LITTLE RIVER — Workers excavating the site of an ancient American Indian village have to get the job done quickly - before someone else starts digging with much bigger tools.
The central Kansas city of Little River plans to use the land in rural Rice County for a wastewater lagoon expansion project, with work scheduled to begin this fall.
That means a need for more volunteer workers - volunteers such as former Wichita residents Don and Camilla Heasty.
Since Don Heasty's retirement from Boeing Co. 19 years ago, the couple has traveled the country assisting archaeologist Donna Roper at dig sites.
"It's a golden chance to play in the dirt," Camilla Heasty said last week, as she worked to sift artifact fragments out of soil gathered from old storage and trash pits.
In the 15th century, Roper said, the site was home to Wichita Indians.
The finds so far include projectile points, tools, and turquoise beads and jewelry - and the outline of a circular family home, discovered Thursday.
"What is exciting is that we know where it is and we have the floor plan," Roper said, kneeling at the perimeter of the area where the home stood. "We can tell the edges because of the color and texture of the soil.
Also among the finds: a tiny, charred corncob with room for only six rows of kernels - about 12 of which remain.
The Wichita Indians were an agricultural people, Roper said, and settled along streams that watered their crops of corn and squash.
The pits, about 20 of which have been discovered so far, were first used for food storage. They now hold pottery shards and bison bones.
No experience is needed for volunteers wanting to work at the Little River dig, Roper said, and tools will be furnished.
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