Sharleen Daugherty - Young Voices of Silver City

2013, 2014 Rio Grande Books

All rights reserved.

Rio Grande Books

Los Ranchos, New Mexico

www.LPDPress.com

Printed in the U.S.A.

Book design by Paul Rhetts

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system, without the permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-1-936744-16-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)

978-1-936744-71-8 (ebook formats)

Cover Illustration: Gila Library Mural, part of the Mimbres Region Arts Councils Youth Mural Program. Photo courtesy of Diana Ingalls Leyba.

Contents

Essay Winners

1st place winner: Tyler Eastep, & Two Runners Up: Daniel Chavez and Sarah Wolf

Tyler Eastep, 18, Silver High School

Photo courtesy of Silver City Sun-News

Starry Night

I look past the beams of light into the blackness, my destination in perfect clarity in my minds eye. An unknown creatures eyes shimmer in the dark. The hum of the engine cuts through the silence. Having left all traces of civilization behind miles ago, only trees surround me, forming walls on either side of the road. These ancient sentinels mark the boundary of the fierce yet tranquil wild. I pass a sign telling me Ive reached the Gila Wilderness. As I turn my head to find a place to stop, my breath forms fog on the windows and I pull my jacket tighter around me. A small clearing on the left side of the road will be perfect. I slow to a stop and park. The engine dies, and with it, the lights. Total darkness.

As the temperature drops, my breath becomes visible as it leaves my mouth. Just as my eyes become accustomed to the darkness, I silently open the door to see what I came to see. My feet hit the ground, the door shuts behind me, and I close my eyes. The cold grips me as the last vestiges of heat are stolen from my body. I turn my head to the sky and slowly open my eyes. A visual symphony of tiny lights spans the canopy. The sky seems cloudy with stars. The longer I stare, the more seem to appear. I crane my neck to try to take all of it in at once. Even the full moon cant outshine the millions of pinpricks of light surrounding it. As breathtaking as the sight is, the cold forces me back to reality and I depart with only the faint memory of the starry night.

Daniel Chavez, 18, Aldo Leopold High School

Photo courtesy of Silver City Sun-News

Broken Puzzle

Archaeology is a big part of our history as people; unfortunately most people dont understand just how big a piece of our history archaeological artifacts are. Archaeology is the study of people who lived in the past and how they lived. A handful of students at Aldo Leopold High School and I are members of the archaeological branch of the YCC (Youth Conservation Corps), and part of our job is to shadow a site steward and learn how to be site stewards ourselves to protect these sites. Our mentor is Ms. Markel, she is a site steward and she teaches us all there is to know about the archaeological significance of our area. Ms. Markel is a site steward for the Dragonfly Habitation site on the Fort Bayard Game Refuge and the Ursa Major site here in town. Our job is to protect and document artifacts at these sites to the best of our abilities as well as monitor for vandalism. The kinds of artifacts at these sites come in a wide variety, such as potsherds (broken pieces of pottery dishes), lithics (stone arrow points, tools, and chips from the making of the tool), petroglyphs, and pictographs as well as living areas (habitation sites).

There are many stages to the documentation of artifacts such as these. The first step is to sketch the artifact with as much detail as possible, then we label the sketch with the style which tells us when it might have been made and what method was most likely used to paint and make it. The method is the same for pictographs, petroglyphs and lithics. Once the artifact has been sketched we photograph it next to a scale to show the size. Documentation for Habitation sites is much different, for the documentation of these sites we use one of two methods. One is to get a forest service map and map out the area manually or we can use a Trimble, the Trimble is the easiest method.

There are many laws in place to protect these sites from being the victims of vandalisms such as being damaged or stolen. The first is the A.R.P.A. (Artifact Resource Protection Act) that made it illegal to remove or excavate any artifact from a site. The second law put in place is N.A.G.P.R.A. (Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act). These laws are necessary because of the looters who dig up the graves of natives to obtain and sell the pots that are buried with the body.

It saddens me to go to a site that has few artifacts left because people pick them up and take them home for decoration or slander them for money. It is illegal, although many people dont know. Every artifact that is removed from a site is like a missing piece to the puzzle of who we are as humans and we will never be able to complete because of that. Every time we hike out to a site I feel a connection between my boots and the soil, my skin and the wind, and my heart to the hills. I am walking in complete suspense when we go on these hikes, for the last thing I ever want to see is vandalism on the artifacts I try to protect. So far I am swimming in bliss when we arrive because I love these places and I havent seen vandalism... yet.

Sarah Wolf, 15, Cliff High School

Photo courtesy of Silver City Sun-News

Sarah Wolf, a freshman at Cliff High School, has lived in the Silver City, NM area her entire life; however, she has traveled all over the United States in the passenger seat of her fathers semi. She enjoys riding horses, working with her mom, shooting her .22 single action rifle, and going with her dad in the semi.

A New Mexicans Greatest Day

Im not like a lot of teenagers. I actually like to spend time with my family. I help my dad drive the semi all over the county. I also like to help my grandpa on his ranch.

There was this one particular day that sticks in my mind. My dad and I were heading out to my grandpas ranch north of Cliff. We left early from our house in Silver City. Dad had his horse in the back in the trailer. When we got to my grandpas house, the fog was low and gray over the valley. My dads horse whinnied from the trailer causing the other horses to whinny an answer.

My favorite dog, Whiskey, came running up behind me, wagging and jumping around happily. I wandered my way down to the horse stalls. These stalls are nothing fancy, but they keep the horses out of the weather. I opened the door and the sweet smell of grain, the musty smell of hay, and the sweaty, dirty smell of horses rushed at me. I found my way to the tack room. It smelled of leather. Then I found my grandpa. He was getting a halter for his horse.