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The Results The results obtained during the course of conducting the Class III survey are described in more detail below. The major concern for undertaking the archaeological survey by Valco, Inc., was the issue concerning the presence of an "Indian burial ground" on the Valco T Pit property. The "Indian Burial Ground" The major reason for. Valco, Inc.'s interest in undertaking the Class III survey was due to an anonymous source indicating the presence of an "Indian burial ground" on the Valco T Pit property, as previously noted. The Class III survey revealed no evidence of a Native American burial site, however, two Native American prehistoric sites of presently undetermined age and' function were located. 'The issue of a Native American burial site being present on the property is addressed. using two separate sources. These include azchaeologioai surveys undertaken by various archaeologists and cultural resource firms, in past yeazs, in T.32S, R63VJ, Section 35 and in the surrounding sections based on information retrieved through the Compass file seazch (see Table 1). No burials are reported in the various surveys. An expanded Compass seazch specific to burials was undertaken within Section 35, and the surrounding sections, with negative results. The search was expanded to 72 total sections within T.32S, R.63W and T.33S, R63W, again with negative results. A strong case can be made using only the empirical evidence for the probable lack of burial sites. -The second source concerns professional knowledge and experience gained from archaeological surveys conducted in similaz topographic" environments in Las Animas County throughout the Purgatoire Valley beginning in 1983. This includes over a 12 yeaz period at the . Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site (Carrillo 1985; Carrillo, et al 1990; Hardesty, et al 1995); at the Cusimano Pit in T.32S, R.63W, Section 34, the adjacent section (Carrillo and Anderson 1992); and in the area west of Trinidad as xecently as 2001 and 2002 (Carrillo, et a12003). Burial practices tend to differ through time and from group to group. In some instances, prehistoric burials have been found in crevices and shallow shelters in steeper canyons within the Purgatoire Valley. However, two factors may contribute to the lack of burials on the property; I) the shallow topography of the west rim and valley of the Valco T Pit property does not appeaz conducive to those types of burials; and 2) the shallow soil, with partially exposed sandstone bedrock, along and neaz the canyon rim, also precludes the possibility of burials. Therefore the empirical evidence and professionai knowledge both tend to suggest a high probability for burials not being present on the Valco T Pit property. The Prehistoric Sites and the Historic Road Svstem Remains Two prehistoric Native American sites of undetermined age and function were located in the course of the survey (Figure 1). The general boundaries of both sites were flagged and each site was assigned a temporary site number (e.g. Tamp. Nos. 04.VTP.01 and 04.VTP.02). The sites contain both Iithics and groundstone artifacts, and the boundaries maybe lazger than presently defined. Tentatively, the prehistoric sites appeaz to mirror those previously recorded and briefly described above in Table 1. -3-