OCR Text |
Show ceo ST LEK “ete ; IF OURTER = Dig Wasatch AuGusT 3, 1999 County’s Source for News PAGE 9 Wasatch Countyi is Anthro at first. Kohler was stuck in the middle of the Assiniboin Indian tribe, long before the term "Native The tribe American" covered was areas conceived. in Northern Montana and Canada but as a young kid fresh from Utah this didn't excite Kohler ‘too much. However, he was there to do a job, and so he did. It was while he was there, working was once his family's farm. As a kid he understanding in the Anasazis and the the singing, the dancing and the carrying trying to maintain and save historic and on all night. A native who was willing to _ pre-historic artifacts. his information with Kohler and teach Kohler the Assiniboin language, but was working for BYU when he : was . approached about compiling any avail- had remembered finding Native American able informa-— artifacts on the land but he never thought tion about the too much about it. ; While he was at BYU, Kohler adic : native tribes in the — Heber area tribes--those in Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Utah , Arizona, Nevada and | Valley. Kohler then. discovered Wyoming. Later, while working for the state, Kohler developed a real interest and that there had _Fremonts. with the Assiniboins, though, that Kohler Kohler was working on a dig outside of discovered what he would ultimately make _ Richfield, at the time I-70 was being put his life's work. He was talking to one of andthrough the area.’ Anthropologists ; the tribe's elders, a man who remembered, archeologists would work through the day, from the age of three, Custer's massacre-trying to beat the impending construction, share Kohler "We found a site in the canyon where I70 is now, outside of Richfield. At this site we found about 103. structures, one of the largest. Fremont sites ever discovered," says Kohler. But it was hard. never been anything previous-— ly written. Due to lack of time and informa- tion, Kohler had to decline. _ But that started Kohler thinking and working. Midway Eesideiit and anthropologist Ken Kohler vanes ona pot. Kohler is com- piling a pre-history of the Wasatch County area. He later put together a book for fourth stele in the state of Utah about the state's early inhabitants. Now he's trying to put together a more-detailed book on the activity in Wasatch County. Kohler has been working on a site in _ Kohler is almost certain that the site is a Fremont site. He has found pottery, tools. h iz and pictographs very indicative of the -Fremonts. "I have a pretty good idea of i iy where and how [the:site] was settled by> the : : Wasatch County, not too far from existing = )= anthropological-crews developments, but hopefully far enough to keep it out of reach for a while. "About two years ago, someone came to me and Kohler is trying to keep the setting © somewhat secret for now--until the site can be protected, it would be too much of a i = i: along. told me to study it," says Kohler. crews _down — Construction would the roll rocks sides of the site, trying- to hurry the were Some _ ruined, © artifacts others. might have been paved over. What brought Kohler back to his boyhood home of Heber The informant was the descendant of one of the valley's original settlers--he had been told about the site by his father and thought it was time someone with the skills, desires © and know-how to study the area ee learn es it. risk to invite the public to visit it. "Most of our sites have faded away, usually from via the internet as I try to explainto my boyfriend the concept of the chicken dance. Mid-way through the dance demonstration, I realize that he doesn't understand nor appreciate what I'm doing, and that I'm making a fool of myself and I look like an idiot. I drop the chicken dance and turn up the music. I had hopped on the ‘net to look for infor~ mation on a band I used to listen to when | was in college; I had just received my most recent alumni newsletter and there on the cover was the band--Brave Combo. Nuclear polka. I got a little misty. Brave Combo is this group of guys who got together and started a band 20 years ago, ) a hundred a gone." yeas, most of them will be see PRE-HISTORY on page 12 about the people of Utah--the strong family presumably so they wouldn't have to work heritage, that they remember who their my. to n day jobs. I'm trying to explai grandparents are. That they not only know boyfriend the moves and popularity of the who their second cousin twice removed on chicken dance, a staple in their shows, and their mother's side was, they know his phone why these long-haired, music playin’ hippies number. Local heritage is important to them. are on the cover of my glossy alumni mag We moved a lot when I was a kid, from when I realize that without having experistate to state, so I never really found myself enced the chicken dance or Brave Combo, he in one place long enough to explore much could never understand. No one could. more than my backyard. I kept a shoe box. Sometimes, for lack of any good reason, memories are all we have of a place, or a per- - full of personal memories, but that was about it. Sometimes I'd accidentally pick up a litson or atime. Maybe the camera didn't work tle about an area in a state history class, but or the camcorder was out of batteries. Maybe more often than not, by the time I got there, the house got run-down and we didn't have we'd be working on another rehashing of the time to take care of it. Maybe I murdered By JEAN CROASMUN pilgrims. I'd opt to work on my sleep. that brain cell, or I just got old and forgot. Courier Luestvtes Eprror ~~ That's something I've always admired jy 4 exposure to the elements," says Kohler. "In Chicken Dances and Main Street 'm listening to an obscure radio station —Pr Fremonts," says Kohler. "There's a spring nearby. It makes a nice setting." work. | Ken Kohler is in the process of studying the origins of pietographs, like this one, that exist in Wasatch County. es It At the time, ah 10where Montana ona mission. was cold. It was desolate. If nothing else, it was dull. At least ae what he thought tennial. 2 en Kohler didn't know what he had done to get stuck in the middle of was Wasatch County's cen- el 11 a1 1181 LIFESTYLE EDITOR at a price--that Kobler teach t the native anything he desired to learn. Kohler agreed. And he's never regretted the bargain he made with the native. Ultimately Kohler went on to study anthropology and archeology at Brigham Young University. He had grown up in Midway--the land encompassing Alpinhof sa n By JEAN CROASMUN q 3; i] i \¢ |a . ‘ 4 = | iq _ is |= ic see CHICKEN on page 12 | i diese { tee |