82R23525 MGR-F
 
  By: S. Davis of Harris H.C.R. No. 143
 
 
 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, Debra L. Friedkin made a site along Buttermilk Creek
  in Bell County available to Texas A&M University's Center for the
  Study of the First Americans in 2006, and research at the site is
  adding immeasurably to our understanding of the first Americans;
  and
         WHEREAS, Since the 1930s, archeologists have believed that
  early inhabitants of the Americas, named the Clovis people for
  artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico, arrived in North America
  from Asia, by way of the Bering Land Bridge, as the last Ice Age
  waned about 13,500 years ago; over the past few decades, however,
  credible evidence has emerged for pre-Clovis human occupation of
  the Americas, but until now the evidence has been incomplete; and
         WHEREAS, The land in Bell County, now known as the Debra L.
  Friedkin site, has been under excavation for five years by Michael
  R. Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First
  Americans, and his team of scientists and researchers from TAMU,
  Baylor University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the
  University of Minnesota, and Texas State University--San Marcos,
  and the group has found artifacts that support the pre-Clovis
  theory; and
         WHEREAS, The excavation of the Debra L. Friedkin site has
  revealed deposits that testify to human occupation spanning the
  last 15,500 years; layers near the surface show evidence of late
  Prehistoric and Archaic occupants of the region, while deeper
  layers reflect Folsom and Clovis occupations dating back 12,000 to
  13,000 years; below this, researchers have discovered nearly 16,000
  artifacts that appear to be pre-Clovis in origin; and
         WHEREAS, Multiple studies suggest that the Debra L. Friedkin
  site is undisturbed and intact; because the lack of organic
  material at the site made carbon dating impossible, researchers
  employed a technique known as optically stimulated luminescence,
  which detects the last time the sediment surrounding the artifacts
  received exposure to sunlight, and more than 60 such measures show
  that people had arrived there by 15,500 years ago; and
         WHEREAS, The discoveries from the excavation at the Debra L.
  Friedkin site are bringing archaeologists and other members of the
  scientific community much closer to solving mysteries of early
  human habitation of the Americas, and their work would not be
  possible without the generosity of Ms.
  Friedkin; now, therefore, be
  it
         RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby honor Debra L. Friedkin for her support of the ongoing
  research at the Debra L. Friedkin site and extend to her sincere
  gratitude for the advances in knowledge of human history she is
  helping to realize; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, Than an official copy of this resolution be
  prepared for Ms. Friedkin as an expression of high regard by the
  Texas House of Representatives and Senate.