burial, usually over the body. This was
noted a number of times in burials found in several places on the
sandy elevation. The site is now planted in corn."
B. A Native American burial ground is located upon a sandy ridge in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 27, Township 33 North, Range 7 West, which is the land located directly southwest of the intersection of Indiana State Route 2 and US Route 231. McAllister's report on the archaeology of Porter County refers to this Native American burial site as Site 32, and states that:
"This is known generally throughout the region as an Indian
burial ground."
Today, this land contains several residential homes.
C. The Vergin Mound was a rather isolated and undisturbed mound until 1932 when J. Gilbert McAllister and his archaeological team excavated the site. The mound is named after Richard and Doshia Vergin, owners of the property on which the mound is located at the time of its scientific excavation. The mound's exact location is the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 5, Township 33 North, Range 6 West. The 50 foot diameter mound rose 4.5 feet above the surrounding elevations. Portions of five different skeletons were uncovered during excavation.
D. The Aylesworth Mound is named after the Aylesworth family since it was
located on their property when the mound was first scientifically evaluated. The
mound is located in the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of the
southeast quarter of Section 9, Township 33 North, Range 6 West, approximately
1,300 feet north of Indiana State Road 8 and 1,000 feet west of County Road 200
West. Today, the cul-de-sacs of Walter Drive and Chester Drive are located very
near the location of the Aylesworth Mound. The mound was excavated as early as
1891 by George C. Gregg, of Hebron, who found skeletal material at a depth of
three feet. No artifacts were found with the human remains.
E. In McAllister's archaeological report of Porter County is mentioned a burial ground on the property of John Reif. The location of the burial ground is the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 17, Township 33 North, Range 5 West. Today, the burial site is situated between Indiana State Road 8 and Reif Drive, within a subdivision of homes. McAllister states that:
"Tradition among the oldest settlers tells of a natural sand mound
which has been used as an Indian cemetery. According to John
Reif white men are buried on the southern slope of this same
elevation. Artifacts are sometimes unearthed while plowing....About
100 feet north and on the line between Sections 17 and 8, skeletons
and accompanying artifacts were unearthed when a cut was put
through the sand ridge in building the highway."
F. In Lewis Publishing Company's 1912 published history of Porter County a large Native American burial ground is mentioned to exist in Section 21, Township 33 North, Range 6 West:
"In the early '50s [1850s] a sawmill was set up near the mouth of Sandy
Hook creek in Boone township, and soon after that it was started a
number of old Indians visited the neighborhood to pay their respects to
the graves of some of their ancestors. This led to the discovery of an
old Indian burying ground some seven or eight acres in extent, located
in section 21, township 33 north, range 6 west, a short distance north of
the Kankakee river. After the departure of the Indian visitors, excavations
were made and a number of implements, weapons, ornaments, images,
etc., were found."
Source Citations:
Anonymous. August 18, 1936. "The Hebron School History of Boone
Township: As Compiled by History Class and Instructors for
The Vidette-Messenger," The Vidette-Messenger Volume 10,
Section 3, pp. 21-23.
Blatchley, W. S. 1898. "The Geology of Lake and Porter Counties, Indiana,"
(pp. 25-104) In: Indiana Department of Geology and Natural
Resources, 22nd Annual Report. Indianapolis, Indiana: William B.
Buford. 1,197 p. [see p. 52]
Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A
Narrative of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal
Interests. Volume I. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company.
357 p. [see p. 24]
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. The Archaeology of Porter County. Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
E. In McAllister's archaeological report of Porter County is mentioned a burial ground on the property of John Reif. The location of the burial ground is the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 17, Township 33 North, Range 5 West. Today, the burial site is situated between Indiana State Road 8 and Reif Drive, within a subdivision of homes. McAllister states that:
"Tradition among the oldest settlers tells of a natural sand mound
which has been used as an Indian cemetery. According to John
Reif white men are buried on the southern slope of this same
elevation. Artifacts are sometimes unearthed while plowing....About
100 feet north and on the line between Sections 17 and 8, skeletons
and accompanying artifacts were unearthed when a cut was put
through the sand ridge in building the highway."
F. In Lewis Publishing Company's 1912 published history of Porter County a large Native American burial ground is mentioned to exist in Section 21, Township 33 North, Range 6 West:
"In the early '50s [1850s] a sawmill was set up near the mouth of Sandy
Hook creek in Boone township, and soon after that it was started a
number of old Indians visited the neighborhood to pay their respects to
the graves of some of their ancestors. This led to the discovery of an
old Indian burying ground some seven or eight acres in extent, located
in section 21, township 33 north, range 6 west, a short distance north of
the Kankakee river. After the departure of the Indian visitors, excavations
were made and a number of implements, weapons, ornaments, images,
etc., were found."
Source Citations:
Anonymous. August 18, 1936. "The Hebron School History of Boone
Township: As Compiled by History Class and Instructors for
The Vidette-Messenger," The Vidette-Messenger Volume 10,
Section 3, pp. 21-23.
Blatchley, W. S. 1898. "The Geology of Lake and Porter Counties, Indiana,"
(pp. 25-104) In: Indiana Department of Geology and Natural
Resources, 22nd Annual Report. Indianapolis, Indiana: William B.
Buford. 1,197 p. [see p. 52]
Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A
Narrative of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal
Interests. Volume I. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company.
357 p. [see p. 24]
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. The Archaeology of Porter County. Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
Liberty Township
A. A Native American burial ground reportedly existed
adjacent to the The Cole Cemetery. The Cole Cemetery, which no longer exists, was located on the southwest
quarter of Section 19, west of the Old 49 Highway. The cemetery was situated on
a hill just behind the Cole family farm, now occupied by the Liberty Bible
Church. After the death of Sally (Dillingham) Cole, the Cole farm was sold and
then resold to I. M. Biggs around 1900.
The Biggs family requested that the graves be moved from the site, which the Cole family agreed to do since they feared that the tombstones would be removed and the graves plowed over and obliterated. The graves and tombstones of four Cole family members buried in the cemetery were disinterred and moved to the Adams Cemetery in Morgan Township, where Sally (Dillingham) Cole's son had a family plot.
Source Citation:
Communication with J. Timothy Cole of Chesterton, Indiana.
The Biggs family requested that the graves be moved from the site, which the Cole family agreed to do since they feared that the tombstones would be removed and the graves plowed over and obliterated. The graves and tombstones of four Cole family members buried in the cemetery were disinterred and moved to the Adams Cemetery in Morgan Township, where Sally (Dillingham) Cole's son had a family plot.
Source Citation:
Communication with J. Timothy Cole of Chesterton, Indiana.
Morgan Township
A. The LaCount Mound is located in the northeast
quarter of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 30,
Township 34 North, Range 5 West in Morgan Township, approximately 400 feet north
of Sandy Hook Creek. The name of the mound originates from the owner of the land
on which it is located, Charles F. LaCount. The mound is reported to have been
approximately 15 feet in height, but by 1932 the height of the mound had
diminished to 5 feet due to previous excavations. Today, the mound is virtually
flattened. Just west of the center of the mound at a depth of three to four feet
were found three skeletons. A leather-wrapped copper celt measuring 5.63 inches
in length, a pipe, and a piece of pottery were found with the skeletal remains.
An article published in the August 29, 1921, issue of the Valparaiso Daily Vidette states that:
"An Indian mound, on the Charles LaCount farm, in Morgan
township, which has been excavated by the LaCount Brothers,
has given up four skeletons of what are generally believed
to be Indians. The bones of the bodies crumble upon being
exposed to the air, but the teeth are remarkably well preserved.
The skeletons are those of big men, and tomahawks, pipes
and pottery found near the bodies prove beyond a doubt that
they are Indians. The state of the bones indicates that burial
took place many years ago. The mound itself, is twenty feet
high and more than fifty feet across. The earth composing the
mound is clay texture of soil that is proof against weathering.
There are three other mounds on the LaCount farm and these
will be excavated by the LaCount boys."
In 1921, Charles F. LaCount owned the majority of the south one-half of Section 30 in Morgan Township.
Source Citation:
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. The Archaeology of Porter County. Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
An article published in the August 29, 1921, issue of the Valparaiso Daily Vidette states that:
"An Indian mound, on the Charles LaCount farm, in Morgan
township, which has been excavated by the LaCount Brothers,
has given up four skeletons of what are generally believed
to be Indians. The bones of the bodies crumble upon being
exposed to the air, but the teeth are remarkably well preserved.
The skeletons are those of big men, and tomahawks, pipes
and pottery found near the bodies prove beyond a doubt that
they are Indians. The state of the bones indicates that burial
took place many years ago. The mound itself, is twenty feet
high and more than fifty feet across. The earth composing the
mound is clay texture of soil that is proof against weathering.
There are three other mounds on the LaCount farm and these
will be excavated by the LaCount boys."
In 1921, Charles F. LaCount owned the majority of the south one-half of Section 30 in Morgan Township.
Source Citation:
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. The Archaeology of Porter County. Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
Pleasant Township
A. The Weise Mound is discussed in great
detail in McAllister's report of the archaeology of Porter County. The mound
was named after Albert Weise, on whose property the mound existed when it was
scientifically examined by McAllister. The exact location of the mound is the
northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section
27, Township 33 North, Range 6 West. Alternatively, the land located directly
southwest of where County Road 1025 South and County Road 100 West meet is where
the Weiss Mound is located. Note that the region around the Weiss Mound was
commonly referred to as Indian Garden.
McAllister reports that the Weiss Mound was first plowed in 1925 and had been plowed two additional times between 1926 and 1932. An excavation of the mound is known to have taken place in 1908 by Charles Wilcox, who is reported to have unearthed six skeletons. During McAllister's excavation of the Weise Mound, five more skeletons were found and a group of "reburials" were also uncovered, which may possibly have been from the Wilcox excavation.
McAllister reports that the Weiss Mound was first plowed in 1925 and had been plowed two additional times between 1926 and 1932. An excavation of the mound is known to have taken place in 1908 by Charles Wilcox, who is reported to have unearthed six skeletons. During McAllister's excavation of the Weise Mound, five more skeletons were found and a group of "reburials" were also uncovered, which may possibly have been from the Wilcox excavation.
B. The Collier Burial Ground is located just east of the the historic
Collier Store at Baum's Bridge. The exact location of the burial ground is the
south one-half of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 26,
Township 33 North, Range 6 West. A very large number of Native American
artifacts have been unearthed in this particular area over the past many
decades. In McAllister's report on the archaeology of Porter County, it is
mentioned that:
"Several burials have been found by Jim Collier in the immediate
vicinity. One, he says, was in a sitting posture."
Source Citations:
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. The Archaeology of Porter County. Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
"Several burials have been found by Jim Collier in the immediate
vicinity. One, he says, was in a sitting posture."
Source Citations:
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. The Archaeology of Porter County. Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
Portage Township
A. The 1882 History of Porter County, Indiana, states that (p. 215):
"On Section 36, Township 36, Range 6, was what had the
appearance of an Indian burying-ground. Evidences of
about twenty graves were to be seen."
The exact location of this burial ground in Section 36 is unknown.
Source Citation:
Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Lake
and Porter, Indiana: Historical and Biographical. Chicago, Illinois:
F. A. Battey and Company. 771 p.
"On Section 36, Township 36, Range 6, was what had the
appearance of an Indian burying-ground. Evidences of
about twenty graves were to be seen."
The exact location of this burial ground in Section 36 is unknown.
Source Citation:
Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Lake
and Porter, Indiana: Historical and Biographical. Chicago, Illinois:
F. A. Battey and Company. 771 p.
Porter Township
The Wark Mounds represent a group of at least ten Native American mounds located
in Sections 27, 28, 33, and 34 of Township 34 North, Range 6 West in Porter
Township, east of Boone Grove. This complex of mounds is named after one of the
former owners of land upon which several mounds are located, John Wark. The
largest mound in the group is referred to as the Wark Mound. These mounds were
known to exist as early as 1834 since they are clearly notated in the Record of
Field Notes, United States Land Survey; the notes regarding the survey of
the north-south line between Sections 33 and 34 state that "a large
artificial mound surrounded by a number of smaller ones." By 1932, many of
the mounds, especially those located in Section 33, were barely visible due to
previous excavations. Note that not every mound in this group has yielded
skeletal remains when excavated. Thus, only mounds that have yielded skeletal
remains are detailed below.
A. The Wark Mound is the largest Native American burial mound in Porter County and is located in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 33, Township 34 North, Range 6 West. Being slightly more than 100 feet in diameter, the Wark Mound was approximately 16 feet in height before excavations reduced its height to about ten feet by 1932. The Record of Field Notes, United States Land Survey of 1834 reports that nine smaller mounds surrounded the Wark Mound, but by 1897 these nine smaller mounds no longer were visually perceptible. A. E. Upp was the first man to farm the land upon which the Wark Mound is located. It has been reported that Upp stated that the mound was much steeper and quite difficult to plow when he began farming the land. On October 6 and 7, 1897, State Geologist W. S. Blatchley excavated a ditch measuring three feet wide, 32 feet long, and 14 feet deep through the center of the Wark Mound. Near the very center of the mound was found one very badly decayed partial skeleton; a total of 14 teeth were found and only a few bones were recovered.
A. The Wark Mound is the largest Native American burial mound in Porter County and is located in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 33, Township 34 North, Range 6 West. Being slightly more than 100 feet in diameter, the Wark Mound was approximately 16 feet in height before excavations reduced its height to about ten feet by 1932. The Record of Field Notes, United States Land Survey of 1834 reports that nine smaller mounds surrounded the Wark Mound, but by 1897 these nine smaller mounds no longer were visually perceptible. A. E. Upp was the first man to farm the land upon which the Wark Mound is located. It has been reported that Upp stated that the mound was much steeper and quite difficult to plow when he began farming the land. On October 6 and 7, 1897, State Geologist W. S. Blatchley excavated a ditch measuring three feet wide, 32 feet long, and 14 feet deep through the center of the Wark Mound. Near the very center of the mound was found one very badly decayed partial skeleton; a total of 14 teeth were found and only a few bones were recovered.
Portion of original government survey map prepared by William Clark in
1834 of Township 34 North, Range 6 West, showing the Wark Mounds
in Sections 33 and 34.
B.
The Allman Mound is one of the mounds in the Wark Mounds group and is located in
the approximate center of the south one-half of the northeast quarter of the
northwest quarter of Section 34, Township 34 North, Range 6 West. In 1931, the
diameter and height of the Allman Mound was reported to be 45 feet and 4.1 feet,
respectively. State Geologist W. S. Blatchley reported that in October of 1897,
Charles H. Wood, Superintendent of the Valparaiso Schools, excavated the Allman
Mound. Blatchley stated that Wood found "no skeletons or implements of any
kind," but that "charcoal and ashes were quite common."
In 1928, J. C. Allman excavated at the center of the mound to a depth of three
feet. Allman unearthed several skeletal remains, reporting that most of the
bones were in an excellent state of preservation.
C.
The Franz-Green Mound is one of the mounds in the Wark Mounds group and is
located in the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of the northwest
quarter of Section 34, Township 34 North, Range 6 West. State Geologist E. W.
Blatchley reported in 1897 that this mound "is 210 feet in circumference and
its crest is 10 feet above the surrounding level." Blatchley reports that
Charles H. Wood,
Superintendent of the Valparaiso Schools, excavated at the Franz-Green
Mound, but no information concerning Wood's discoveries is available. In 1915,
the mound was excavated by Harvey Franz and Amos Green, from which the mound
derives its name. The Franz-Green excavation resulted in the discovery of at
least 17 burials, three of which were children. Numerous artifacts were also
found with the burials. Interestingly, much of the soil removed from the
Franz-Green Mound was taken away to be used as fill for the low areas around the
barn yard of William Rampke.
D.
Two smaller mounds, known as Site 23 in McAllister's archaeological report for
Porter County published in the Indiana History Bulletin, exist on the section line between Sections 33 and 34,
Township 34 North, Range 6 West. State Geologist W. S. Blatchley reports that
one of these two mounds "is 175 feet in circumference and six feet high, the
other 75 feet in circumference and four feet in height." Blatchley and
Charles H. Wood, Superintendent of the Valparaiso Schools, excavated at Site 23 in 1897,
though results of their excavation are unknown. In the fall of 1930, J. C. Allman
and some boy scouts excavated the larger of the two mounds located at Site 23
and at a depth of four feet discovered skeletal material. The human remains were
reportedly not disturbed.
Source Citations:
Anonymous. June 1, 1956. "Indian Burial Mounds Still Dot Landscape
in Boone Grove Area," The Vidette Messenger 29(281):8.
Blatchley, W. S. 1898. "The Geology of Lake and Porter Counties,
Indiana, " in (pp. 25-104) Indiana Department of Geology
and Natural Resources, Twenty-second Annual Report.
Indianapolis, Indiana: William B. Buford. 1,197 p. [see p. 52]
Drury, John. 1956. This is Porter County. Chicago, Illinois: Inland
Photo Company. 352 p.
Field Notes North of the Base Line and West of the 2d Meridian,
Indiana, 22:447. Located at Indiana State Archives, Indianapolis,
Indiana.
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. "The Archaeology of Porter County," Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
The Stroller. November 10, 1960. "Bodies of 17 Warriors Found in
Battle Regalia," The Vidette-Messenger 34(110):1, 14.
Anonymous. June 1, 1956. "Indian Burial Mounds Still Dot Landscape
in Boone Grove Area," The Vidette Messenger 29(281):8.
Blatchley, W. S. 1898. "The Geology of Lake and Porter Counties,
Indiana, " in (pp. 25-104) Indiana Department of Geology
and Natural Resources, Twenty-second Annual Report.
Indianapolis, Indiana: William B. Buford. 1,197 p. [see p. 52]
Drury, John. 1956. This is Porter County. Chicago, Illinois: Inland
Photo Company. 352 p.
Field Notes North of the Base Line and West of the 2d Meridian,
Indiana, 22:447. Located at Indiana State Archives, Indianapolis,
Indiana.
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. "The Archaeology of Porter County," Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
The Stroller. November 10, 1960. "Bodies of 17 Warriors Found in
Battle Regalia," The Vidette-Messenger 34(110):1, 14.
Washington Township
A. The 1882 History of Porter County, Indiana, states that (p. 178):
"A village of about one hundred or more Pottawatomie Indians
was situated near the present site of Prattville. Their burying-ground
was located on what is now Harmond Beach's orchard."
An inspection of the 1876 plat map for Washington Township published by A. G. Hardesty, shows that Harmond Beach's orchard, and thus the Native American burial ground, is located in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 21, Township 35 North, Range 5 West. No evidence of the Indian burial ground exists today.
Source Citations:
Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Lake
and Porter, Indiana: Historical and Biographical. Chicago, Illinois:
F. A. Battey and Company. 771 p.
Hardesty, A. G. 1876. Illustrated Historical Atlas of Porter County,
Indiana. Valparaiso, Indiana: A. G. Hardesty. 90 p.
"A village of about one hundred or more Pottawatomie Indians
was situated near the present site of Prattville. Their burying-ground
was located on what is now Harmond Beach's orchard."
An inspection of the 1876 plat map for Washington Township published by A. G. Hardesty, shows that Harmond Beach's orchard, and thus the Native American burial ground, is located in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 21, Township 35 North, Range 5 West. No evidence of the Indian burial ground exists today.
Source Citations:
Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Lake
and Porter, Indiana: Historical and Biographical. Chicago, Illinois:
F. A. Battey and Company. 771 p.
Hardesty, A. G. 1876. Illustrated Historical Atlas of Porter County,
Indiana. Valparaiso, Indiana: A. G. Hardesty. 90 p.
Westchester Township
A. The Bailly Cemetery is located approximately three-quarters of a mile north of
the Joseph Bailly Homestead in Westchester Township, at the base of a sand
ridge in the center of the northeast quarter of Section 27 [click
here for detailed historical information concerning Bailly Cemetery]. It is the oldest
white burial ground in Porter County. It has been recorded that Joseph Bailly buried his son,
Napoleon B. "Robert" Bailly, here in
1827. It has also been recorded that Native Americans first used the site for
the burial of their dead. Though skeletons have been uncovered at the cemetery
site on numerous occasions, they have always been reburied without a
determination of their race. Hence, it has not been conclusively determined
whether the Bailly Cemetery was originally a sacred Indian burial ground.
B. An Native American burial ground is located just to the west of the now nonexistent village of City West in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 14, Township 37 North, Range 6 West. City West was laid out along the south-easterly shore of Lake Michigan, at, or just south of, the mouth of Fort Creek. The pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park is located just east of where the village was located. City West competed with Michigan City for federal funds to be used for the construction of a port, but did not gain the support of Congress and slowly became depopulated. All the structures in City West were destroyed by a lightening-ignited wildfire in 1854. Timothy H. Ball, a resident of City West as a young boy, provides a firsthand account of a Native American burial ground adjacent to City West in his book concerning the history of Northwest Indiana in the 1800s:
"On a sand knoll, between the village and the lake, on the bank
of the creek, there was an Indian burial ground of some size, the
marks or inscriptions on the head-boards seeming to have been
painted with Indian puccoon root. Here the villagers did not bury;
this sacred spot they did not disturb. Near this, in the summer and
fall, some Indian encampments were held; the Indians being quiet,
peaceable hunting parties, one party at least having come down
Lake Michigan from Green Bay, if the information imparted to the
villagers was correct."
Hardesty's history of Porter County, published in 1876, also mentions the Native American burial ground located near City West:
"Old City West, an Indian barricade at the time this country was
first known to the whites, and now used as a summer resort by many,
is the oldest point in this county entitled to the name of a town. Mr.
Joseph C. Morgan was at an Indian burial at this place in 1838. It
was the funeral of a squaw, wife of the principal chief. The
ceremonies consisted of speaking, singing, dancing and a sacred
feast of well-baked venison."
McAllister's archaeological report of Porter County mentions the Native American Burial ground near City West, stating that:
"...at a place known as 'grave-yard' blow-out, a number of
people have found skeletal material, including vertebra with
arrow embedded in the bone."
C. McAllister's archaeological report of Porter County also reports the existence of a Native American burial ground located in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 1, Township 37 North, Range 6 West, which is approximately 500 feet southwest of the entrance to St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery from South Calumet Road. McAllister's report states that:
"According to W. Lahyn [William LaHayn] and A. J. Bouser [Arthur
J. Bowser] this mound was formerly 6 feet high and 80 feet in
diameter. It is now little more than 1.5 feet high, though still
retaining much of its symmetry. It has been dug into a number
of times, skeletal material and many relics being found. The
mound has been farmed over and is now planted in alfalfa. Only
flint chips were found at the time of the present survey."
D. A Native American burial mound once stood between Morgan Lake and Billington Lake on the line between Sections 5 and 6, Township 36 North, Range 5 West. Today, the mound is completely obliterated and Sand Creek Drive traverses the site. The mound is thought to have stood about one to two hundred feet north of the north parking lot at Sand Creek Country Club. McAllister mentions this mound in his survey of archaeological sites in of Porter County:
"It was reported by Ed Morgan that there were formerly three
mounds on his father's farm. He estimates that they were
about 12 feet in diameter and approximately 2 feet high.
They were excavated by the Morgans in 1893, but only
skeletal material was found....Two slight elevations indicates
where they stood. The soil is a sandy loam. Burned stone and
flint flakes were found on the surface. Large oak trees grown
on and near the site."
E. When a Wagner Road (County Road 50 West) was being constructed to connect with the Dunes Highway (US Route 12) north of the town of Porter, seven complete skeletons were said to have been removed, though no artifacts were reported to be found with the skeletal remains. These Native American burials were found just west of Wagner Road and south of the Dunes Highway, or more specifically in the northeast corner of the northeast corner of the northwest corner of Section 26, Township 37 North, Range 6 West. The land on which the skeletal remains were found was, at the time of discovery, owned by Benjamin and Clara Lehman.
Source Citations:
Ball, Timothy H. 1900. Northwestern Indiana From 1800 to 1900: A
View of Our Region Through the Nineteenth Century. Chicago,
Illinois: Donohue & Henneberry. 570 p.
Bowers, John O. 1929. "Dream Cities of The Calumet," in (pp. 174-
198) History of Lake County. Volume 10. Gary, Indiana: Lake
County Historical Association (Calumet Press). 223 p.
Bringelson, Dawn, and Jay T. Sturdevant. 2007. An Archeological
Overview and Assessment of Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore, Indiana. Technical Report No. 7. Lincoln,
Nebraska: US Department of the Interior, National Park
Service, Midwest Archeological Center. 160 p.
Clemenson, A. Berle, Kenneth W. Bennett, and Catherine H. Blee. 1976.
Historic Structure Report, Bailly Cemetery: Historical,
Architectural, and Archeological Data, Indiana Dunes
National Lakeshore, Indiana. United States Department of the
Interior, National Park Service, Historic Preservation Division.
Denver, Colorado: United States Department of the Interior. 85 p.
Hardesty, A. G. 1876. Illustrated Historical Atlas of Porter County,
Indiana. Valparaiso, Indiana: A. G. Hardesty. 90 p.
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. "The Archaeology of Porter County," Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
Nelson, C. W. 1949. The Bailly Cemetery. Manuscript in Reed Folder.
Porter, Indiana: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park. pp. 11-12.
Skinner, Hubert M. January 15, 1878. Complete History of Porter
County. Valparaiso, Indiana: Published by Author.
NOTE: If you have information that you like to add to this database, including corrections, then please contribute it to Steve Shook.
Native American Burial Ground data and report prepared by Steven R. Shook
B. An Native American burial ground is located just to the west of the now nonexistent village of City West in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 14, Township 37 North, Range 6 West. City West was laid out along the south-easterly shore of Lake Michigan, at, or just south of, the mouth of Fort Creek. The pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park is located just east of where the village was located. City West competed with Michigan City for federal funds to be used for the construction of a port, but did not gain the support of Congress and slowly became depopulated. All the structures in City West were destroyed by a lightening-ignited wildfire in 1854. Timothy H. Ball, a resident of City West as a young boy, provides a firsthand account of a Native American burial ground adjacent to City West in his book concerning the history of Northwest Indiana in the 1800s:
"On a sand knoll, between the village and the lake, on the bank
of the creek, there was an Indian burial ground of some size, the
marks or inscriptions on the head-boards seeming to have been
painted with Indian puccoon root. Here the villagers did not bury;
this sacred spot they did not disturb. Near this, in the summer and
fall, some Indian encampments were held; the Indians being quiet,
peaceable hunting parties, one party at least having come down
Lake Michigan from Green Bay, if the information imparted to the
villagers was correct."
Hardesty's history of Porter County, published in 1876, also mentions the Native American burial ground located near City West:
"Old City West, an Indian barricade at the time this country was
first known to the whites, and now used as a summer resort by many,
is the oldest point in this county entitled to the name of a town. Mr.
Joseph C. Morgan was at an Indian burial at this place in 1838. It
was the funeral of a squaw, wife of the principal chief. The
ceremonies consisted of speaking, singing, dancing and a sacred
feast of well-baked venison."
McAllister's archaeological report of Porter County mentions the Native American Burial ground near City West, stating that:
"...at a place known as 'grave-yard' blow-out, a number of
people have found skeletal material, including vertebra with
arrow embedded in the bone."
C. McAllister's archaeological report of Porter County also reports the existence of a Native American burial ground located in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 1, Township 37 North, Range 6 West, which is approximately 500 feet southwest of the entrance to St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery from South Calumet Road. McAllister's report states that:
"According to W. Lahyn [William LaHayn] and A. J. Bouser [Arthur
J. Bowser] this mound was formerly 6 feet high and 80 feet in
diameter. It is now little more than 1.5 feet high, though still
retaining much of its symmetry. It has been dug into a number
of times, skeletal material and many relics being found. The
mound has been farmed over and is now planted in alfalfa. Only
flint chips were found at the time of the present survey."
D. A Native American burial mound once stood between Morgan Lake and Billington Lake on the line between Sections 5 and 6, Township 36 North, Range 5 West. Today, the mound is completely obliterated and Sand Creek Drive traverses the site. The mound is thought to have stood about one to two hundred feet north of the north parking lot at Sand Creek Country Club. McAllister mentions this mound in his survey of archaeological sites in of Porter County:
"It was reported by Ed Morgan that there were formerly three
mounds on his father's farm. He estimates that they were
about 12 feet in diameter and approximately 2 feet high.
They were excavated by the Morgans in 1893, but only
skeletal material was found....Two slight elevations indicates
where they stood. The soil is a sandy loam. Burned stone and
flint flakes were found on the surface. Large oak trees grown
on and near the site."
E. When a Wagner Road (County Road 50 West) was being constructed to connect with the Dunes Highway (US Route 12) north of the town of Porter, seven complete skeletons were said to have been removed, though no artifacts were reported to be found with the skeletal remains. These Native American burials were found just west of Wagner Road and south of the Dunes Highway, or more specifically in the northeast corner of the northeast corner of the northwest corner of Section 26, Township 37 North, Range 6 West. The land on which the skeletal remains were found was, at the time of discovery, owned by Benjamin and Clara Lehman.
Source Citations:
Ball, Timothy H. 1900. Northwestern Indiana From 1800 to 1900: A
View of Our Region Through the Nineteenth Century. Chicago,
Illinois: Donohue & Henneberry. 570 p.
Bowers, John O. 1929. "Dream Cities of The Calumet," in (pp. 174-
198) History of Lake County. Volume 10. Gary, Indiana: Lake
County Historical Association (Calumet Press). 223 p.
Bringelson, Dawn, and Jay T. Sturdevant. 2007. An Archeological
Overview and Assessment of Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore, Indiana. Technical Report No. 7. Lincoln,
Nebraska: US Department of the Interior, National Park
Service, Midwest Archeological Center. 160 p.
Clemenson, A. Berle, Kenneth W. Bennett, and Catherine H. Blee. 1976.
Historic Structure Report, Bailly Cemetery: Historical,
Architectural, and Archeological Data, Indiana Dunes
National Lakeshore, Indiana. United States Department of the
Interior, National Park Service, Historic Preservation Division.
Denver, Colorado: United States Department of the Interior. 85 p.
Hardesty, A. G. 1876. Illustrated Historical Atlas of Porter County,
Indiana. Valparaiso, Indiana: A. G. Hardesty. 90 p.
McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1932. "The Archaeology of Porter County," Indiana
History Bulletin 10(1):1-96.
Nelson, C. W. 1949. The Bailly Cemetery. Manuscript in Reed Folder.
Porter, Indiana: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park. pp. 11-12.
Skinner, Hubert M. January 15, 1878. Complete History of Porter
County. Valparaiso, Indiana: Published by Author.
NOTE: If you have information that you like to add to this database, including corrections, then please contribute it to Steve Shook.
Native American Burial Ground data and report prepared by Steven R. Shook
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Rents are skyrocketing and it's not just the poorer classes that are getting displaced
5 worst cities to be a renter (unless you’re fabulously wealthy)
Topics:
AlterNet,
San Francisco,
Silicon Valley,
New York City,
rent,
housing prices, Business News, Life News, News
This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
The
housing market is supposedly recovering, yet the homeownership rate is
dropping. Meanwhile rents in urban areas were already high but now are
absolutely skyrocketing. What’s going on? As millions lost their homes
many of the houses were and are being bought up by large investors. And
what do these investors want? They want rent and lots of it. According
to a NY Times report, In Many Cities, Rent Is Rising Out of Reach of Middle Class,
“In December, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan declared ‘the worst
rental affordability crisis that this country has ever known.’ ”
Since
the Great Recession the squeeze on 99% of us has gotten much tighter.
What does this mean for people looking for a place to live? People used
to be able to buy a house and put down roots. But in most cities buying a
house is just out of the question for most people. Prices are back up
and climbing fast, while salaries and wages for most of us are stagnant
if not falling. So coming up with a down payment and qualifying for a
mortgage is beyond the reach of many city-dwellers.
And
now already-strapped home-buyers are competing with the big money. Many
of the houses that come up for sale are sold in “all cash” deals, which
means regular people are competing with “investors.” Because these
investors pay cash sellers know they don’t have to wait for a buyer to
get approved for a mortgage that could fall through.
In The Coming Nightmare of Wall Street-Controlled Rental Markets,
Rebecca Burns, Michael Donley and Carmilla Manzanet of In These Times
explain that investors have already purchased around 200,000
single-family houses to convert into rentals. And even as the “recovery”
takes hold, they write, “In the final months of 2013, the rate of
homeownership dipped to an 18-year low of
65.2 percent, down from a 69.4 percent peak prior to the 2007 financial
crisis, according to U.S. Census data.” These houses are not going to
homeownership, they are being turned into rentals – to be rented back to
the people who used to live in them. According to Stan
Humphries, the chief economist of Zillow, between 2007 and 2013 the
United States added, on net, about 6.2 million tenants, compared with
208,000 homeowners.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Lake Erie Toxic Water Linked To Fermi Nuclear Plant
By Yoichi Shimatsu
Exclusive to Rense
8-7-14
City officials in
Toledo, Ohio, have repealed their warning about drinking impure water
from Lake Erie even though toxic concentrations are not significantly
lower than in early August when a ban on tap water was imposed. That
advice against consuming even boiled tap water came after the
discovery of rising levels of poisonous compounds from a harmful type
of algae blooming in the lake.
The about-face in
public-health policy is the unfortunate outcome for a municipal
government that cannot feasibly supply bottled water for daily use by
400,000 area residents. Declaring lake water to be safe, however,
doesn’t make it any safer. Instead of facing up to the actual
causes of declining water quality, Toledo officials can only hope the
blue-green algae blooms will cease before voters start to keel over
with kidney damage and liver cancer.
Lake Erie’s water
is being contaminated by microcystin LR, a protein-based toxin
released by a harmful strain of cyano-algae (cyano is Greek for the
color blue and in this case unrelated to cyanide). The medical term
for microcystin poisoning, which induces headaches, fatigue and renal
damage, is the Caruaru syndrome, named after a Brazilian village
where inhabitants died after drinking contaminated water. Toxic
blooms can occur in tropical regions and semitropical south China but
are rare in temperate climes.
Convergence of
Interests
For many years,
activists with the local Beyond Nuclear movement have complained that
algae blooms on Lake Erie are caused by unnaturally high temperatures
from releases of wastewater used to cool Reactor 2 at the Enrico
Fermi nuclear plant.
Fermi’s
26-year-old Reactor 2 is a GE boiling water unit identical to two
reactors that melted down at Fukushima. This year’s abnormally cold
weather across the Midwest shows clearly that warm-water releases
from the Fermi facility are the only possible cause of heating in the
southern half of Lake Erie, as asserted by anti-nuclear activists..
Plant operator
Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE Corporation, claims the outflows
from Fermi 2 are in compliance with environmental regulations on lake
temperature. Any management admission of unreported hot-water
releases could ruin chances of regulatory approval of a planned
Reactor 3.
The Fermi facility
is located in Monroe County, Michigan, between Detroit and Toledo, at
the geographic center of the massive algae blooms along the western
and southern shores of Lake Erie. Satellite photos from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) show the lake water outside the
facility is clear, likely due to the fact that nothing grows in
overheated wastewater. Toward the west and east the lake is deeply
tinted aqua-green from algae.
Algae blooms with
the consistency of split pea soup is caused by two factors: the
warming of fresh water and introduction of dissolved phosphorus and
nitrogen fertilizer residues out of the mouth of the Maumee (Miami)
River in the Toledo area.
There is also
contamination at the political level. The confluence of agriculture
chemicals and nuclear wastewater is difficult to challenge because of
converging interests of agribusiness and nuclear energy. Detroit
Edison’s parent company DTE operates a political action committee
(PAC) that donates to the election campaigns of Ohio and Michigan
congressman, including House speaker John Boehner. The major promoter
of genetically modified corn and soybeans, Cargill, has an even
longer recipient list of Midwestern politicians. The smart money is
not e armarked for water purity.
Resurgent Blooms
From the 1960s until
the ‘80s, algae flourished in Lake Erie due to rising use of
phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer for soybeans and corn in the
Maumee watershed in eastern Indiana, northern Ohio and southern
Michigan. The expansion of agribusiness and the lucrative global
trade in grain through the Chicago commodities exchange were the
driving force for intensive farm output achieved by spreading
chemical fertilizers.
In the interval
between then and now, farming methods were radically altered to
lessen the effect of farm chemicals on water quality, resulting in
the disappearance of algae blooms for two decades. Untreated sewage
dumping into Lake Erie was also drastically reduced, belatedly
following the 1978 Clean Water Act.
In summer 2008,
however, cyano-algae started to reappear, and then three years later
a massive bloom blotted out the southern half of the lake shore.
Blue-green algae are photosynthetic and add oxygen to the water, but
after dying and rotting in huge quantities form a black sludge,
creating oxygen-starved dead zones.
The resurgence in
algae growth is baffling because agricultural use of phosphorus and
nitrogen are lower than in during historical high levels of the past.
Improved farming practices such as no-tillage and crop rotation have
lowered fertilizer application, on many farms by a third.
Concentration of chemical residuess is also prevented by the rapid
flow of water through shallow Erie, which has the shortest
water-retention period of any of the Great Lakes. It takes only two
years for inflows from the Maumee to exit out the N iagara River, and
then past the much-celebrated falls, into Lake Ontario.
Environmental
scientists attribute recent algae blooms to two trends: sediment from
heavy rainfall in spring 2011; and a higher ratio of dissolved
reactive phosphorus easily absorbed by algae as compared with
insoluble phosphates in fertilizer.
The Heat’s On
This year’s bloom
provides insights into the role of heat and isotopes from nuclear
power plants as stimulants for toxic algae growth. So far 2014 has
been one of 10 coldest years in Midwestern history. Water
temperatures in Lake Erie off Cleveland, northeast of Toledo, have
been slow to snap out of an unseasonably cold spring, rising to only
the Fahrenheit 50s in June and the 60s for most of July.
Algae, in contrast,
require water temperatures of 70-90 degrees F before rapid cell
division that multiplies their numbers.. This differential means that
hot-water flows out of Fermi must be raising surface temperatures by
10 to 15 degrees F, a huge jump considering the lake’s vast volume.
Radiation Spurs
Algae Growth
Blue-green algae are
biologically complex for single-cell plants due to their
photosynthetic capability, which uses sunlight for energy. Though
microscopic, algae are tiny engines that produce complex molecules
such as ethanol and fats that can be used to produced biofuel.
Their biochemical
complexity makes algae susceptible to radiation, especially in their
watery environment. As in the case of marine animals of the North
Pacific now being decimated by Fukushima radiation, very low
radioisotope concentrations in water can have a permanent effect on
species mortality. Algae respond to threats much like microorganisms,
by pushing cell division into overdrive. (In higher organisms,
increased cell division is expressed as gigantism.)
Among the many types
of uranium decay products that escape nuclear plants, one
radionucleotide produced in nuclear power plants has an especial
affinity for algae. Phosphorus-32 is extracted from nuclear reactors
for biological research into tracing the rate of uptake of phosphorus
in the vascular system of plants.
Phosphorus-32, a
beta-ray emitter, could have a role in triggering the formation of
algae blooms in Lake Erie by promoting mutation of their defense
mechanisms. Radiation with P-32 and other uranium products could be
favoring sub-species that produce mycrocystin LR over harmless types
of algae, thereby increasing the amount of toxin in Lake Erie.
Threat Fermi
Enrico Fermi nuclear
plant, named after the Italian-Jewish physicist who designed the
world’s first nuclear reactor known as Chicago Pile-1 and worked on
the Manhattan Project, has a history of serious technical breakdowns.
Fermi 1 was an early-model fast-breeder reactor, which had to
decommissioned due to frequent technical failures before it could
ever produce power on a commercial basis. Fermi-2, a GE Mark 1 unit,
suffered a major turbine failure on Christmas Day 1993, which
required lake water to be pumped into the hot w ell.
In June 2010, a
tornado on Lake Erie made a direct hit on the Fermi-2 reactor,
resulting in the downing of transmission lines and a power blackout
for 30,000 homes. While Detroit Energy reported no damage to the
reactor itself, the following year’s massive algae bloom could well
have been a consequence of emergency water pumping into and out of
the reactor building. Fermi-2 was again temporarily shut down in June
2012, that time by failures in the steam condenser system, a
situation similar to the “corrosion” (c over word for cracks) in
pipes that forced last year’s closure of Southern California
Edison’s San Onfre plant.
If, indeed
radioactive isotopes were released into Lake Erie, the consequences
for human health and the ecosystem could already be farther-ranging
than heat-caused algae blooms and biotoxins in drinking water.
Already, cancer rates around Erie are higher than the national
average. Citizen-based radiation monitoring is much needed for an
accurate threat assessment.
 |
| Japanese earthquake |
Erie provides water
to Cleveland and Buffalo, New York, in addition to Toledo and
Detroit, meaning a nuclear accident would devastate America’s
breadbasket and industrial heartland. Contamination could also reach
the Lake Ontario cities of Toronto, Canada, and Rochester, New York,
and even flow to Montreal. Enrico Fermi nuclear plant has been
described by Midwestern anti-nuke activists as “Fukushima on Lake
Erie.” As a researcher who works inside Japan’s nuclear exclusion
zone, all I can say is: One Fukushima is one too many.
Yoichi Shimatsu, a
Thailand-based science writer who conducts field research inside the
Fukushima exclusion zone, was the founder of one of the first modern
organic farms in the American Midwest and worked extensively in
Indiana agriculture.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Iraq’s Turmoil CreatesRefugee's, /Central America's children? Send them home!!
Iraq’s Turmoil ~~~~ America’s Response to Child Refugees
Refugees?..From Iraq?..Why not do with them as the TParty wants to do with the Central Americans children on out borders..ship them home..no matter the violence..Not In My backyard!!
During a press conference Saturday, President Obama maintained that he would not send combat troops into Iraq, but called on countries to help refugees on the run from the Sunni Al-Qaeda offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). As the crisis worsens in Iraq, internal displacement is becoming a more and more serious problem, while neighboring countries are also facing questions of what to do with those seeking refuge over the border.
Just this week alone, the rapid advance of ISIL forces in several cities of Iraq has forced the internal displacement of about 195,000 refugees, including adherents of the religious Yazidi sect, Palestinians, and Turkmen living in Iraq — a move that has sent neighboring countries and international agencies scrambling to accommodate the refugee crisis within Iraq.
“We feel confident that we can prevent ISIL from going up a mountain and slaughtering the people who are there,” Obama said, referring to the Yazidis, the most recent refugees caught up in ISIL’s wrath. “But the next step will be complicated logistically. How do we give safe passage for people coming down from the mountain and where can we relocate them so that they are safe. That is what we have to do internationally.”
To meet the need of refugees, this week, Turkish officials began building up a camp to house 20,000 ethnic Turkmen in Iraq’s Dahuk province (about 50 miles north of Mosul). A Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) official confirmed that while the camp was predominantly set up for the Turkmen minority, it would remain open to other nationalities fleeing violence. The AFAD official told Reuters, “There is no preparation right now for building a camp or camps inside Turkey for those coming from Iraq. There is no such need. There is no refugee exodus from Iraq, as was the case in Syria.”
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this week that it would increase aid for the 1.5 million refugees, noting that the stability of the Iraqi northern Kurdish province was “very important” since the region acts as a buffer zone for his country. Although Turkey sent thousands of tents and 200 trucks to Iraq, the country is also taking in some of these refugees. The Chicago Tribune noted that 150 Yazidis were placed in state-run facilities along Turkey’s Sirnak province and the city of Batman. Still, Turkey is already overwhelmed by about one million Syrian refugees — about 300,000 of whom live in state-run camps, and the half-million Iraqis displaced after the First Gulf War.
Overall, nearly 200,000 internally displaced people have fled away from major cities, like Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city captured by ISIL this week, with the greatest concentration of people fleeing towards the northern provinces of Dahuk, Erbil, and Kirkuk, and Sulaymaniyah, near Turkey. Between January and July, there were at least 1.2 million displaced refugees within Iraq. And in June, the United Nations upgraded Iraq’s crisis to a level 3 humanitarian disaster — the most severe rating it has.
In its attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate stretching from Syria to Iraq, ISIL has targeted, forcibly converted, or killed Iraqi minority religious groups including the Yazidis, Christians, Shi’a Muslims, and ethnic minorities like the Shabak and Turkmen. At least 40,000 Yazidi adherents have taken to the Sinjar Mountains, and reports indicate thousands of Christians fled Mosul (the second largest city in Iraq) after ISIL took over the city in June.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
America’s Response to Child Refugees
The media’s characterization of what’s going on at our southern border as a “crisis,” politicians pointing fingers at one another and Washington’s refusal to provide the resources necessary to care for a small wave of refugees — not to mention the bipartisan push to send them back home — is just as shameful when one considers the context.
Those
seething with so much rage and xenophobia that they’d hurl ugly epithets
in the faces of children fleeing bloody violence in Central America
bring shame to the whole nation. But the response of mainstream America
hasn’t been much better.
The media’s characterization of what’s going on at our southern border as a “crisis,” politicians pointing fingers at one another and Washington’s refusal to provide the resources necessary to care for a small wave of refugees — not to mention the bipartisan push to send them back home — is just as shameful when one considers the context.
In June, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in 2013, the global population of refugees from war and persecution hit 51.2 million — exceeding 50 million for the first time since World War II.
Half of them were children.
The vast majority were “internally displaced persons,” homeless people within their home countries. Many live in fetid refugee camps run by underfunded NGOs, where they face continuing privation and abuse.
There are over ten million refugees in Africa, and five million in Asia. More than six million people have been displaced for years, and in some cases decades. The UN estimates that 6.3 million people have been displaced in Syria alone.
The US has had a hand in this global crisis. According to the UNHCR, Afghanistan accounts for the world’s largest population of refugees; in Iraq, many of the two million people who fled the country after the US-led invasion in 2003 are now returning, despite the fact that many of its 1.7 million internally displaced citizens remain homeless, and more than one million new refugees have fled ISIS, or The Islamic State. Iraq has also absorbed about one million refugees from Syria.
Many countries with nowhere near the wealth or infrastructure of the United States have kept their borders open on humanitarian grounds, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. The BBC reported in June that “the UN is concerned that the burden of caring for refugees is increasingly falling on the countries with the least resources. Developing countries are host to 86% of the world’s refugees, with wealthy countries caring for just 14%.”
This immense global tragedy rarely even makes the evening news here. But step back and contrast those grisly statistics with what Americans are casually referring to as a “crisis.”
Of the world’s almost 12 million international refugees (and people living in what the UNHCR calls “refugee-like situations”), less than 400,000 – or three percent — are in Latin America.
In
recent years, 20,000 to 40,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at
our Southern border, and nobody paid much attention. This year, that
number is projected to exceed 60,000 — an estimated 36 percent of whom have a parent in this country — and that uptick is causing a national freakout.
It’s anything but a crisis. The US is not only one of the world’s wealthiest countries, we also have one of the lowest population densities in the developed world.
To the degree that there is a crisis on the Southern border, it’s one of our own making: Border Patrol has been overwhelmed by the spike in detainees, especially children, and Congress refuses to devote the modest resources required to care for them in a dignified way. (As economist Dean Baker pointed out, Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to address the spike in refugees — most of which would be spent sending them back to a bloodbath rather than caring for them — represents just one-tenth of 1 percent of the federal budget.)
This is not our finest hour.
Refugees?..From Iraq?..Why not do with them as the TParty wants to do with the Central Americans children on out borders..ship them home..no matter the violence..Not In My backyard!!
During a press conference Saturday, President Obama maintained that he would not send combat troops into Iraq, but called on countries to help refugees on the run from the Sunni Al-Qaeda offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). As the crisis worsens in Iraq, internal displacement is becoming a more and more serious problem, while neighboring countries are also facing questions of what to do with those seeking refuge over the border.
Just this week alone, the rapid advance of ISIL forces in several cities of Iraq has forced the internal displacement of about 195,000 refugees, including adherents of the religious Yazidi sect, Palestinians, and Turkmen living in Iraq — a move that has sent neighboring countries and international agencies scrambling to accommodate the refugee crisis within Iraq.
“We feel confident that we can prevent ISIL from going up a mountain and slaughtering the people who are there,” Obama said, referring to the Yazidis, the most recent refugees caught up in ISIL’s wrath. “But the next step will be complicated logistically. How do we give safe passage for people coming down from the mountain and where can we relocate them so that they are safe. That is what we have to do internationally.”
To meet the need of refugees, this week, Turkish officials began building up a camp to house 20,000 ethnic Turkmen in Iraq’s Dahuk province (about 50 miles north of Mosul). A Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) official confirmed that while the camp was predominantly set up for the Turkmen minority, it would remain open to other nationalities fleeing violence. The AFAD official told Reuters, “There is no preparation right now for building a camp or camps inside Turkey for those coming from Iraq. There is no such need. There is no refugee exodus from Iraq, as was the case in Syria.”
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this week that it would increase aid for the 1.5 million refugees, noting that the stability of the Iraqi northern Kurdish province was “very important” since the region acts as a buffer zone for his country. Although Turkey sent thousands of tents and 200 trucks to Iraq, the country is also taking in some of these refugees. The Chicago Tribune noted that 150 Yazidis were placed in state-run facilities along Turkey’s Sirnak province and the city of Batman. Still, Turkey is already overwhelmed by about one million Syrian refugees — about 300,000 of whom live in state-run camps, and the half-million Iraqis displaced after the First Gulf War.
Overall, nearly 200,000 internally displaced people have fled away from major cities, like Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city captured by ISIL this week, with the greatest concentration of people fleeing towards the northern provinces of Dahuk, Erbil, and Kirkuk, and Sulaymaniyah, near Turkey. Between January and July, there were at least 1.2 million displaced refugees within Iraq. And in June, the United Nations upgraded Iraq’s crisis to a level 3 humanitarian disaster — the most severe rating it has.
In its attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate stretching from Syria to Iraq, ISIL has targeted, forcibly converted, or killed Iraqi minority religious groups including the Yazidis, Christians, Shi’a Muslims, and ethnic minorities like the Shabak and Turkmen. At least 40,000 Yazidi adherents have taken to the Sinjar Mountains, and reports indicate thousands of Christians fled Mosul (the second largest city in Iraq) after ISIL took over the city in June.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
America’s Response to Child Refugees
The media’s characterization of what’s going on at our southern border as a “crisis,” politicians pointing fingers at one another and Washington’s refusal to provide the resources necessary to care for a small wave of refugees — not to mention the bipartisan push to send them back home — is just as shameful when one considers the context.
America’s Response to Child Refugees on the Border is Downright Shameful
July 11, 2014
In
this July 9, 2014 photo, Iraqi refugee children from Mosul stay at a
temporary camp for refugees who fled from Mosul and other towns outside
Irbil, northern Iraq, nearly a month after Islamic militants took over
the country's second largest city. (AP Photo)
The media’s characterization of what’s going on at our southern border as a “crisis,” politicians pointing fingers at one another and Washington’s refusal to provide the resources necessary to care for a small wave of refugees — not to mention the bipartisan push to send them back home — is just as shameful when one considers the context.
In June, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in 2013, the global population of refugees from war and persecution hit 51.2 million — exceeding 50 million for the first time since World War II.
Half of them were children.
The vast majority were “internally displaced persons,” homeless people within their home countries. Many live in fetid refugee camps run by underfunded NGOs, where they face continuing privation and abuse.
There are over ten million refugees in Africa, and five million in Asia. More than six million people have been displaced for years, and in some cases decades. The UN estimates that 6.3 million people have been displaced in Syria alone.
The US has had a hand in this global crisis. According to the UNHCR, Afghanistan accounts for the world’s largest population of refugees; in Iraq, many of the two million people who fled the country after the US-led invasion in 2003 are now returning, despite the fact that many of its 1.7 million internally displaced citizens remain homeless, and more than one million new refugees have fled ISIS, or The Islamic State. Iraq has also absorbed about one million refugees from Syria.
Many countries with nowhere near the wealth or infrastructure of the United States have kept their borders open on humanitarian grounds, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. The BBC reported in June that “the UN is concerned that the burden of caring for refugees is increasingly falling on the countries with the least resources. Developing countries are host to 86% of the world’s refugees, with wealthy countries caring for just 14%.”
This immense global tragedy rarely even makes the evening news here. But step back and contrast those grisly statistics with what Americans are casually referring to as a “crisis.”
Of the world’s almost 12 million international refugees (and people living in what the UNHCR calls “refugee-like situations”), less than 400,000 – or three percent — are in Latin America.
Refugees by continent, 2007-2011. (Source: World Bank calculations based on UNHRC data.)
It’s anything but a crisis. The US is not only one of the world’s wealthiest countries, we also have one of the lowest population densities in the developed world.
To the degree that there is a crisis on the Southern border, it’s one of our own making: Border Patrol has been overwhelmed by the spike in detainees, especially children, and Congress refuses to devote the modest resources required to care for them in a dignified way. (As economist Dean Baker pointed out, Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to address the spike in refugees — most of which would be spent sending them back to a bloodbath rather than caring for them — represents just one-tenth of 1 percent of the federal budget.)
This is not our finest hour.
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