Archeology E-Gram July 2022

Passing of Society for American Archaeology President Deborah Nichols

Deborah L. Nichols, William J. Bryant Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, died on July 27, 2022, in midafternoon, when good field archeologists stow their gear, record their findings, and take a rest.

Born in 1952, Nichols attended Case Western Reserve University before transferring to The Pennsylvania State University where she received her BA, MA, and PhD, the last in 1980. She arrived at Dartmouth in 1985 after four years as assistant director of the Black Mesa Archaeological Project in Arizona. She taught Mesoamerican and North American archeology, informed by her interests in ancient economies, states, and environments.

Nichols inspired Native American students to study archeology, helped train archeologists in Mexico, and unstintingly mentored women students and colleagues to succeed academically and professionally. She chaired the Anthropology Department and the Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Program, as well as served the College and her profession extensively.

As President of the Society for American Archaeology, Nichols worked tirelessly until her death to shepherd U.S. archeology into a more inclusive, responsive future. Her presidency culminated a long history of service to the organization. She served on the Native American Task Force (1991–1995), Nominations Committee (1995–1996), Publications Committee (Chair, 2011–2015), Treasurer/Treasurer-Elect, Board of Directors/Executive Committee (2015–2018), Nominations Committee (Chair, 2018), and the H. and T. King Grant for Precolumbian Archaeology Review Committee (Chair, 2019–2021).

David Lindsay, SAA Manager for Government Affairs, speaks for many when he commented “I will greatly miss her inquisitive and incisive mind, her sense of humor, her humanity, and her passion for preserving the archeological record.”

Citizen-Driven Volunteer Archeological Monitoring Program

Five parks in the NPS have participated in a new way to connect volunteers with archeological resource stewardship. The Volunteer Archeological Monitoring Program (VAMP) helps park staff build capacity for monitoring sensitive archeological sites through training cadres of volunteers. The program fosters an enhanced sense of resource stewardship among volunteers from local communities and increases the numbers of eyes in the field helping NPS to respond to threats to sensitive resources.

VAMP was initially piloted in 2021 in partnership with the Home of Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vanderbilt Mansion, and Martin Van Buren national historic sites. The 2021 VAMP program at these Hudson Valley Park units recently received the 2021 Regional Hartzog Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service – Volunteer Program Award. The award is largely due to the efforts of Community Volunteer Ambassador Lexie Lowe. She recruited VIPs, established a training program, created maps and standards for data collection, and led VIPs in the field.

Lowe has also assisted the expansion of the program to Cape Cod National Seashore. During one monitoring field excursion, VIPs identified disturbances at an archeological site, alerted park law enforcement and assisted in responding to a potential ARPA violation.

To learn more about VAMP, check out the StoryMap that highlights the pilot launch of the program, Volunteer Archeological Monitoring Program (VAMP) (arcgis.com).

Contact: Amy Fedchenko (e-mail us)

Ice Age Footprints Discovered at Air Force’s Utah Testing and Training Range

Cornell researcher Thomas Urban has discovered prehistoric footprints at the AF Utah Testing and Training Range. Altogether, 88 footprints were documented, including both adults and children, offering insight into family life in the time of the Pleistocene. Urban and Daron Duke, of Far Western Anthropological Research Group, excavated a subset of the prints.

“Based on excavations of several prints, we’ve found evidence of adults with children from about five to 12 years of age that were leaving bare footprints,” Duke said. “People appear to have been walking in shallow water, the sand rapidly infilling their print behind them – much as you might experience on a beach – but under the sand was a layer of mud that kept the print intact after infilling.”

Since there haven’t been any wetland conditions in at least 10,000 years that could have produced such footprint trails in this remote area of the Great Salt Lake desert, the prints are likely more than 12,000 years old. Similar prints have been investigated at White Sands National Monument.

From story by Linda B. Glaser Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences

Park Science Soliciting Stories for Winter 2022 Issue

Park Science has issued a call for submissions for the Winter 2022 edition (scheduled for release the first week of December). Pitches should be submitted by August 31 for inclusion in this issue. The call describes three timely topics to "shape the issue and stimulate ideas" but stresses that any article related to science in parks is welcome. The three topics are:
How climate change is reshaping our parks' coasts
Advances in the prehistory of North America
Emerging and re-emerging infectious wildlife diseases

Interested authors should first pitch their idea to the editor.

Contact: Marie Lawrence, Park Science editor, e-mail us

The Federal Archeologist’s Bookshelf:

“This Place Belongs to Us”: Historic Contexts as a Mechanism for Multivocality in the National Register by Kelsey Hanson, Steve Baumann, Theresa Pasquel, Octavious Seowtewa, and T.J. Ferguson American Antiquity 87(3):439-456

In this article, the authors suggest that archeologists are well-position to re-invigorate the National Register of Historic Places by using historic contexts as a mechanism for recognizing layered relationships to places.

Nominations to the National Register Program are structured by three key concepts: historic significance, historic integrity, and historic context. These qualities can be difficult to demonstrate with archeological data and/or sites. The authors argue that archeologists customarily rely on potential to yield scientific data to satisfy the significance criterion and, as eligible sites are managed as if they are already on the Register, there was little incentive to devote further resources to nominations. This, perhaps, accounts for the low percentage of archeological sites on the National Register, 6% of 95,000.

The authors note that collaboration with Native American communities demonstrates that many of the requirements of National Register eligibility are misaligned with core Native values. They argue that development of historic contexts can be used to commemorate multi-vocality, moving from production of one national history, slanted to accommodate an explicitly EuroAmerican view, to the production of multi-vocal national histories that can accommodate multiple perspectives.

Weaving rich, complex, and multivocal historic contexts into the argument for significance in National Register nominations is an underappreciated mechanism to document and list more representative and multi-vocal histories.

Hanson et al. demonstrate this approach with the Inscription Rock Archaeological District, at El Morro National Monument. During study and consultation, they identify three historic contexts: Ancestral Puebloan demographic changes 1100-1385; ongoing traditional uses of the rock art district 1385-1970; and Spanish Colonialism and westward expansion 2605-1906. The use of historic contexts in the nomination allows for overlapping time periods and acknowledgement of multiple communities.

Anyone working with minority communities on archeological National Register nominations will find much thoughtful discussion in this article.

GRANTS AND TRAINING

History and Hope Climate Change Toolkit available
Human-centered narratives help people see themselves in the history of climate change and in the necessary actions to address the crisis. The "History and Hope" toolkit was created for park interpreters and draws on park cultural resource expertise to link parks to the climate crisis in ways that will connect with visitors and aid climate action. Strategies from the “History and Hope” toolkit include thematic approaches along with examples of program-guiding questions and interpretive strategies that were developed in consultation with a variety of national parks.

Learn about this new toolkit for NPS interpreters that expands how we communicate with people about climate change by centering historical narratives and human agency. Attend a webinar called “History and Hope: Interpreting the Roots of Our Climate Emergency and Inspiring Action.” This webinar will take place on Wednesday, August 10, 3 pm ET. Speakers will include Elizabeth Villano, Lead Ranger Muir Woods National Park; Nichole McHenry, Relevancy, Diversity, and Inclusion Program Manager/Interior Regions 3, 4, 5; and Donna Graves, Independent Public Historian.

To register for the webinar, go to Meeting Registration - Zoom (zoomgov.com)

21st Century Leaders Fellowship from ACHP
The 21st Century Leaders Fellowship is a new program that provides early-career preservation professionals with a comprehensive understanding of historic preservation policy formulation and implementation at the national level. A program goal is to promote diversity in the historic preservation leadership. Through an immersive hands-on experience, Fellows interact with policymakers in the governmental and private sectors, both non-profit and for-profit. Under the guidance of senior ACHP officials, Fellows explore how national preservation policies and programs are created and carried out, develop new networks within a dynamic professional environment, and acquire skills to prepare the Fellow for a leadership role in historic preservation. Fellows can address issues that may include climate change adaptation, Native American affairs, infrastructure, housing policy, regulatory systems, and more.

Fellows will spend six to nine months on-site in Washington, DC. They will participate in policy development activities including research, writing, strategy, partnership cultivation, and legislative monitoring as well as meetings, informal gatherings, and field trips. The ACHP Foundation provides a stipend of up to $40,000 depending on the length of the Fellowship. Applications for the initial Fellowship commencing in January 2023 can be found on the ACHP website. The deadline for applying is September 15.

Tribal Consultation Webinar Series
Federal agencies are required to engage in regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with Tribal officials. Government-to-government relationships should include regular and timely communication so that tribes may provide input on issues that may have a substantial direct effect on them. The Tribal Consultation Webinar series is being offered for NPS employees looking for an introduction into the Tribal consultation process, or those who want to refresh their skills or ask experts for advice on best consultation practices for managing park resources.

August 16, 2022 - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Tribal Consultation but Were Too Afraid to Ask - Part III

September 13, 2022 - Historical Trauma and Mistrust of the Federal Government

October 11, 2022 - Players in the Tribal Consultation Process

November 15, 2022 - Cross-cultural Communication - How to Communicate with Tribes

December 13, 2022 - Shared Stewardship

January 10, 2023 - Applied Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

These webinars are offered on the second Tuesday of the month, using the MS Teams platform, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET.

Register through the Common Leaning Portal. The link registers you for full series but you may attend as few or as many as you wish. Speakers for each session and additional information are available on the Common Learning Portal.

Contact: Cari Kreshak, e-mail us

SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC: will be back soon.

Archeology E-Gram, distributed via e-mail on a regular basis, includes announcements about news, new publications, training opportunities, national and regional meetings, and other important goings-on related to public archeology in the NPS and other public agencies. Recipients are encouraged to forward Archeology E-Grams to colleagues and relevant mailing lists. The E-Gram archive is available at https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1038/archeology-e-gram.htm.

Contact: Karen Mudar at e-mail us to contribute news items and to subscribe.