Indians, students fight to save Miami Circle
Story-Date: 03:24 p.m. PST Sunday   , February 14, 1999

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Indians, students fight to save Miami Circle


By Patricia Zengerle

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's indigenous peoples joined students,
environmentalists and archeologists Sunday in a last-ditch demonstration to
generate support for stopping the destruction of an ancient American Indian
holy ground.

A crowd of about 25 people held signs, collected signatures and urged
passing cars to honk their horns to stop a developer's plan to dig up a
centuries-old stone carving and move it from the site of a planned $100
million condominium complex.

"It's a holy ground," Bobby Billie, spiritual leader of the Independent
Traditional Seminole Nation of Florida, said as passersby stopped to sign a
petition to save the "Miami Circle" and car horns blared in support.

The demonstrators said they believed developer Michael Baumann would
attempt to remove the carvings Monday, but Baumann could not be reached for
comment about his plan for relocating the circle.

Billie said American Indians had lived in the area since ancient times and
reused the circle over and over. "It has been known for generations," he
said.

The Miami Circle was unearthed last year as work crews cleared one of the
city's priciest pieces of real estate and discovered a ring of holes
chiseled into limestone bedrock, likely by ancient Tequesta Indians using
rudimentary conch shell tools.

Archeologists have called the circle one of Florida's most important
historic sites. Billie said it would be appropriate to liken its
significance for the state's American Indians to that of Jerusalem's
Western Wall to world Judaism.

Buried for decades under a crumbling apartment complex, the Miami Circle
was discovered in August along with pottery shards, stone ax heads and
other artifacts at a site known to have been inhabited by Tequesta Indians
before Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed in 1513 seeking the Fountain
of Youth.

Archeologists are unsure what the 38-foot circle represents. They believe
it to be the foundation of a Tequesta ceremonial temple built 500 to 800
years ago or even earlier.

But its strategic alignment and the belief that some of the holes resemble
manatees, turtles and other sea creatures have prompted some experts to say
it may be a celestial calendar of sorts.

American Indians want to make sure it does not go the way of the Tequesta,
who disappeared soon after the arrival of Europeans, victims of battle and
disease.

Backed by local politicians, developer Baumann, who is building the new
residential complex, agreed to allow archeologists to explore the circle
and to pay for its removal and relocation.

The site has become a popular cause for New Age mystics and
environmental groups as well as much of the public.

High school student Tyler Schwartz, 18, of Coral Gables, Florida, was in
the crowd seeking support for the circle Sunday.

"We're trying to educate the public on this disgusting cultural genocide,"
he said.

Schwartz, a leader of a local youth environmental organization, said he
and several others planned to blockade the 2.3-acre- circle site Monday if
necessary to stop its planned excavation.

REUTERS



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