(The NPS Archeology E-Gram staff were notified that the April 2012 mailing
was illegible. We are submitting it again with a different format. Our
apologies to those who could not read it.)
April 2012 Archeology E-Gram
NPS Announces 2012 Cotter Award Winners
The Cotter Award Committee announced the winners of the 2012 John L. Cotter
Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology at the 2012 Society for American
Archaeology meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. This year, the Cotter Award
recognized two categories of achievement: Project Excellence and Long Term
Achievement.
NPS archeologist Jeffrey Richner was awarded the 2012 Cotter Award for
Project Excellence for “The Bois Forte Ojibwe Study, Voyageurs National
Park, 1979-2011," a project that included a multi-disciplinary team of
scientists, students, Ojibwe tribal members, and volunteers. The project
resulted in an archeological and ethnohistorical synthesis of the historic
use of the area of the park by the Bois Forte Band of Minnesota Chippewa
Indians. The project maintained high standards for ethnohistorical research
and archeological data recovery, including a unique level of involvement
with tribal descendants and stakeholders. The award also recognized
Richner’s outstanding efforts to disseminate project results and NPS
stewardship activities to local communities, interest groups, descendants,
and park personnel.
Retired NPS archeologist Trinkle Jones was awarded the 2012 Cotter Award
for Long Term Achievement for her 34-year career accomplishments in NPS
archeology. Her excellence in scientific work and innovation in practice of
the discipline is exemplified by her work at more than eight national park
units. Jones was also instrumental in the creation and successful
implementation of the NPS Archeological Sites Monitoring Information System
(ASMIS), and conducted pioneering work investigating fire effects on
cultural resources. She was very active in mentoring through internships
and other initiatives. NPS Archeology has greatly benefited from Jones’
work.In 1999, the John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology was
established to honor Cotter’s distinguished career and his pioneering
contributions to professional archeology within the National Park System.
The award inspires archeologists to continue his model of excellence in
scientific archeology. The award is unofficial peer recognition of
exemplary archeological activities in the Service’s Park Archeology
Program.
By Pei-Lin Yu
Cultural Specialist
Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
Lynn Black, NPS Museum Management Program, Retires
Lynn Black has retired, after 25 years in Federal service, 18 in the NPS.
During her time in the Washington Office Museum Management Program, Black
led the development of the Automated National Catalog System Plus (ANCS+),
which more than doubled the percentage of NPS museum collections catalogued
over a ten year period. In 2005, she was appointed Project Manager for the
Interior Collections Management System (ICMS). ICMS provides tools to
accession, catalog, lend, deaccession and manage museum collections,
including archeological collections. Through Black’s efforts, ICMS was
successfully implemented throughout DOI bureaus.
Black served as Acting Museum Program manager from 2005 to 2008, and guided
the development of a service-wide Park Museum Collections Storage Plan that
was submitted to Congress in 2007. She also managed the Digital Imaging
Project, that produced nearly 49,000 images of nearly 30,000 museum
objects, including archeological objects, in 123 national parks. Lynn’s
friends and colleagues wish her the very best for her retirement.
Yellowstone National Park Has New Park Archeologist
Staffan Peterson is the new archeologist at Yellowstone NP. Peterson has a
broad anthropological background that includes historical and prehistoric
North American archeology, geophysical investigation, and Geographic
Information Systems (GIS). He received a PhD. in Anthropology from Indiana
University and currently manages the Cultural Resources Office for the
Indiana Department of Transportation where he oversees compliance matters
for hundreds of transportation projects.
Peterson has archeological experience in the eastern US and Great Plains,
having supervised the excavation of dozens of Native American sites ranging
in date from the Archaic to the late prehistoric periods, as well as
Euroamerican sites dating from the early 19th century to the late 20th
century. Peterson will start his new position on June 4, 2012.
For more information about cultural resources at Yellowstone NP, go to
www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm
By Tobin W. Roop,
Chief, Branch of Cultural Resources
Yellowstone National Park
SCA Interns Catalogue Collection at Fort Union Trading Post National
Historic Site
Over the course of 14 weeks, Fort Union Trading Post NHS’s internship
program carried out a cost-effective, “win-win” partnership with the NPS
Youth in Parks (YIP) and Student Conservation Association (SCA) to catalog
archeological artifact collections. SCA interns Nicki Wheeler and Brittnei
Sherrod completed pressing museum projects while learning valuable job
skills and resource principles.
The park contracted an objects conservator to teach hands-on conservation
workshops to staff, interns, and other volunteers. Wheeler and Sherrod
received professional training, and participated in every feasible facet of
museum management, including artifact identification, handling, storage,
and cataloging. They also studied interpretive methods through the Eppley
Institute for Parks and Public Lands, guided by park interpretive
development program coach Audrey Barnhart.
Fort Union Trading Post NHS boasts a 18-19th century fur trade collection
of nearly a million items. Armed with youthful technological talents,
Wheeler and Sherrod employed interpretive themes, artifacts, and cameras to
produce videos featuring park collections. The park received extraordinary
return for investing in its interns’ portfolios, including
2,930 bags of archeological bottle specimens cataloged (20,700
“objects”);
170 bottle specimens photographed ;
Two interpretive videos for the park’s media station and web sites
produced;
One new interpretive exhibit developed featuring bottles found at Fort
Union Trading Post;
89 metal artifacts cleaned and treated with preservation coatings.
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a non-profit group whose
mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire
lifelong stewardship of our environment and communities by engaging young
people in hands-on service to the land through service opportunities,
outdoor skills, and leadership training. The NPS has worked with SCA since
the inception of the program to provide training and work experience with
SCA interns.
For more information about Fort Union Trading Post NHS park resources, go
to http://www.nps.gov/fous/index.htm
By Audrey L. Barnhart, Curator
Fort Union Trading Post NHS
Archeological Survey at Fort Stanwix National Monument Informs Preservation
Management
The Fort Stanwix NM Division of Cultural Resources has begun a long-term
study to determine the best procedures for preserving the parks’ buried
archeological resources. Park archeologists carried out survey designed to
assess the current condition of buried cultural resources, determine what
impacts surface activities may have on these resources, and to gather
information in order to make more informed decisions regarding preservation
management at the park.
The initial field season, in 2011, targeted the west lawn area of the park.
Six volunteers provided over 500 hours of shovel testing between May 25 and
August 2, 2011. The park also partnered with the Public Works Cultural
Resources Division at Fort Drum Army Base, Watertown, New York, to carry
out ground penetrating radar survey to detect subsurface cultural
anomalies.
Approximately 500 artifacts were retrieved, including 18th century ceramic
sherds and bottle fragments, and 19th century ceramics, pharmaceutical
glass, and kaolin pipe stems. The artifacts were added to the museum
collection at Fort Stanwix NM.
Further investigations will continue this summer with more ground
penetrating radar surveys in other areas of the park.
For more information about Fort Stanwix NM, go to
http://www.nps.gov/fost/index.htm
For more information about ground penetrating radar (GPR), see Project in
the Park in this issue of the Archeology E-Gram.
By Amy Fedchenko
Museum Specialist and Project Archeologist
Fort Stanwix NM
Tools for Wilderness Character Available for Review
The NPS Park Planning and Wilderness Stewardship divisions have released
two new wilderness planning tools for review and comment on the Planning,
Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website. The new tools are the User
Guide to Integrating Wilderness Character into Park Planning, Management
and Monitoring, and the Wilderness Stewardship Planning Handbook. The User
Guide and Handbook include guidelines for integrating the preservation of
wilderness character into cultural resource management planning and
operations, and so cultural resource personnel are especially encouraged to
comment.
The User Guide contains practical strategies and tools for integrating
wilderness character, offering guidance for park staff. The Handbook offers
direction for creating wilderness stewardship plans and plan components.
The tools will support implementation of the draft Director’s Order
41-Wilderness Stewardship. Parks are encouraged to begin using them and to
provide feedback during the comment period.
The User Guide and Handbook were developed by the NPS Wilderness Character
Integration Team, established in 2010 by the Park Planning and Wilderness
Stewardship divisions. The 18-member team is composed of representatives
from parks, regions, and several WASO programs. While the products are
generally oriented to use by park staff, the integration team invites the
NPS community system-wide to review and comment. Comments will inform the
final version to be published in the Fall of 2012.
The comment period ends June 1. The documents are posted in PEPC under
project number 41921: https://pepc.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=41921.
NPS employees who need a PEPC user name and password should contact Julie
E. Fleming, WASO PEPC Administrator.
More information about wilderness character and the team is available at
the Wilderness Character Integration Hub at:
http://inpniscsfern1:7000/sites/WASO/WCI/default.aspx or from Suzy
Stutzman, Intermountain Region Wilderness Coordinator, at (303) 987-6671.
Teaching with Archeology: Spotlight on Project Archaeology
(Editor’s Note: Five years ago, the Archeology E-gram presented
information about archeological teaching resources on other NPS and Federal
websites. NPS Archeology Program Intern Christine Orricchio will report
over the next several months on new archeology postings to these websites
since we last visited them in 2007.)
For nearly 20 years, Project Archeology has been inspiring educators to
teach basic curricula with archeological material, and to develop a greater
understanding and appreciation for cultural resources. In the early 1990s,
a joint venture between the BLM, DOI, and Montana State University
developed an online resource geared towards providing information about
archeology to educators, students and life learners. Project Archaeology’s
mission is to develop public awareness of archeological resources; improve
science and social science education; and to instill a sense of personal
responsibility for the preservation of the past.
Project Archaeology supports professional development opportunities for
upper elementary through secondary school level teachers. Project
Archaeology state program coordinators organize courses and workshops in
conjunction with local universities or museums. One example is a
locality-specific adaptation of “Investigating Shelter,” an online course
offered through a partnership with the Natural History Museum of Utah. This
8-week long session explores construction techniques for traditional native
American housing in the Great Basin, evaluates how function dictates
design, examines scientific and historical evidence, and discusses
stewardship for the future. A national curriculum guidebook accompanies the
course.
Currently, Project Archaeology coordinators and instructors are finishing a
curriculum titled “Investigating Food and Culture.” Seven lessons utilize
archeological material to compare past and present foodways. The lessons
equip teachers with tools to guide students to think like archeologists and
dig into prehistoric diets. Students are introduced to past and present
subsistence practices, methods of archeological interpretation, and UNESCO
and ARPA legislation.
Project Archeology was one of 17 organizations to receive a Partners in
Conservation Award from the Department of the Interior Secretary Ken
Salazar in 2011. The award is presented to organizations which have
achieved exemplary conservation results with community engagement and local
partnerships
Project Archaeology has expanded to 29 states, and seeks to establish
programs in all 50 states. A list of participating states with program
coordinators can be found on their website. Six professional development
workshops remain for the 2012 year and are listed in their online calendar.
In addition to their website, Project Archaeology publishes a newsletter,
online blog and maintains a Facebook page to help us all “discover the past
and shape the future.”
Website: http://projectarchaeology.org/index.html
Blog: http://projectarchaeology.wordpress.com/
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Archaeology/146391292073529?sk=wall
By Christine Orricchio
NPS Archeology Program Intern
More Convictions from Operation Antiquity
On March 19, 2012, Michael Malter and Malter Galleries were each sentenced
for felony Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) violations in
U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The sentencings stemmed from Operation
Antiquity, a five-year-long investigation that focused on looting,
importation, sale, and tax fraud violations related to cultural items from
the U.S. and other countries.
Looted Native American and pre-Columbian artifacts were consigned to Malter
and Malter Galleries in June 2004 and January 2005, by undercover NPS
agents. Malter and the auction company knew that the domestic artifacts
were illegally taken from public lands and that the pre-Columbian artifacts
had been smuggled into the U.S. from Central America. Despite this
knowledge, these antiquities were sold by Malter at two auctions. In both
instances, the illicit artifacts were purchased back by NPS rangers and
agents posing as buyers. In January 2008, a search warrant was served at
Malter Galleries in Encino, California.
At the sentencing hearing, Malter was sentenced to a year of home
detention, 2 years of probation and 150 hours of community service. Malter
Galleries and Malter were jointly ordered to pay about $24,000 in fines,
restitution, and community service. Additional cases against other entities
are pending.
Operation Antiquity involves investigations of looting, importation, sale
and tax fraud violations related to historical and cultural items from the
U.S. and other countries. On January 25, 2012, Federal agents from the NPS,
IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed numerous search
warrants and subpoenas at museums, galleries and residences in the Los
Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago areas, in support of
Operation Antiquity. Nearly 500 law enforcement personnel participated in
the warrant and subpoena service. The investigation continues.
By Todd Swain
Special Agent, Joshua Tree NP
Exchange Students Fined For Vandalism in El Morro National Monument
On March 2, 2012, two South Korean foreign exchange students attending the
University of New Mexico on student visas pled guilty to charges of
disturbing an archeological site. On October 13, 2011, El Morro National
Monument employees discovered two names – “Super Duper Dana” and “Gabriel”
–carved into the sandstone bluff known as Inscription Rock.
After ascertaining that the monument visitor register included an entry
that day by Dana Choi of South Korea, a protection ranger began an
investigation. Through Facebook, the ranger was able to identify the
defendants, who were arrested on December 2, 2011. The students entered
guilty pleas under plea agreements that required them to pay almost $30,000
to the NPS to cover the costs of repairing the damage they caused.
Convicted Relic Hunter Sentenced To Jail Term
John Santo, who pled guilty last year to three felony charges stemming from
illegal relic hunting on Petersburg National Battlefield property, was
sentenced in Federal court on March 21, 2012. The judge ordered Santo to be
incarcerated for one year and one day, followed by three years of
supervised probation with mandatory drug and alcohol counseling and
testing. He was ordered to pay $7,356 in restitution to the park for the
damage his illegal excavations caused, and banned from entering units of
the National Park System during his probation period. Santo was also
ordered to pay a $300 special assessment fee and to forfeit to the park the
9,936 artifacts that were seized from his residence during the service of a
search warrant last year.
Between 2005 and 2010, Santo relic hunted on a nearly daily basis – much of
the time within Petersburg NB. The exact number of artifacts he excavated
or the full extent of the damage caused by his unlawful activity is
unknown, but according to his journal, Santo excavated over 18,000 Civil
War-era bullets alone during this timeframe. Santo was remanded to the
custody of the Bureau of Prisons on April 9, 2012.
By April Michener, Special Agent, Investigative Services BranchDeath of
Southwest Archeologist David A. Breternitz
The March Archeology E-Gram reported that Breternitz was associated with
the Crow Creek Archeological Center in southwestern Colorado. He was
actually associated with the Crow Canyon Archeological Center in
southwestern Colorado.
Projects in Parks: NPS Archeologists Assist in Locating Graves at
Vicksburg National Cemetery
In August 2010, while preparing a grave site for a burial of a World War II
veteran at the Vicksburg National Cemetery in Vicksburg NMP in Vicksburg,
Mississippi, cemetery workers found that the plot was already occupied by a
casket. In January 2011, Superintendent Michael Madell requested assistance
from the NPS Southeast Archeological Center to further investigate the
anomalies using GPR. Through the efforts of NPS archeologists, an
additional 13 graves were located.
To read the story, go to
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/index.htm
Projects in Parks is a feature of the Archeology E-Gram that informs others
about archeology-related projects in national parks. The full reports are
available on the Research in the Parks web page
www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/index.htm or through individual issues
of the Archeology E-Gram. Prospective authors should review information
about submitting photographs on the Projects in Parks web page on
InsideNPS.
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 Archeology E-Gram is available on the News and Links page
www.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm on the NPS Archeology Program web
site.
Contact: Karen Mudar at [log in to unmask] to contribute news items, stories for
Projects in Parks, submit citations and a brief abstract for your
peer-reviewed publications, and to subscribe.
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