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By SARAH A;

- ZIMMERMAN

ORE

lineage of the.
Nisga’a people
has been unearthed from an

ancient burial ground in the -

tiny community of Lakal-

At least three skulls and

the remains of about six in-_

dividuals ‘were inadvertent-

ly discovered. while. work’

.crews' were completing road

- reconstruction work in a

residential area of the small .

Nass Valley community also

_ known as Greenville.

The human remains,

found Aug. 12; are believed

to stem from an ancient
burial ‘site that was first un-

~ covered in 1981, while con-

struction crews then were

working on a housing devel-
opment, says: village chief —

councillor Willard Martin.
The Nass. Valley RCMP
and a coroner were called to

the scene to investigate the
latest discovery, says Nass’

Valley-Lissims RCMP Cor-
poral Cari Lougheed.

“What the coroner did is
took detailed photographs
of the bones and forwarded
them to an archaeological
professional and made the

’, determination that they were

archeological in nature,”
says Lougheed, adding the
find didn’t come as a big

surprise. *
“T think when they were
‘Starting the construction

they were anticipating this
because of the find in the
80s.” :

That find in 1981 led to
‘detailed,examinations of the
site during the summers of.
1982: and 1983. Archeolo-
gists from the Canadian Mu-
sem, of Civilization, with
the permission of the-Lakal-
zap band council and help
from Lakalzap _ residents,

unearthed the burial ground .

and carefully , catalogued
their findings.
The results of the study

were published in detail in _

a book called A Greenville
Burial-Ground: Human Re-
mains and Mortuary -Ele-
ments in British Columbia

proof
“of. the: ancient .

RESEARC CHERS and f residents from Greenville excavate in the 1980s.

o
nn

Coast Prehistory written .

_ by Dr. Jerome Cybulski,..a

physical anthropologist.
After two summers of .

careful excavation the. re-

mains of 57 individuals, 231

artifacts and 19,389: pieces . Bagg

of non-human bone were -
found. -
The burial site consisted
of an older layer of remains

'. dating back to between 566-

1010 AD with the other dat-

_ing to 1180-1290 AD, says °

Cybulski.
Two years later another

two skeletal remains were

found and added to the data.

And again in 1995 other re-

mains were found.

The bones found>in Au- —

gust of this year are believed
to have come from:the same

- ancient burial ‘site, though -

archeologists have not re-
turned to Greenville to ex-
amine the bones.

Cybulski, ‘now the cura-
tor of physical anthropology
at the Canadian Museum of
Civilization, “is ‘excited to’
hear of the most recent find. °

, I feel I should jump on
a plane and go to Green-
ville,” he says, adding he
has fond memories of work-
ing in Greenville alongside
residents of the village more

. than 25 years ago.

“The people of Green-
ville were just fantastic, the
people were so nice and so
sweet and so interested.”

- The Greenville burial
ground is important scien-
tifically for a number of rea-
sons — its age, its contents |
and its location.

“The Greenville site was _
exciting because it we didn’t
expect to finda shell midden
that far up t river,” says Cy-
bulski.

A, midden refers to what
some anthropologists call.
ancient garbage dumps. On”
the west .coast many mid-
dens contained a high quan-

‘tity of shells, stemming from

a diet consisting in large part
of clams. Over time, the

* shells, disposed of in the

same spot, would become
large mounds. _

“These sites become sa-
cred sites after a while,” ex-

plains Cybulski, adding the | :
‘and. then people brought

Site is significant because

most
found on the coast, not as far

GREENVILLE. RESIDENTS Monica McKay and ‘Sherry Clark help with the excava--
“ « \ PHOTO COURTESY CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION .

tion in the early 1980s.

"PHOTO COURTESY CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION’

i

“Ancient burial ground yields more bones i in | Greenville

‘shell = middens ©
inland as Greenville.

“You don’t collect shells
that far up river, so they
had to be collected from the
coast,” he says, adding the
shells must have been trans-
ported somehow from the
coast for some reason.

“The elders will

meet again to
discuss how to re-
inter these most
recent bones,”

-Willard Martin’

_Cybulski, who has stud-
ied mortuary remains all
along the west coast and in
the Prince Rupert harbour,

says the shell middens tra- |
- ditionally indicated that a

semi-permanent village had
once been located at .the

‘sites. In time, the villages
were abandoned and sub--
. Sequent generations would

return to them to bury their

dead because they’d become

sacred places.

That just might explain,

the two layers. of skeletal
remains found in the same

_ area despite being separated

by hundreds of years:

“T think ‘that's a sign of —

abandonment of occupation

are |

them: back to the’ burial
ground,” says Cybulski.

- The site is also important
because it shines important
information on mortuary
practices of people ‘in: the’
Nass prior to European con-
tact.

The dating of the Green-,
ville find is also ‘important
because it is the only signifi-
cant mortuary site that dates
back to what’s called the late
development stage of pre-
European contact, dating
back to’ about. 500 AD.

And it showed that many .

of the dead were buried in—

boxes which may have been
used as food storage boxes.
Some of the remains

found in the 1980s showed —

full skeletal remains, folded.
up in the. fetal position bur-
ied in a small square box
which contained evidence of
elderberry seeds.

. “We know the dead were
gotten rid of as soon as pos-
sible, so you would take
whatever containers might
be available rather than con-
structing new coffins which
would take. time,” Cybulski

explains.

“The idea is to get rid. of
the body as soon as possible
for ritual reasons and cultur-
al reasons.’

Further study of the re-
mains showed that some of
the female remains showed

JOANNE CURTIN excavates burial number 18 from the burial ground discovered in 1983 in Greenville. She is
PHOTO COURTESY CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION

extracting seeds from the site.

r

‘wear on their lower teeth in- _
dicating they had worn a la- -

bret, or a lower lip piercing.
“They were worn by
women not only in the Nass

-but on‘Haida Gwaii and in —

the Prince Rupert region and
the lower Skeena,” said Cy-
bulski, adding the piercings
were a wide spread practice.

“We know from the de-
Scriptions that the hole was

made in the lower lip at pu- .

'berty and small little plugs
were placed in the lip and

larger spool- like affairs were ,

put into the lower lip later.”

Cybulski says the most
recent find. could be very
‘significant in terms of pro-
viding more information
about how people lived in
the region hundreds of years -
ago.

“One of the. things that
would be really nice to do
with the Greenville remains
that we really couldn’t do in
the 1980s is stable isotope
analysis,” he says.

That’s a process whereby

Scientists can study the diet .

of: people and allows scien-
tists to look at variation of
diet over time. _. ,

. Other technological ad-
vances available today that
weren't. available
1980s involve mitochondri-

al DNA analysis using the

teeth enamel and comparing

. them to DNA swabs taken .
from people living in .the

area today. °

Cybulski hasn’t yet been
‘in touch with the village

government in Greenville
but says he believes there

_ could be some benefit in tak-
- ing a closer look at the re-
“mains found this summer. ~

“I'd like to see the re-
mains studied Properly,” he
says.

_ “A good look at the area,

if there ‘are more remains in

that. area that are going to be
disrupted and-do. what we

s - did before — a careful exca-
vation, a careful study and re -

interment and reburial.”
Chief Councillor Willard

‘Martin says in the 1980s:

village elders gathered to
decide how to re-inter the

remains and they were re-
buried after the study: was |

completed.

“The elders will meet
again to discuss how to
re-inter these most recent
bones,” he said.

The bones were returned
to the Greenville village
government. No reburial has

. yet taken place.

in the’

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - A5

ee

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD °
The Mail Bag

_

Fish study needed

Dear Sir:

_ The chairman of Friends of Wild Salmon’ s recent let-
ter to the editor saying that studies back disease from fish
farms affecting. wild salmon is true.

Andrew williams then goes on to say that other letters
critical of his statements on fish farms are not worthy of
a serious reply.

What happened to debating - issues. that are worthy of
further discussions? Before some of us even write on the
issue of fin fish farms, and publicly protest, we have to
study the issues and read reports.

money and we will continue to do so.

Those of us who have declared openly to save the wild
salmon over the years believe in honesty, integrity. ‘and
» truth and are-not fanatically partisan.

Trying to save the wild salmon is not for any political

not be spokespersons for wild salmon. They should seri-
ously consider a name change to Coalition Against Fish
Farms.

Saving the wild salmon from diseases fish farms create
also means saving the wild salmon of all species along the
spawning grounds in the Skeena River.

land commercial fishing for profit with seine nets. Jet boats
change the whole concept of Friends of Wild Salmon.

“damn. There are sick fish in the Skeena, fish floating by
‘on their backs, smoits smashed against the river banks.

Inland commercial -fishing has quotas. There doesn’ t
. seem to be any monitoring, just set quotas and do as you
“please. |

Food, ceremonial and social fishing that are: under the
laws of Canada were not considered and a lot of families
for commercial fishing within the spawning grounds.

can get. for money.

has taken over. You can’t eat money.

few with the governments of, Canada and British Colum-
- bia has to be drastically changed and reviewed. °

' chosen few, and whose who are in the corporate world. ;
Mary Dalen,

_Kitimat bites the hand _

Dear Sir:
the new power deal between the province and Alcan want
Kitimat to shut down.

The world is flat. The province can n then take over. Ke-
mano. Former NDP Premier-Mike Harcourt did half of
the Kemano Completion Days.

This will be followed by, a big lawsuit over the com-

pensation. You who opposed the latest deal like lawsuits,
it seems. Stop fighting the mouth that feeds you. .

Stop shooting the bears

Dear Sir:
It was disgusting to read in The Terrace Standard that

" them was a female with three little cubs. There also i isa
rumour that a Kermode had been destroyed.
been very slow learners in town. - °

berries in-the bush. Everything i is dried up so the bears
are hungry.

cues and fruit trees, naturally it will attract a hungry bear.

for that they get killed.
“What on Earth is the matter with the people?”

fering help if somebody cannot look after the fruit trees.
. teach kids about it.
teach their parents, which obviously i is very necessary.

will take care of it. They did alright — the bears got shot.
That makes one wonder what mentality they have, as

ing tourism. When tourists come here, .all of them would
bears, there won’t be any around. much longer.
lumbia.

Ortrud Buschmamn,
‘Terrace, B.C.

_ Story delights reader

Dear Sir:

glyph rubbings to the Kitselas Indain Band. :
and knew of their finds,at Ringbolt Island.
news in your newspaper.

and wish to be remembered through your pages to the
_Tany friends Thad there. .

“About the. Mail Bag

is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G 5R2. You can
fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us’ at newsroom@
terracestandard.com. No attachments, please. Name,

address and phone number required for verification.

Our work is'volunteer and is done on our own time and a

The coastal commercial fishermen who only fish on -
certain days and times to allow the fish to come up to'their
spawning grounds on the Skeena River are met with in- .-

~The Skeena River is fished out and ‘no one gives a -

T believe the environment of the wild salmon i in the __
. Skeena River has been destroyed for money and money, 7

‘T suppose those of who i in the NDP who want to kill i
that with the closure of the second tunnel going back to

- Graham Wright,
Delta, B. C. :

Every year we have the same problem. People have 7
-been warned over and over again. It seems like we have ae

This year with having such a dry season there are no.

~ Don’t they have any feelings at all? Put 1 into "
_ that position. What would you do when you are hungry? oe
There is the Bear Aware program in town whichis of-.° . °
- So why not take advantage of i it. ‘They are even offering | to.
I think.it is an excellent idea, as the kids j in return, will

, Unfortunately the town is not interested. They said they.

they do not waste any time advertising bears ‘and promot- |

What a shame. So much for >t Super Natural British Co-

As a resident and teacher in Terrace for B years now : oe
living i in White Rock, B.C., I would like to congratulate — —
you on your report of Walt MacIntrye’s' gift of the petro- _

I knew Walt and Dave Walker well as fellow teachers ;

It was-very interesting for me to be able to read this .

Ken Morton, .
White Rock, B.C.

The Ter race Standard welcomes letters. Our address;

party so it can muster up votes at election time with the .-
placards reading ‘Vote for Wild Salmon’ and they should -

_ did not get their food fish this year as every area was used , -

It is not take what you need anymore it is take what you .

. The whole i issue of the agreements made to the: chosen 7

When it comes to these agreements, made, it is for the ,

+ Cedarvale, B.C. |.

57 bears have been destroyed in the Terrace aréa. One of © °

And when people are sloppy with their garbage, barbe: a

They do what comies natural to them, looking for food and, , y

like to see a bear, but at the rate this town is destroying the

T still have very. fond memories of my days in Terrace a