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Show About the Following Letters: It is generally not the policy of this publication to respond, at least in the same issue, to letters to the editor. edi-tor. On certain occasions, however, it becomes necessary neces-sary to do so, and this is one case in point. With respect to a feature article published recently recent-ly regarding archaeological sites in Southeastern Utah, Commissioner Calvin Black of San Juan County has taken tak-en issue with certain statements made, and has asked for clarification from the writer. That clarification has been furnished by our outdoor feature writer, Fran Barnes, in a letter running side-by-side to Mr. Black's letter Wc appreciate the comments contained in botti Dear Sam: A response appears to be in order to Fran Barnes' article on archaeology in the T.I. of July 15 where in there is reference made to destruction of Indian ruins . . . "caused by individuals, indi-viduals, organizations, industry, ind-ustry, and irresponsible public pu-blic officials," and the fur. ther statement; "Some misguided mis-guided public officials have even openly advocated and encouraged the stripping of Indian artifacts from all ruins ru-ins by private, local individuals individ-uals rather than let the rutins ru-tins he absorbed into the National Park system. . " If the writer of that arti-ce arti-ce knows of any public official of-ficial who has done or is doing what the author charged char-ged it would appear he should name names, times and incidents and be ready to prove such a broad charge. If this cannot be done then it seems that the writer is guilty of irresponsibility. If reference is made to events recently in which the news media interview, ed Commissioners from Garfield! and San Juan Counties after a meeting of they and other southern Utabns with the Governor, then there should be a clarification clar-ification of the facts. Concerning this matter, there was a statement made that some people in southern south-ern Utah were becoming so frustrated and angry over the power, control, and lack of concern or consideration for the rights of the people that live in the area by some so-called conservation groups and some federal officials of-ficials that there was angry talk that the way to solve the level of Lake Powell problem woud be a case of Idynamite on Rainbow Bridge. The public officials involved expressed concern to the Governor over this kind of action even being considered by any resident of southern Utah and that more consideration of the rights and feelings of the people here by both the conservationists and Park-Service Park-Service officials was necessary nec-essary before the polarization polariza-tion becomes so extreme something like that might happen. There was a very strong statement Made by the public officials concerned concer-ned that they did not advocate, advo-cate, and in fact abhored, such a thing. On the matter of Indian ruins, again it was a stale ment of fact and concern. That digging by local people peo-ple has been and is being done, and the predominent reason is to keep some of these artifacts in the area. The only advocacy that I am aware of by local public pub-lic officials is that the agencies ag-encies that govern us, the Park Service, ELM, and Forest Service jointly build a "Museum of Indian History" His-tory" so the history, ruins, and artifacts could be properly pro-perly displayed and interp- reted in the area where they are found rather than being expropriated all over the world out of their home environment. This, I believe, be-lieve, is the only way we will stop the present digging, dig-ging, for regardless of it being be-ing good or bad, so long as the the attitude exists there would have to be literally lit-erally thousands of rangers rang-ers to stop it by enforcement enforce-ment alone. Finally, if the author had reference in the article to Commissioner Dale Marsh of Garfield County andor Commissioner Calvin Black of San Juan County, then it seems a retraction and an apology are in order. If reference was not there, then the author should identify id-entify the individuals and events so a cloud of public opinion created by such innuendo in-nuendo can be cleared. Very truly yours, S Cal Black uear dam: In response to Commissioner Commis-sioner Black's letter to you concerning my recent article arti-cle on visiting Indian ruins by air, perhaps the questions ques-tions Mr. Black raises can best be answered by clarifying clari-fying my position on certain cert-ain parts of the article. First, I am not an investigative inves-tigative reporter whose duty du-ty and responsibility it is to dig up hard facts, name names na-mes or level specific and personal accusations nor do I have any desire to become be-come such. Rather, I am a freelance outdoors writer, unassociated with conservation conser-vation organizations, Federal Fed-eral agencies, commercial or industrial concerns and political groups. In recent years I have learned to appreciate ap-preciate the unique heritage herit-age that southeastern Utah possesses in the form of natural and human history, and have devoted full time to trying to create a similar appreciation in others by means of photo - articles' in various local and nationally nation-ally circulated publications. Second, while my article' intentionally referred to no specific individuals, organizations organi-zations or events, Mr. Black seems to feel that I was actually ac-tually doing so by inference. With reference to the events ev-ents mentioned . in Mr. Black's letter, it seems to me that the mere public mention or discussion by respected re-spected public officials of such illegal acts as the destruction de-struction of National Mon- letters. They make some points that arc well intended, and should be given consideration by the powers that be. If a poor choice of words in one instance, as mentioned by both writers, has resulted in reflections on the character char-acter of any persons, or has resulted in the misinterpretation misinterpre-tation of any certain incident, wc regret that choice of words and offer our apologies. If in total, however, the exchange of comments has been beneficial in making the public aware of extreme problems in damage to archaeological arch-aeological sites, and pointed out shortcomings in management man-agement contributing to this problem, then wc arc glad the exchange has taken place The Editor uments, or the stripping of Indian ruins, creates an atmosphere at-mosphere in which misguided mis-guided private individuals could get ideas that might not otherwise occur to them or might misinterpret misinterp-ret "discussion" as "encouragement." "encour-agement." My sole purpose in mentioning this subject in my recent article was simply to try to create a counterbalancing atmosphere atmos-phere in which the spotlight spot-light of public attention on this possibility might have a deterrent effect on such individuals. Perhaps in this context my phrase "advocates "advo-cates and encourages" in connection with "public officials" was a poor choice of words, yet the net effect ef-fect upon those who -tend to think in terms , of dynamite dyna-mite and ruins-stripping could unfortunately be just that. Third,,- while I feel that it is an impractical dream to expect such Federal agencies ag-encies as the Park Service, BLM and Forest Service Serv-ice to cooperate with each other, and with local citizens citi-zens and public officials, to the extent of establishing a "Museum of Indian History" His-tory" in Southeastern Utah, I would like to go on record rec-ord as saying that I am wholly in favor of such an effort in principle. Further, I would be willing to devote de-vote my own professional capabilities toward such an endeavor, regardless of what organizations or agencies do, or do not, cooperate toward to-ward that end. I feel that it is high time that Grand, San Juan, and perhaps adjacent ad-jacent counties had a museum mu-seum at least as well developed de-veloped as the one in Vernal, Ver-nal, and it was toward creating cre-ating a public desire for such a museum that I wrote my recent article on the Vernal Museum, as published in the June 24th issue cf the Times Independent. Indepen-dent. In conclusion, Sam, I would like to say this: it appears that there are many, many individuals within southeastern Utah who feel strongly that not enough is being done to preserve, and develop for public appreciation, the unique un-ique and priceless heritage that is here. Obviously Commissioner Black is in the forefront of this group. Perhaps, then, the time might be ripe for all such individuals to start working together toward this end, rather than taking isolated, and perhaps ineffectual, action ac-tion on their own, or still worse, no action at all. I, for one, am ready to join a cooperative effort. If there are others, too, then perhaps per-haps Mr. Black would be the one to spearhead and coordinate such a venture. Sincerely, S Fran Barnes |