My 2 cents. Archaeologists are a funny breed... I should know. We've all encountered aggressive pothunters who think it's their God-given right to waste a site for a few dollars. And they have often threatened us with physical harm for speaking against pothunting. So now archaeologists are obsessively secretive. Hence the run-around.If any of you want to know how to spot an archaeological site or if your cache is impacting a site, just ask me. I used to do it for a living. Just don't ask me to hike difficult terrain. I can't do that anymore.As for a training session, perhaps an event cache (not Wolfb8's virtuals) at Wupatki or Montezuma Well would help. I can show you what to look out for there. Desert Viking >From: Chelby Geiss >Reply-To: listserv@azgeocaching.com >To: listserv@azgeocaching.com >Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] Officially speaking.... >Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 12:22:17 -0700 > >Excellent overview, Larry! I just want to ad a little something with >regards to the Indian Reservations. >I spoke with the Land Use Ordinance Enforcement Officer with the Gila River >Indian Community. And she had excellent points that I completely agree >with. The Gila River Indian community is a sovereign nation...PRIVATE >LAND! And of course we must ask permission to place a cache on private >land. But, the majority of the reservation land has archaeological sites >and/or are sacred sites! These need to be respected! She stated that the >mountain ranges within their community are currently off limits. She had a >excellent point that all the mountains around Phoenix were and still are >sacred to them. She understands that people enjoy visiting these, but she >asks that we please respect their wishes in regards to the reservation land >because that is all they have left! And not trying to get into a "stealing >the land from the Native Americans" fight...but she is right! >And if you need any more reason to stay off reservation land: if you are >caught on the Gila River Reservation without the proper permit, you risk >having anything of value confiscated...that includes your vehicle and your >GPS! And then you will be prosecuted through their judicial system! >I am going to keep in contact with her. Like Larry said they are not >against geocaching. She was very interested in it...but we need to respect >their wishes! We have parks, cities, and forests to cache in. Their >reservation is 372,000 acres...very small. In fact if you look at a map, >the total area of all the reservations combined is not that large! > >I also talked with the National Parks State Coordinator for Arizona. He is >working to get a list of contacts for the various National Parks that we >can put up on azgeocaching for everyone to use. He was quick to point out >that they have not had any problem with caches in Arizona(which he was very >proud of), but that there has been problems elsewhere. He said his people >would be more than willing to work with someone who wanted to place a cache >to assure that it was not threatening anything archaeological or >environmental. So I guess the point to make here yet again...JUST ASK!:) > >There was talk of actually offering some training on how to spot >archaeological sites because several people honestly didn't know their >cache was on a site! I think this is an AWESOME idea! Arizona has >something on the rest of the country in that we have a far greater number >of archaeological sites. Add to that the fact that many of us are not >native Arizonans...we just don't know what to look for! But then we got >(what seemed to me) the run around from some of the Land Stewards: >-Shame on you for putting a cache on a site. >*But we didn't know it was a site. Can you please show us what to look for. >-No that's confidential. >Maybe I took that all wrong...but I kept running in that circle all last >night after the meeting! > >Well, I'm going to stop talking now...I know Steve is probably writing a >huge summary of everything as we speak!:) > >It was a very good meeting! >C:) >Team desertSol >Chelby & Kevin >+ >Kiva and Lancer (German Shepherds) >Apache Junction, AZ >www.desertsol.com/~chelby/geocaching > >_______________________________________________ >Az-Geocaching mailing list >listserv@azgeocaching.com >http://listserv.azgeocaching.com/mailman/listinfo/az-geocaching > >Arizona's Geocaching Resource >http://www.azgeocaching.com _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com