Chad and Alvin

Chad lives in a small town in Utah. His family doesn't have much money. Chad has an old, rusty, second-hand bike, but he dreams about having a shiny, new mountain bike.

On weekends and holidays in the summer, Chad's family digs into the old Indian graves near his town. Many of his friends also dig in the graves. If they can find really nice pots, they can sell them to a man who comes through town every so often. Chad's father says that he has found a grave site that looks really good, and that it has never been dug into. If there are some good pots in the graves, there might be enough money to buy a new mountain bike! Chad is really excited and anxious to dig in the new site.

Chad has a good friend named Alvin, who is the same age. Alvin is an American Indian. Chad told Alvin about the possibility of getting a new mountain bike because of the new site his father has found. He told him about the possibility of finding some very nice pots and selling them to the buyer when he came through town. However, when Chad said this, Alvin acted kind of funny. Chad thought he might be jealous of the new mountain bike. Chad also knew that there was a law against digging in the graves, and that rangers would arrest you for doing it. This made Chad mad because the pots had been there when his great-great-grandfather had settled the area. The pots didn't belong to anybody then, so how could they belong to the government now. Besides, there were probably thousands of them out there. He knew they would have to careful, but he kept thinking of the new bike.

Questions

1. Why does Chad's family dig into the graves?

2. What is the main problem in Chad's family?

3. To whom do the pots really belong?

4. What if nobody would buy the pots? How could this be accomplished?

5. Will it really matter when all of the pots are dug up and sold? Why?

6. Aren't the pots like a vein of coal? You dig them out and sell them for money.

7. Give your solution to the problem. Be creative and imaginative.

8. Be prepared to give a two-minute summary and/or solution.

	Copyright © 1996 Society for American Archaeology