section b (Jhp ||}an*Ett iRecori SectionB
Wednesday, August 15, 1984 %■% w w ,^ ^ ^ Wednesday, August 15, 1984
When Unit 1 at CP&L's Harris Nuclear Power
Plant begins commercial operation in 1986, it will
generate up to 900,000 kw of electricity, or enough
power for about 180,000 homes. In the foreground is
the fuel handling building, Behind it are the dome
shaped containment building and the cooling tower.
N. C. Archeologists Studying
Secrets Of Occaneechi Tribe
By MERCER CROSS
National Geographic
News Service
HILLSBOROUGH, N.
C. — He might have
been a young warrior,
killed near his village by
unknown enemies, his
body left to decompose
in the semitropical
Southern heat.
His Occaneechi breth
ren buried him about
1700 in the heavy clay
soil just outside the
wooden stockade
surrounding their town
on a bend of North Caro
lina's Eno River.
The tightly trussed
body was adorned with a
breastplate, elaborate
for its day, fashioned
from tubular shell. In
startling incongruity, an
English rum bottle was
placed near the head.
Indian-European Mix
The presence in the
same burial pit of both
Indian and European
artifacts is yet another
clue in an archeological
mystery being
unraveled by scientists
from the University of
North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
What became of the
Occaneechi, a little
known tribe of only a
few hundred members
that flourished briefly
on the river bottoms
between 1680 and 1720,
only to disappear a few
years later?
How much of an im
pact did British traders
have on the compara
tively primitive In
dians? How large a role
did the Europeans play
in the demise of the Oc
caneechi?
Dr. Roy S. Dickens
Jr., director of the
Research Laboratories
of Anthropology at the
university, sees the tiny
tribe as a possible ob
scure link in a century of
tumultuous events
leading up to the
Revolutionary War.
It is known, for exam
pie, that in 1676 troops
led by Nathaniel Bacon
attacked the Oc
caneechi, who then lived
on an island in the
Roanoke River near the
Virginia-North Carolina
line. Remnants of the
tribe fled to North
Carolina after that at
tack and after repeated
raids by other, larger
Indian tribes.
"There's very
dramatic evidence of
this acculturation situ
ation, where they're get
ting more and more
committed to the
(European) trade
system," Dickens says.
"But they're never quite
giving up the value they
place on their own
things."
Profitable Summer
Every morning this
summer, a crew of
graduate and under
graduate students led by
Dickens, Dr. H. Trawick
Ward and Stephen
Davis, Jr., staff archeo
By S DMwa Jr.
Artifact* buried with an Occaneechi Indian child near Hillsborough, N.C., in
the early 1700s are clear evidence of the influence of English traders on the
small tribe. Beaded bag, lead musket balls, and pewter porringer are among
the European-made items. Only the clay pot was made by Indians.
logists at the anthro
pology lab, meet at a
campus parking lot.
They pile into vans and
pickups and drive 15
miles to the dig on the
eastern outskirts of
Hillsborough.
Dickens is excited
about what's been found
already and what he ex
pects to find before sum
mer's end.
"We've been very im
pressed," he says, "with
the abundance and the
kinds of European items
that we're finding here,
among a people who
were rapidly approach
ing virtual extinction as
a culture."
Probably the most ex
citing discovery of the
summer is an oval
"sweat house," a sort of
Indian sauna with a fire
pit in the center, ad
joining the burial area.
It's the first such
structure ever found
that had been used by
the Occaneechi or other
Indians of that time and
territory, although
sweat rooms were
common among some
other Eastern Indians,
Dickens says.
On the basis of frag
ments of handmade
brick found at the site,
he also hopes to uncover
the chimney foundation
of a European-style
cabin, possibly the main
house of the village.
The burial sites alone,
three of them excavated
last year and four being
explored this summer,
are giving the scientists
a rare chance to look at
the evolving relation
ship between two
civilizations.
In a grave a few feet
away from the warrior,
for example, lay an
adult's skeleton. Buried
with it are not only an
Indian clay pot but a
long musket, a metal
hoe, and a lead smoking
pipe, all English in
origin.
Unfaded by time, a
bright-red blob of ver
milion pigment, a
European import,
marked the remains of a
small child in another
burial pit Surrounding
the badly decayed skele
ton were an English
made silver-plated
spoon with a clearly
decipherable hallmark,
a European copper ket
(Continued on page 2B)
Warren Laborers Lending
«K. I
Hand At Nuclear Plant
By KAY HORNER
News Editor
Every weekday morn
ing at 4 a. m., while
Warren County is still
covered in darkness,
two men from the Beth
lehem community get
up and begin preparing
for their 55-mile ride to
work.
Glenn Richardson and
his nephew, Anthony
Richardson, are two of
more than 4,000 workers
involved in the construc
tion of Carolina Power &
Light Co.'s Shearon
Harris Nuclear Power
Plant at New Hill about
25 miles southwest of
Raleigh.
Both are carpenters
for Daniel Construction
Company, an interna
tional firm building the
$3 billion plant
scheduled for full
operation in March 1986.
For the Richardsons,
the benefits of their em
ployment far outweigh
the inconvenience of
commuting.
The elder Richardson,
a self-taught carpenter,
found himself unem
ployed two years ago
when a lagging economy
forced layoffs at the
Rocky Mount construc
tion company where he
worked.
Opportunities in
Warren County were
limited, and Glenn
heard about job-open
ings at the Harris plant.
"A lot of people I knew
were working here, so I
came up and applied,"
Glenn said during a
recent interview at the
plant site. "I had a good
record and I was able to
be certified."
Certification, which
translates into oppor
tunities for advance
ment within the com
pany, is one of the
reasons the Richardsons
are willing to commute
more than 100 miles
daily to work.
The program was set
up on a companywide
basis by Daniel about
three years ago.
Workers are given writ
ten and hands-on tests of
(Continued on page 2B)
Glenn Richardson (left) and his nephew, Anthony
Richardson, (right) are among 4,000 workers em
ployed by Daniel Construction Company in the
building of the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant
at New HOI, a community about 25 miles southwest
of Raleigh. Both men commute from their homes in
the Bethlehem community of Warren County to the
plant site. (Staff Photo)
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