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Camp Forsyth Public Meeting Presentation - April 7, 2022

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A Free Pocket Guide of Fort Riley's Hazardous Plants and Animals

The Fort Riley Military Installation is a 101,000 acre military training facility located between Junction City and Manhattan in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas. It is one of the largest HazardousSpecies.JPGpublicly owned tallgrass prairie tracts in the United States. Not only does the installation offer state of the art training for our country's soldiers, it also provides some of the best outdoor recreational opportunities in the state. Any time spent outdoors, either for training or recreation, should be spent cautiously as many animals and plants could be potentially hazardous.

 A free pocket guide of Fort Riley Hazardous Plants and Animals is now available through the Fort Riley Directorate of Public Works (DPW)-Environmental Division. The purpose of the pocket guide is to help individuals identify and understand those hazardous plants and animals found on Fort Riley and the surrounding area. Copies of the pocket guide may be acquired at the DPW Conservation Office located at 407 Pershing Court on Main Post. Questions or concerns about hazardous animals or plants on Fort Riley should be directed to the DPW Conservation Office by calling 785-239-6211.

Fort Riley, Native American Tribes partner to protect cultural resources and preserve cultural heritage

By Theresa A. de la Garza, Cultural Resources Manager, Directorate of Public Works  

Fort Riley, Kan. – Prior to the establishment of Fort Riley in 1855, several Native American tribes called the Great Plains their home. Their legacy remains on Fort Riley in the form of tangible and non-tangible cultural expressions.

Tangible cultural expressions include archeological sites and collections of artifacts, such as arrowheads, lance points, scrapers, butchered animal bone fragments, ceramics, knives, drills, beads and grinding stones. Tangible cultural expressions also include human remains and associated funerary objects. Discovery of these items on Fort Riley occurs through archeological fieldwork and, to a lesser degree, through ground-disturbing activities and erosion. 

Unlike the tangible, archeologists cannot identify intangible cultural expressions from what they see. Therefore, they must rely on the expertise that consulting tribal representatives share – traditional knowledge.  Such resources may include burials; sacred sites, traditional cultural properties and other resources identified for ceremonial, religious or cultural purposes. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation issued a traditional knowledge information paper May 3, 2021 to provide guidance for federal agencies, stressing the value in identifying cultural resources and determining potential impacts to them. This traditional knowledge influences protocols and taboo topics during tribal consultation.
The Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division houses the Cultural Resources Program, to include the cultural resources manager who is also the historic architect and the post archeologist. Together, they ensure the U.S. Army Garrison programs remain compliant with federal preservation laws, regulations and executive orders.  Additionally, they act as liaisons with Tribal Historic Preservation Officers or the designated representatives and assist the garrison commander in meeting requirements for government-to-government relations with tribes, as required for the domestic sovereign nations.  The Post Archeologist reviews proposed ground disturbance activities and monitors known cultural resources to avoid impacts and promote their preservation. 

When identifying tangible cultural expressions, Cultural Resources Program staff follow a federally mandated process outlined in the National Historic Preservation Act and implement best management practices in consulting with tribal stakeholders. Federal installations must meet special coordination, provisions and protections to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. With tribal assistance, the leaders and staff at Fort Riley can identify and protect resources of cultural and religious significance, to include those that may not have distinct physical characteristics.  

Tribal consultation began at Fort Riley in the mid 1990’s, during the infancy of the Cultural Resources Program. Such programs sprang up DOD wide, after the 1992 amendment to the NHPA.  Likewise, both the DOD and the Army created the positions of Federal Preservation Officers, as required of all federal agencies. However, many tribes did not have the resources to reciprocate with their own THPOs with whom cultural resources staff could consult. Recognizing that this tribal limitation influenced past and skewed present-day consultation, the CR Program staff initiated an effort in 2016 to canvass for tribes that may have had a connection to the Fort Riley area. These included tribes for which the area may have been ancestral lands; were within the path of migration to reservations established through treaties with the U.S. Government; and served as a temporary place of occupation, if held temporally on the installation during mid-1800 conflicts with Native Americans.

Cultural Resources Program staff identified twenty-three tribes and supported the garrison commander in communication with their tribal leaders. Twelve tribes expressed interest in the cultural resources of Fort Riley. These include:

  • Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
  • Kaw Nation of Oklahoma
  • Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas
  • Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma
  • Osage Nation
  • Otoe-Missouria Tribe
  • Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma
  • Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma
  • Ponca Tribe of Nebraska
  • Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
  • Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska
  • Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. 

Long-standing comprehensive agreements exist with the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. Websites for both nations claim ancestral ties to the Kansas Flint Hills. These agreements outline roles and responsibilities as they relate to compliance with NAGPRA. 

The Osage Nation THPO, Dr. Andrea Hunter, said the area to be within former tribal hunting and warring region. 
Some of the 12 tribes migrated through, such as the Ponca who left their ancestral lands under duress to enter reservations in present day Oklahoma. Some tribal members later returned to Nebraska. James H. Howard documented those two passages in his 1965 ethnography titled, “The Ponca Tribe.”   

According to Fiona Price, the Post Archeologist, no clear tangible evidence of civilian Native American tribal presence on Fort Riley after its establishment has yet to be found. An example might include modified Euromerican materials to suit their own cultural needs – metal arrowheads. The lack of physical evidence does not mean that interactions with tribal members on Fort Riley did not occur.

In 1997, James E. Sherow, then Associate Professor at Kansas State University, published, “A Richly Textured Community:  Fort Riley, Kansas and American Indian Peoples, 1863-1911.”  

Sherow provides examples of such interactions and writes that the Curtis Expedition of 1864 relied on the assistance of “The Pawnee Scouts.”  These scouts were active-duty military and assembled from several Fort Riley units. Additionally, the 5th U.S. Cavalry included a Pawnee battalion frequently posted at Fort Riley.

Cultural Resources Program staff conduct consultation as a means of complying with federal laws and regulations, protecting the cultural resources under its stewardship and to respect the cultural and traditional affiliations of the partner tribes. Key examples include the signing ceremonies for comprehensive agreements, reinternment ceremonies for Native American human remains, ceremonial burial of a sacred, light-colored bison calf born to the Fort Riley herd and in-person meetings hosted by two tribal THPOs. 

Tribal members in the form of military and civilian personnel, veterans and military family members work and live on Fort Riley. With this in mind, the Cultural Resources Program staff can act as an informal liaison. One such example is assisting an active-duty Native American Soldier who needed a secluded location for a traditional ceremony. The Cultural Resources Program remains open to supporting such requests and facilitate outreach and awareness training. The Cultural Resources Manager can be reached at 785-239-6646.