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- [Narrator] In 2016, Americans celebrated
the 100 year anniversary of our National Park Service,
which oversees more than 400 park sites
located on approximately 80 million acres
across all 50 states.
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These parks are renowned worldwide
as special places and national treasures,
attracting more than 300 million visits annually.
While national parks are often best known
for their grandeur and their beauty,
they are much more than that.
Beyond the beautiful scenery,
parks offer exceptional opportunities to learn
about our natural world and about our cultural heritage.
As a presidential appointee to the National Park Foundation,
amidst the National Park Centennial
I was inspired by the opportunity
to expand the role of parks as classrooms and laboratories.
And I created a program called
Second Century Stewardship to help realize that vision.
Since its inception in Acadia National Park,
Second Century Stewardship
has worked with dozens of national parks
and partner organizations
to advance the next century of park science and stewardship
by fostering a new generation of devoted scientists,
engaging the public in our work.
A highlight for all of us
involved in this pioneering program
is the opportunity to interact with the talented scientists
who are funded as Second Century Stewardship fellows.
In this video, we are delighted to focus on the work
of Dr. Bonnie Newsom, an indigenous archaeologist
on the faculty of the University of Maine.
Through her research, Bonnie, in her own words,
"Seeks to humanize people in the past
by exploring concepts of identity, style, social boundaries,
and human agency."
I've had the opportunity
to visit archaeological sites with Bonnie
to better understand the nature and importance
of her work.
For this video, we traveled with Bonnie
to an important research site
along Maine's Damariscotta River.
- I'm an archaeologist,
and I'm also a member of the Penobscot nation.
And Penobscot people are indigenous to Maine.
I opted to go into this career because
there were no indigenous archaeologists
in the state of Maine.
I do archaeology with and for indigenous peoples
instead of on and about.
And so that is a little different approach.
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I opted to apply for a Second Century Stewardship grant
in order to explore the archaeology of Acadia National Park.
And Acadia is home to roughly
24 indigenous archaeological sites.
And many of them were excavated in the '70s and '80s
and little analysis of the material culture has occurred.
They've been locked away in storage for decades.
The material culture, the records, soil samples,
all of these things.
And I felt like this was a good opportunity
to use those previously excavated collections
in order to understand how native people
or indigenous people of Maine
engaged with Acadia prior to European contact.
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You know, we're losing these sites at a very rapid rate
due to sea level rise.
And in order to understand how to manage
or steward those spaces, we need to know what's there.
And you can't know what's there
if you haven't done the analysis.
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Within the scope of the Second Century Stewardship.
I have two indigenous graduate students
who are working with me.
And you know, it does my heart good to have them here
because you know, for many years
I was the only indigenous archaeologist in Maine.
And now I have multiple students
from Maine's tribal communities
interested in doing this work.
So they're doing the bulk of the analysis
on the stone tools right now, and they're excited.
And, you know, I'm excited for them
because they're asking interesting and important questions
for indigenous communities.
So when we started this project, one idea that I had was to,
okay, let's look to indigenous languages
as ways to help us analyze some of the material culture.
And so as part of that,
the students that are working with me
are actually trying to describe some of the materials
using indigenous words.
And so, for example,
the word for pot happens to be animate in Passamaquoddy,
which is one of the Wabanaki communities.
And so when you begin to look at it that way,
that the pot is actually alive,
that changes how you think
about that piece of material culture
within the role of that society.
In another area that I'm working,
we have the Midden Minders Initiative,
which is a citizen science initiative
that has opportunities for volunteers
to help us monitor the erosion
of archaeological shell middens.
Shell middens or shell heaps are deposits of shell
that people have been depositing in Maine for 5,000 years.
The problem is though,
these places are eroding very, very rapidly.
And we don't have a good handle on how fast they're eroding
or what we're losing.
And so citizen scientists can help us
to measure the shoreline to determine, you know,
just how fast or how many meters per year we're losing.
All of those questions are important
so that we know where to prioritize our work.
I do think that reconstructing our past environments
through shell heap science
can actually help us think about how we can live differently
so that we can create a better future
for our children and grandchildren.
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Native people in Maine lived sustainably for 12,000 years.
If we can target in on some of those lessons
and have Acadia convey that to their visitors,
then perhaps indigenous history
will achieve a little more prominence.
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- [Narrator] Another important recent interaction
with Bonnie
was a visit by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to Acadia Park
for an event that included a sunrise ceremony
with Wabanaki musicians and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
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(woman singing)
(man speaking indigenous language)
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- [Narrator] Congratulations to Dr. Bonnie Newsom
for her important work,
including several recent publications
that highlight the significance of archaeological research
and storytelling from the perspective of indigenous peoples.
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- Bonnie's cutting edge research is critical
to us as park managers,
but it's also critical in welcoming indigenous communities
back to their homeland here at Acadia National Park.
Thanks to Second Century Stewardship
for making this important research possible.
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[E.O. Wilson] Well, I think it's one of the best ideas
I've ever heard because obviously it combines
all the things I care about the most, which is
Parks, science, students, scholarship,
public support of education and science
Let it roll
[Alan Alda] What a great idea to combine the beauty of nature
with the beauty of science
I think the science related to a park
is just as awesome as the park itself
and I hope every visitor can realize that
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