S.E. Ruckman: Disastrous oil spill uncovers some tribal artifacts

Wednesday, July 27, 2011  

'In my way of thinking, commerce and culture don’t usually caught my attention. It was a headline with the word, “Indian” that nabbed me. Whether it’s our eastern Indian brethren or some of our tribal people, the very mention always draws me in.

I was rewarded with a piece centered on the discovery of Indian relics along the same shores where the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill occurred in Louisiana. As I read it, I got the idea that I should consider the old maxim that good things can come from bad things.

Since I think silver linings on clouds only mean rain, I swiftly nixed that notion. So I placed myself mentally on the Caminada Headland (the site of the story). I spent almost two years on the Louisiana/Texas coast as a child, so picturing me back on that sand bar was easy. With my cell phone in hand, I could almost feel wet, packed sand under my heels and the bath-like quality the Gulf takes on at the height of summer.

It seems after the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon exploded, platoons of archeologists were dispatched by British Petroleum (BP) to take stock of the clean-up. You know, make sure there weren’t any rogue relics mixed in with the ubiquitous tar balls. They hit pay dirt. Oh, the ironies of Fate--that a man-made company could court archeological capital."

Get the Story:
S.E. RUCKMAN: Relics example of material culture mixing with material enterprise (The Native American Times 7/26)