2001 John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology

From left to right: Francis P. McManamon and Jeff Burton. NPS photo.

The annual John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in National Park Service Park Archeology was made to Jeffrey F. Burton, staff archeologist at Western Archeological and Conservation Center, Tucson, for his recent work at Manzanar NHS. A presentation was made on April 18, 2001, during an annual meeting of NPS archeologists in New Orleans.

Jeff Burton as the choice for this year’s award is based on a committee’s review of his accomplishments in 2000 regarding the archeological resources at Manzanar NHS located near Independence, California. He led colleagues and volunteer photographers in completion of the first comprehensive overview of the remaining structures, features, and artifacts at wartime relocation camps in the United States. The overview was published by the NPS as Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese-American Relocation Sites. Fieldwork and historical research formed the basis for this special initiative study that has been reprinted to meet thousands of requests.

In addition, Jeff led multi-year field archeological research at Manzanar NHS to document Native American occupation, the pre-WWII town of Manzanar, and the subsequent relocation camp. Results of these projects were earlier reported in Three Farewells to Manzanar, which Jeff edited. This study was crucial to additional White House funding and for congressional boundary expansion during 2000. Jeff also assisted the Coronado NF in 2000 to dedicate a campsite complex in honor of an internee who led civil rights resistance against interment policies but was detained at the same forest location.

Jeff’s work during the last year involved a wide spectrum of former internees and their families, students, volunteers, agency officials, and leaders of Japanese-American community organizations. His exemplary work at Manzanar NHS is recognized for interdisciplinary research design, scientific historical archeological analysis, broad public involvement, and sharing of research results in a variety of media — hallmarks of John Cotter’s NPS career.