Native American Historical & Sacred Religious Archaeological Sites on Elm Creek Area near U.S.-Mexico border to be destroyed by Dos Republicas Coal Mine
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2015
Native American tribes such as the Pacuache Clan of the Coahuiltecan Indian Tribe, based in San Antonio, Texas, and the Comanche Nation, based in Lawton, Oklahoma, have raised salient federal and state law issues concerning the destruction of documented Native American Historical and Sacred Religious Archaeological Sites located on Elm Creek and surrounding area within the permitted coal mine known as the Eagle Pass Mine owned by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership (DRCP) near Eagle Pass, Texas on the United States-Mexico border.
The Native American tribes have repeatedly advised and raised objections with the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers, Texas Historical Commission, and the U.S. Department of the Interior that the Dos Republicas Coal Mine will destroy actual and documented existing Native American Historical and Sacred Religious Archaeological Sites within or near the permitted open surface coal mine boundaries near Elm Creek, which is a direct water tributary of the Rio Grande River, but their federally protected legal rights to preserve their historical and sacred religious archaeological sites have been stomped and denied by Texas oil and gas and coal mining-friendly state agencies such as the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Many thousands of years ago and as recently as a hundred years ago, the Elm Creek area and the Rio Grande River in Maverick County, Texas was a beautiful green oasis-like paradise for Native Americans who inhabited the region with plentiful of fishing, hunting, and gathering of foods or crops to support large tribes or clans. These Native Americans which included Paleo Indians, Coahuiltecans, Comanches, Apaches, Karankawas, Kickapoos, and other tribes roamed and traveled the fertile and rich Elm Creek and Rio Grande River areas, leaving behind their Native American artifacts, sacred burial grounds, campsites, religious grounds, tools, pots, blankets, arrowheads, spears, and other archaeological artifacts buried on the land and banks of Elm Creek, Rio Grande River, and surrounding areas.
One Native American tribal advocate whom has tirelessly raised her ancestors’ historical and sacred religious archaeological sites before the deafening Texas state agencies as the Railroad Commission and TCEQ and the federal U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers has been Maria (Mary) Torres, Tribal Chairwoman of the Pacuache Clan of Texas of the Coahuiltecan Indian Tribe from San Antonio, Texas. The pro-energy industry state and federal agencies have denied her party status and/or failed to legally protect her constitutional and federal rights regarding her tribe’s precious Native American historical and sacred religious archaeological sites.
“The Dos Republicas Coal Mine has already destroyed some of my ancestors’ archaeological sites within the permit boundary and will completely destroy the remaining sacred religious sites which have been documented by independent archaeologists if the coal mine permit is not repealed or reversed by law,” said Chief Maria Torres. “Our tribe will continue to fight and protect our legal rights under federal and state laws to preserve our Native American historical and sacred religious archaeological sites despite the Texas state agencies’ denial of our pleas and claims,” said Chief Maria Torres.
The locally based Native American tribe, Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, also was an ardent advocate for the preservation of Native American archaeological sites at the coal mine until their Tribal Council surreptitiously withdrew from contesting the Dos Republicas Coal Mine in May of 2012. Recently, individual Kickapoo tribal members have surfaced to object and renew their legal rights to protect and preserve their federally-mandated Native American historical and sacred religious archaeological sites despite their Tribal Council’s continued silence on the issue.
Recently, on August 27, 2015 the Comanche Nation Business Committee, similar to a Tribal Council, from Lawton, Oklahoma approved a resolution against Dos Republicas Coal Mine and its future expansion based on the destruction of its tribal historical and sacred religious archaeological sites within the mine’s permit boundary and surrounding area. The Comanche Nation is seeking party status and to be consulted with by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regional Environmental Impact Statement of the Dos Republicas Coal Mine, which seeks to expand in the future up to 25,000 acres from its present 6,300 acres.
Former U.S. Environmental and Protection Agency (EPA) employee and Eagle Pass resident, Dr. Jonathan Hook, a Cherokee Tribal member, is also seeking for the state and federal agencies respect and adhere to federal laws protecting Native American historical and sacred religious archaeological sites within the Dos Repbulicas Coal Mine site.
One particular archaeological study conducted during February and March of 1992 of the Dos Republicas Coal Mine site by University of Texas at San Antonio archaeologists found 27 previously unrecorded archaeological sites and findings from a 1981 excavation study which was re-examined within the mine site or surrounding areas near Thompson Road (FM 1588) in northern Maverick County. The research study was done by scientists from the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) of The University of Texas at San Antonio as part of a Phase II intensive archaeological survey (http://car.utsa.edu/CARResearch/Publications/ASRFiles/201-300/ASR%20No.%20215_redacted.pdf) for Marston and Marston, Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri, on a 1,092.69 hectares (2,700 acres) tract of land in Maverick County, Texas. Dos Republicas Resources Company, Inc., a predecessor company to Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, applied for an open surface coal strip mining permit for the studied property with the Railroad Commission of Texas. As part of the permit application, an archaeological study was required and conducted under the Texas Historical Commission, Department of Antiquities Protection .
The Survey principal investigator for UTSA’s CAR was Jack D. Eaton, Acting Director. Herbert G. Uecker, technical staff assistant, and a field crew of five archaeologists including Maureen Brown, Nora DeLaO, Kevin Gross, Clinton M. M. McKenzie, and Gorden K. Wright.
The UTSA archaeologists discovered “54 archaeological sites found within the Dos Republicas Project permit area during the 1992 survey and the 1981 excavation presented 33 sites examined by CAR during the Phase II investigations, two were not able be cleared of further requirements until additional information was obtained and reviewed by the Texas Historical Commission (THC) –Department of Archaeological Preservation (DAP) and the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT). Eleven (11) more sites warranted the performance of future work either in the form of initial shovel testing, additional shovel testing, or intensive subsurface testing to determine (1) extent and content of cultural deposits, (2) eligibility for designation as a state archaeological landmark and/or (3) eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.”
The UTSA archaeological study recommended that ” 24 of the EHA sites warranted future work, initially in the form of relocation and shovel testing. The total amount of additional work to be performed on the latter will depend upon the results of the initial shovel tests, the recommendations of the archaeological contractor performing the tests, and of the THC-DAP and the RCT thus, further archaeological work is recommended herein on a total of 37 sites.”
The UTSA study found that ” cultural affiliations to the area being searched a variety of indigenous tribes including the Late Paleo-Indian, Middle-to-Late Archaic, Late Prehistoric, and Historic periods.”
A significant finding of the UTSA study was the discovery of eight (8) sites that were found to be particularly important enough to be potentially listed in the National Register of Historic Places or designation as state archaeological landmarks. After review of the results of the investigation by the project sponsors, the Texas Historical Commission, Department of Antiquities Protection, and the Railroad Commission of Texas, 29 additional sites within the Dos Republicas coal mine permit area were deemed worthy of future work. A general research outline for future work and comprehensive environmental, historical, and cultural contexts for the area investigated were also presented.
During the testing portion of the survey, the UTSA archaeologists examined previous documented sites and found that at least two of those sites had very well preserved cultural deposits of substantial depth and therefore were recommended for future studies.
During the investigative process, the UTSA scientists recommended another seven sites within the coal mining area were found to have enough evidentiary substance which then resulted in limited backhoe testing. Another important assessment that was categorized during the survey was that of the types of botanical species and animal life observed that were also detailed in past studies and reports used during the 1992 survey as reference.
“Although details have yet to be determined, there is virtually no doubt that similar ecotones existed during prehistory and were preferred living sites of humans and of many other animals as well (cf. Hester 1971:3-9, 1976a:85, 1976b:2,5-8, 1981:123-125; Hester and Hill 1975:20).”
Another facet of the report is a detailed rundown of previous archaeological reports prior to the 1992 survey derived from a group of systematic cultural resource studies undertaken from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s in the Central Western Texas/Rio Grande Plains regions, including Maverick County which had 173 Archaeological sites documented.
Of the many sites observed and marked for recommendation of possible future detailed excavation and survey, eight sites were deemed most significant from the others due to the quality and important artifacts found at the sites, evidencing humans living in the area.
Many evidentiary specimens were collected and specifically detailed in approximately 54 sites within the Dos Republicas Coal Project 5 year permit boundary under Diagnostic Surface Artifacts, including dart points or dart point fragments, arrow points or arrow point preforms, hearth remnants, scrapping tool, scalars, large preform, perforators , bifacial and unifacial clear fork tools, Guadalupe tool fragments, whiskey bottle neck, metal comal handle, metal cap and knife fragments, ceramic fragments, metal harmonica reed fragment, centerfire and rimfire cartridges, metal spoon fragment, among other fragments as well.
The UTSA report further states that virtually all the prehistoric sites were open camps located on alluvial terraces or levees adjacent to either Elm Creek or unnamed tributaries of Elm Creek. Apparently, the prehistoric floodplain sites were the primary occupation and tool-finishing areas since most of the projectile points and other time-diagnostic or bifacial stone tools were found at those sites.
“Eight of the 33 sites examined by UTSA archaeologists during Phase II were particularly significant.” Three individual numbered sites were considered to be at one point a large site. Other sites included a burned-rock midden alluvial site, a fossil floodplain site among other designated sites that were marked and in which evidentiary specimens were then collected.
The UTSA report concludes that although many archaeological sites had been discovered and recorded within the Southwest Texas/Rio Grande Plains areas prior to the UTSA CAR Dos Republicas Project investigation, that only a few had been comprehensively investigated and that within Maverick County and the Eagle Pass Dos Republicas Coal Partnership project area no formal archaeological studies had been done.
“Except for the 1981 EHA survey, none had focused on prehistoric archaeological sites situated along tributaries several kilometers from the Rio Grande. Thus, a major supposition of the following recommendations was that in the early 1990s, there was a dearth of information on sites such as those located within the Dos Republicas permit boundary.”
The UTSA report recommendations further state that the archaeological sites investigated are more than probable a representation of a unique cultural manifestation within Texas archaeology as a whole.
“A third major premise of the recommendations given is that in spite of the impact of
both natural and modern artificial disturbances, important information on past human cultures can probably still be gleaned from the types of sites under consideration here.”
Once the dust settled and the archaeological testing had ceased, findings under the survey deemed further review and searches of the area would be necessary. A grouping of valid and educated hypothesis arose from the query. “The fact that mining operations (especially at strip mines) frequently totally destroy the integrity and context of cultural resources; and the fact that all of the significant archaeological sites found by CAR during Phase II of the Dos Republicas Project investigations are within or near the primary mining impact zones; it was recommended that comprehensive cultural resource investigations of the following Dos Republicas Project sites, as described herein, be undertaken prior to any mining activities or other future artificial disturbances within the permit boundary.” states the 23 year old UTSA study by CAR.
The report goes on to give a descriptive recommendation of the type of studies and problems that would be faced in the undertaking of any future queries.
Representatives of various, Native American Tribes have fought, tooth and nail , adamantly voicing their concerns over the destruction of relics and sacred grounds to the Texas Railroad Commission, Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, Army Corps of Engineers and all has fallen on deaf ears, making the valid assumption that evidence under this survey was not heeded to thus not allowing due process for a more in-depth investigation into the findings including the many sites that could be viable for archaeological preservation, eligibility for designation as a state archaeological landmark and/or, eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under the National Historic Preservation Act Sec. 106 Process.
Dr. Jonathan Hook, a Cherokee Indian, stated that ”The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must follow policy related to federally recognized tribes and the policy is very specific and it says that before and from the beginning of any project that could impact lands of interest to federally recognized tribes, those tribes must be consulted and we can find no record of consultation/dialogue taking place with the federally recognized tribes involved with the Dos Republicas coal mining effort at all.”
“As far as we know that consultation process was never inaugurated or completed and tribes that are federally recognized have a great interest in this area, the Comanche, the Tonkawa, Mescalero Apache and certainly the two tribes that have been recognized by the State of Texas, the Coahuiltecans and the Lipan Apaches. They all had a strong presence in this area and many other tribes traveled through the area. My tribe, the Cherokee, had many people travel through this area. Many tribes historically have an interest in this area. As far as we know, none of them have ever been consulted, regarding the potential destruction of these Native American historical and sacred religious archaeological sites by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in their process,” said Dr. Hook.
Dr. Hook requested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the current coal mining permit be suspended and that they uphold to their obligatory duty of conducting the proper process of consultation with tribes and the completion of the National Historic Preservation Act Sec. 106 Process at the A.C.E. hearing process held in Eagle Pass, TX on August 10,2015.
Maria Torres, Tribal Chairwoman of the Pacuache Clan of Coahuiltecan Tribe of Texas, has challenged the Dos Republicas coal mining project due to the destruction of over 100 Native American religious, sacred, and burial archaeological sites within the open pit coal mine boundary line. “It will destroy the sites and our religious practices and activities will be lost forever,” said Chief Torres.
Unique and precious Native American and U.S. historical and sacred religious archaeological sites are unquestionably being destroyed by the preparation and opening of the Dos Republicas Coal Mine as documented by the UTSA study. Once it is destroyed, that valuable historical site and artifacts will be lost forever.
