The Bloody Point Archaeological Investigation

Description

In the latter half of 1988 Roderick Sprague was notified by Betty Lee, then chairman of the Archaeology Committee of the Oregon-California Trails Association, that Paul and Ruby Tschirky, landowners of a possible site of the Bloody Point massacre, were interested in determining if the stone piles (hereafter referred to as features) on their property, which they assumed to be burials, contained remains of American Indians or pioneer Euroamericans. As a member of the Archaeology Committee and as an archaeologist who had removed numerous burials, both Indian and white, Sprague was asked to spearhead the efforts to make this determination. Harold and Sharon Manhart, current cochairmen of the Archaeology Committee, and other members of the committee support publication of this final report. On 24 October 1988 Sprague began to work on the problem.