City Oks more digging at artifacts site

Thu., Feb. 23, 2006

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

Tens of thousands of Native American artifacts, some at least 5,000 years old, were recovered last year from a sewer construction site in Peaceful Valley near the confluence of the Spokane River and Latah Creek.

Now, the Spokane Indian Tribe has negotiated a contract with the city of Spokane to continue the job in a site measuring about 250 feet by 75 feet.

On Monday, the City Council approved the contract, which will pay the tribe $200,000 for the work. It calls for turning over artifacts to the University of Washington’s Museum of Anthropology for temporary storage.

Excavation will make way for installation of a large sewer holding tank, which is being designed to collect sewer and storm runoff. The mix will be released slowly so that it can be treated at the city’s wastewater plant downstream.

The tank installation is intended to prevent spills from combined sanitary and storm sewer collection lines running across the South Side.

The site chosen for the tank has proven to be rich in artifacts, although the individual items buried in centuries of silt are not considered especially valuable.

Last year, the city hired Archaeological and Historical Services at Eastern Washington University to conduct a cultural resources study prior to any sewer tank construction. The $361,000 study yielded thousands of artifacts, but the excavation covered only about one-third of the construction site.

Despite previous installations of sewer and water mains, the archaeologists last summer found items extending back through two geologic periods, city records showed.

The Spokane Tribe has proposed using less expensive mechanical excavation of the much of the remaining portions of the site. Work will switch to hand digging in areas where fire-cracked rock, shells, carbon stains and other cultural remnants are discovered.

The plan is to recover and document culturally significant remains.

If any human remains are found, the excavators have agreed to notify law enforcement and historical agencies.

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