June 22, 2011

The Utah Department of Community and Culture on Tuesday laid off the state archaeologist and two assistants, leaving the Antiquities section with just two employees: those responsible for maintaining a database necessary for development of roads, railways, buildings, and other projects. Officials say the measures were budget-driven, but skeptics suspect it is related to opposition to a proposed Utah Transit Authority (UTA) station. Department acting Director Mike Hansen said he was simply carrying out budget cuts ordered by the Legislature. Assistant state archaeologist Ronald Rood, who was among those dismissed, said that no other programs in the state Division of History had been cut and suggested there may have been a political motive behind the change: to eliminate employees who sought to protect archaeological sites threatened by development, that Utah “showed its disdain for archaeology and Utah’s vast cultural heritage”, and that he, along with state archaeologist Kevin Jones and physical anthropologist Derinna Kopp, who also lost their jobs Tuesday, stepped into the view of Gov. Gary Herbert, lawmakers, and the UTA in recent years when they raised concerns about a proposed commuter rail station planned in Draper. UTA proposed the train stop and mixed-use development on the footprint of an ancient American Indian village, the earliest known location of corn farming in the Great Basin. “We always have tried to stand up for archaeology,” Rood said. “We were pretty vocal over the issue of the [rail] station down in Draper that was going to be placed over a 3,000-year-old archaeological site.” The archeology team is part of the state Historic Preservation office, which was responsible, among other tasks, for reviewing archaeological sites in development zones, cataloging human remains found on state and private lands for repatriation to American Indian tribes in accordance with state and federal law, namely the U.S. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. The team also conducted educational programs for Utah’s fourth- and seventh-graders and during an annual Archaeology Week with field trips and lecturers. When they were asked to leave the building, the three archaeologists walked away from partly-written reports and forensic evaluations of about 100 sets of skeletal remains. About three were under active review in the laboratory. The proposed Draper rail station had political tendrils reaching onto the UTA board — where trustee and developer Terry Diehl had an interest in development plans around the station — and the Legislature, where attorney and then-House Speaker Greg Curtis had pushed the Department of Natural Resources to delay a conservation easement planned for the site because a client wanted to trade for the land to develop the station. Governor Gary Herbert is a former president of the Utah Association of Realtors. Also The archaeologists’ dismissals comes at a time when lawmakers have ordered the Department of Community and Culture to consider eliminating itself. The bill specifying that was sponsored by Rep. Wayne Harper, a West Jordan Republican and developer. Forrest Cuch, former longtime Utah Indian Affairs director, charged Tuesday that Utah will be in violation of state and federal law because of the firings. He added that he is convinced the archaeology professionals were snared in the Draper FrontRunner station controversy, just as he was. Cuch was fired in February for what the governor characterized as “insubordination.” Cuch, who disputed the official reason for his termination, also said a federal investigation is in order in the archaeology shakeup. “It’s time this stopped, this violation of federal law,” Cuch said. “Some of these people need to be put in jail.” Utahns, in the words of Edward Abbey, remain committed to putting green portapotties in their living rooms if they can make a buck. Greed is strangling even the past, not just our future.