July 2, 2000

Indian Movement Off Base About Little Salt Spring

Once again, that group of itinerant part-Indians at St. Petersburg has descended upon little North Port to protest anthropological research.

Five years ago the target was Warm Mineral Springs in which 8,000- year-old human and animal bones were found.

This time it is Little Salt Spring a couple of miles away in a secluded copse of trees. The University of Miami has been working there for six years. No bones have been found, but there may be an ancient muck-burial site near by. There are no plans to dig.

I visited Little Salt in 1995 and was briefed on the methodology employed and the findings. I was able to report in my companion column, “Our Fascinating Past,” that the exploration was significant and the site treated professionally – which means with due regard for science and dignity.

The Warm Mineral Spring protest was without merit, in my opinion, and the recent demonstration against Little Salt Spring was no different. Consequently, what I wrote editorially then still applies.

* * *

Leading the demonstration were two AIM members hand-carrying a loose upside-down American flag on which Indian civil-rights dates were scrawled.

If AIM expects support for its aims, its members had better show respect for the American Flag. It is sacred.

The “Code of Etiquette for Display of the U.S. Flag” specifies: “The flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. It should never be displayed with the union down save as a distress signal. When carried, it never should be displayed flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free on a staff. The flag never should be used for advertising purposes nor have placed upon it any word, design or drawing.”

Most Americans are revolted by use of the flag for protesting. One can express opposition without desecrating the primary symbol of a nation that allows free expression.

Let us assume that AIM is ignorant of flag etiquette and move on to the issue said to be at hand – Indian burials.

The 87-degree spring of mineral-laden water has been thoroughly explored by underwater archeologists. They say Warm Mineral Spring was formed about 12,000 years ago when underground water leached out a cavern which collapsed.

That created a sink hole so noticeable in Florida landscape -- including many in the area around Warm Mineral Springs and its companion Little Salt Spring.

At first, water filled the lower part of the hole. However, as the last ice-age glaciers melted, the seas rose and pushed the underground water table up. Today, the spring overflows and drains into the Myakka River.

About 10,000 years ago, now-extinct animals fell into the deep sinkhole. Their remains on the bottom were preserved by the mineral water devoid of oxygen.

About 8,000 years ago a prehistoric man died in, or was buried in, a

small cave in the sinkhole wall. His bones, later inundated, have been discovered by underwater divers.

By state law, any human bones that are found underground or underwater must be left undisturbed -- or removed “reverently” under native-Indian direction and reburied elsewhere “with appropriate Indian ceremony.”

The controversy brings to notice once again the right of modern Indian groups to impose restrictions on others’ property. Several Iroquois-American marched in the protest. The Iroquois occupied lands in northeast U.S. and southeast Canada.

(Demonstrators in the recent incident claimed descendance from Lakota, Michigan Ojibwa, Ohio Chippewa, and Oklahoma Muskogee.)

Do these Indians have a proprietary right over ancient, human remains in Florida?

The bones discovered in Warm Mineral Springs are not culturally or ethnically related to the Calusa, Timucua or Seminole Indians who occupied southwest Florida in historical times.

How far back in time do even Florida Indian descendants have a controlling privilege?

Ancient bones are a primary source of information about pre- history natives. The knowledge gained by professional archaeologists, anthropologists and ecologists contribute significantly to respect for Indians – past and present.

The contribution of aborigines to environmental management and human progress is important. It should not be suppressed by misinformed and uninformed protesters.

Those of us inclined to support so-called Indian rights are turned off by professional Indians. They insult the nation that gives them subsidies, unrestricted fishing and hunting privileges, tax-free gambling emporiums and other goodies unavailable to the rest of us.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun-Herald columnist and can be reached at linwms@lindseywilliams.org