August 2012 NPS Archeology E-Gram
Passing of Former NPS Archeologist Jim Thomson
James William "Jim" Thomson, Jr., former regional archeologist for NPS
Pacific West Region, passed away in Seattle, Washington, on July 24, 2012,
from leukemia-related complications. Thomson was born in Fayetteville,
North Carolina, on March 27, 1941. Because of his father’s career in the
United States Air Force, his youth was spent in many different locations,
including Morocco. The experience influenced Thomson’s cultural awareness,
love of adventure, and global perspective. Thomson attended Wofford
College, Spartanburg, South Carolina. Enlisting after graduation, he
served a tour of duty in Vietnam as an artilleryman in the U.S. Army, was
awarded the Bronze Star, and reached the rank of captain before resuming
his higher education.
Thomson began his NPS career at Fort Moultrie as a laborer assisting in
archeological excavations. While completing his MA in anthropology at
Florida State University, he worked as a temporary employee for the
Southeast Archeological Center (SEAC). After graduation, Thomson joined
the NPS Interagency Archeological Services, Atlanta office. With the
beginning of the Alaska pipeline project in 1980, he moved to the Heritage
Conservation and Recreation Service’s Interagency Archeological Services
Alaska office, overseeing projects in Barrow, Alaska. Thomson left Alaska
for warmer climes in 1982, and assumed the position of regional
archeologist in Pacific Northwest Region in Seattle.
As regional archeologist, Thomson supported survey for evidence of past
human use, survey for occupation of higher elevations, and promoting
integrating archeological awareness and compliance into the everyday
activities in national parks. Thomson was concerned to develop effective
responses for eroding archeological sites and was concerned about the
accelerating impacts of human use and climate change on cultural
resources.
During the merger of the Western and Pacific Northwest Regions, Thomson
played a key role in developing a cultural resources organizational
structure that brought professionals in both the regional offices and
parks together into a collaborative and cooperative functioning team. He
also contributed to developing the Systemwide Archeology Inventory Program
(SAIP).
Among the important impacts that he had was his effective advocacy for
hiring archeologists at parks and including the archeological perspective
early in park planning to ensure that preservation effectively merged with
park projects. Jim’s delightful humor and brilliant story delivery created
a relaxed atmosphere that eased collaboration between parks and the
region, park management and staff. Intellectually curious, generous, and
gracious, Jim will be remembered for his warmth, great humor and inclusive
approach to problem solving.
A celebration of Jim’s life will be held in Seattle at a future date.
Contact Kirstie Haertel (206-220-4136) if you would like to be notified of
this event.
By Gretchen Luxenberg
Historian, NPS Pacific West Regional Office
Archeological “After Hours” Event at Cowpens National Battlefield
NPS Southeastern Archeological Center (SEAC) archeologist Michael Seibert
updated local scholars on recent research to locate Revolutionary War
campsites associated with the Battle of Cowpens during an “After Hours”
event at Cowpens NB on July 29, 2012. The Battle of Cowpens was a decisive
victory by Continental army forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan.
It was a turning point in the southern campaign of the Revolutionary War.
For two weeks in May, a team of SEAC archeologists searched likely
locations in the park for evidence of bivouacs of the Continental Army
force. Discouraged by inconclusive results, Seibert enlisted the
assistance of two local volunteer associations and returned in July to
carry out additional reconnaissance. Volunteers from the South Carolina
Archaeological Society and the Treasure and Artifact Association of South
Carolina (a metal detection group) worked with SEAC archeologists to
identify potential campsites. Seibert’s volunteer teams recovered more
than 40 Revolutionary War period items, mostly buckles and musket balls.
Speaking to an audience of 53 attendees, Siebert spoke about the
challenges of identifying campsites that have been impacted by two
centuries of farming and landscape change. He said, “To recover evidence
of Morgan’s army on this section of the battlefield, we are sifting
through more than 200 years of landscape transformation and looking for
less than 24 hours of Revolutionary War history.”
Volunteer involvement and public interest were key elements in the
success of the 2012 research at Cowpens NB. Over the course of 2 days, 27
volunteers participated in the fieldwork, and 53 people attended the
“After Hours” event to learn about the results of the research.
From a story by Virginia Fowler
Ranger, Cowpens NB
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site Celebrates Native
American Culture
Knife River Indian Villages NHS held a "Northern Plains Indian Culture
Fest" July 28-29, 2012. The event encompassed a wide range of activities
exemplifying lifeways of the Northern Plains tribes that frequented the
Knife River area from several thousand years ago to the present.
Activities included archeology talks, flint knapping, bead working,
porcupine quill work, hide tanning, making metal trade items, Northern
Plains dances, Indian flute music, Sahnish and Three Affiliated Tribes
cultural demonstrations, and children’s activities.
Local television station KFYR produced a news story on the festival,
featuring interviews with NPS ranger Craig Hansen and Midwestern
Archeological Center archeologist Jay Sturdevant. The video also included
a demonstration of equipment used in the geophysical survey for buried
cultural resources being carried out at the park this summer. The survey
has located a ditch partially enclosing one of the villages.
To view the news clip, go to
http://www.kfyrtv.com/Video_News.asp?news=58388
To learn more about Knife River Indian Villages NHS, go to
http://www.nps.gov/knri/index.htm
Urban Archeology Corps at Anacostia Park Holds Community History Day
The Urban Archeology Corps held a Community History Day on August 21,
2012. The Corps is supported by a partnership between Groundwork Anacostia
River DC and the NPS. It is an immersive summer work experience for local
youth to learn more about the history of communities and neighborhoods
east of the Anacostia River. During their work experience, the Corps
members used archeology to learn about the communities surrounding Civil
War-era Fort Mahan and the NPS, while practicing environmental and
community stewardship.
During the Community History Day event, Urban Archeology Corps youth
participants presented interpretative materials about Fort Mahan and its
surrounding communities. The students also shared information they learned
through archival and archeological research about the Civil War defenses
of Washington, DC, and the communities east of the Anacostia River. They
presented their ideas for improving the parks and the parks’ relationships
with the community.
The Urban Archeology Corps is supported by a grant from the National Park
Foundation which was funded by L.L. Bean, Disney, the Anschutz Foundation,
and the Ahmanson Foundation through the America’s Best Idea program.
For more information about Groundwork Anacostia River DC, go to
www.groundworkdc.org.
Contact: Teresa Moyer at 202-354-2124.
The E-Gram is Illustrated!
Our readers who receive the NPS Archeology E-Gram delivered to their
electronic doorstep probably don’t know that, since January 2012, e-gram
stories are illustrated! To accommodate small mailboxes, we strip the
header and any photos or drawings from the text before delivery. If,
however, you go to http://www.nps.gov/archeology/new.htm, and click either
on “download the current e-gram,” or “go to the e-gram archives,”
illustrated versions of e-gram issues are displayed. Illustrations include
photos of people in the news, projects, and other images that help us to
bring the excitement of archeology to you and to the public.
DOI Secretary Salazar and NPS Director Jarvis Announce $1.66 Million in
NAGPRA Grants
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and NPS Director Jon Jarvis
announced that the NPS is awarding over $1.6 million in grants to assist
Native American tribes, Alaska Native villages, and museums with
implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act (NAGPRA), which assists in the return of human remains and cultural
objects to communities of origin.
The NPS is awarding $1,559,888 to 21 museums, Indian tribes and Native
Hawaiian organizations to document NAGPRA-related objects
(consultation/documentation grants), while the remaining $103,494 is going
to 10 groups for costs associated with the return of human remains and
objects to communities of origin (repatriation grants). The funding is in
addition to the grants announced in February 2012 for repatriation of over
150 individuals and over 15,000 sacred objects, objects of cultural
patrimony and funerary objects back to tribes.
NAGPRA requires museums and Federal agencies to inventory and identify
Native American human remains and certain cultural items in their
collections, and to consult with culturally affiliated Indian tribes,
Alaska Native villages and corporations, and Native Hawaiian organizations
regarding the return of these objects to descendants or culturally
affiliated tribes and other organizations. The Act also authorizes the
Secretary of the Interior to award grants to assist in implementing
provisions of the Act.
Projects funded by the grant program include consultations to identify and
affiliate individuals and cultural items, training for both museum and
tribal staff on NAGPRA, digitizing collection records for consultation,
consultations regarding culturally significant unaffiliated individuals,
as well as the preparation and transport of items back to their native
people.
From press release
NPS Public Affairs
Top Scientists Examine Resource Stewardship in National Parks
In 1963, an advisory board of scientists chaired by Starker Leopold, son
of pioneer ecologist Aldo Leopold, submitted a report on park stewardship
to the NPS. Nearly 50 years later, Director Jon Jarvis has called for a
second such report. “Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the
National Parks” is the work of an 11-member committee of scientists that
includes a Nobel Laureate and two Presidential Medal of Science
recipients. The committee chair is the former Director of the National
Science Foundation Rita Colwell.
Director Jarvis asked committee members to answer three questions: What
should be the goals of resource management in the national park system?
What policies are necessary to reach those goals? What actions are
necessary to implement those policies?
The report strives to provide general and conceptual answers to the
questions posed. General principles and guidance are emphasized rather
than specific solutions to technical problems. One of the committee’s key
recommendations is that the NPS should steward its resources for
continuous change to preserve ecological integrity and cultural and
historical authenticity; provide visitors with transformative experiences
and form the core of a national conservation land- and seascape.
The new report considers cultural resource stewardship as fully as natural
resource stewardship. It also addresses issues unheard of 50 years ago,
such as climate change and cultural diversity within the NPS workforce.
Notably, the report urges the NPS to “materially invest in scientific
capacity by building a new and diverse cohort of scientists, adequately
supporting their research, and applying the results.” The report further
notes that “NPS scientists (and the agency) would greatly benefit from
strengthened and supportive supervision, increased opportunities to
interact with the scientific community, including professional
associations, and specific responsibility and opportunity for publishing
their work in the scientific literature.”
Over the next several months, the NPS will hold a series of discussions on
the report’s recommendations with its employees, members of the scientific
and parks communities and managers of protected areas in other nations.
The implications of the report and the comments offered will be thoroughly
reviewed before the NPS makes decisions about how to move forward.
To read the full report, go to
http://www.nps.gov/calltoaction/PDF/LeopoldReport_2012.pdf
Elwha Tribe Wants Uncovered Legendary Creation Site
What will become of the lands that used to be under the Elwha Dam and Lake
Aldwell, including sacred lands of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe? Slowly
emerging from lowering water are some 1,100 acres of land with an
uncertain future. When Congress authorized removal of the dam located
southwest of Port Angeles, Washington, in 1992, the inundated lands were
to be set aside either for use as a state park, a national park, a
national wildlife refuge, or be transferred to the Lower Elwha Klallam
Tribe. So far, the tribe is the only eligible party that has a plan and a
desire for the land.
That desire became even more intense last month, with the discovery of the
tribe's creation site. The site is where, by tribal teaching, the Creator
bathed and blessed the Klallam people. The site was covered by the waters
behind Elwha Dam, built between 1910 and 1913. Many tribal members feared
it had been destroyed by blasting during dam construction.
Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Klallam Tribe, said she and other
tribal members visited the site last month after receiving a call from NPS
cultural resources staff, who believed they had found the site. "A group
of us walked to the site and actually stood on the rock known to us as the
creation site," Charles said this week. "It was eerie in some ways. We
were walking on the soil that had been underwater for 100 years, and
witnessing the old cedars. It was emotional, with joy and happiness. We
sang a prayer song and an honor song, and had the opportunity to stand
there and really praise our ancestors and the elders for telling the
stories." To see that those stories actually were true was overwhelming,
Charles said.
The recovery of the Klallam cultural sites is a deeper dimension of the
Elwha restoration, affirming the truth of the tribe's presence here for so
long. "The land continues to show us, it speaks," Charles said. "To be
able to go down there and feel the power of the water and the land, and
look at a landmark that has been covered for so many years, now being able
to breathe."
For now, the NPS, which already manages 85 percent of the Elwha watershed,
is managing the lands. Park rangers are providing law enforcement and
offering interpretive walks on some of the project lands, excluding the
cultural sites, which are confidential and protected. The NPS will follow
a public process to decide the long-term disposition of the land, but at
the moment has no funding to pay for a NEPA Environmental Assessment or
Environmental Impact Statement, noted Todd Suess, acting superintendent
for Olympic NP. The agency is aware the tribe wants the land, but can't
just turn it over.
The Lower Elwha Klallam, if it comes to steward the lands, would like to
use some portions of the property outside the cultural sites and river
corridor for housing or economic development, according to Robert Elofson,
director of river restoration for the tribe. Transfer of the property
would help the tribe realize a long unmet need for an adequate land base,
Elofson said.
When the U.S. government purchased land for the Lower Elwha Klallam
reservation in the late 1930s, the superintendent of the, then, Office of
Indian Affairs stated that tribe, which was far smaller then, needed six
sections of land, almost 4,500 acres along the Elwha River. The government
acquired only 300 acres for the tribe and took another three decades to
convey the land for the tribe's reservation in 1968, in part because of
opposition by sport fishermen. The tribe has continued to buy land ever
since on its own, and today has about 1,000 acres along the Elwha River.
No matter who ends up owning the land, more than 700 acres of it along the
river and in its flood plain will remain in its natural state in
perpetuity, with public access maintained. That is according to the
requirements of the Elwha Act, passed by Congress in 1992.
From story by Lynda V. Mapes,
Seattle Times staff reporter
Archeological Resources in NPS HABS/HAER/HALS
When you conduct background research for an archeological project, do you
include the NPS HABS/HAER/HALS collections at the Library of Congress
(LOC)? You may be surprised at the breadth of information about
archeological resources in these online collections. The Historic American
Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and
Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) collections are among the
largest and most heavily used in the LOC Prints and Photographs Division.
The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and
design in the United States and its territories.
HABS was established in 1933 to document America's architectural heritage.
Creation of the program was motivated by a desire to document rapidly
vanishing architectural resources. The program received legislative
mandate through the Historic Sites Act of 1935. The buildings in the HABS
collection range in type and style from the monumental and
architect-designed to the utilitarian and vernacular, including Native
American pueblos and pueblitos, as demonstrated by the photographs and
measured drawings for the Shafthouse Pueblito, in Rio Arriba County, New
Mexico.
HAER was established in 1969 by the NPS, American Society of Civil
Engineers, and the LOC to document historic sites and structures related
to engineering and industry. It developed out of a close working alliance
between HABS and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of History and
Technology.From its inception, HAER focused less on the building fabric
and more on the machinery and processes within the buildings. HAER has
documented individual sites and objects, such as bridges, ships, and steel
works; and larger systems like railroads, canals, parkways, and roads. A
number of the projects have included data and photographs from associated
archeological investigations, such as excavations in the interior of the
1840s Matthew Mappin house, in Monroe County, Missouri.
The American Society of Landscape Architects Historic Preservation
Professional Interest Group worked with the NPS to establish a national
landscape documentation program. In October 2000, the NPS established the
HALS program for the systematic documentation of historic American
landscapes. Historic landscapes vary in size from small gardens to several
thousand-acre national parks. In character they range from designed to
vernacular, rural to urban, and agricultural to industrial spaces.
Vegetable patches, estate gardens, cemeteries, farms, quarries, nuclear
test sites, suburbs, and abandoned settlements all may be considered
historic landscapes.
Administered through cooperative agreements among the NPS, LOC, and the
private sector, HABS/HAER/HALS projects have recorded America's built
environment in multi-format surveys comprising more than 556,900 measured
drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than
38,600 historic structures and sites dating from Pre-Columbian times to
the twentieth century. The online collections include digitized images of
measured drawings, black-and-white photographs, color transparencies,
photo captions, data pages that include written histories, and
supplemental materials.
Archeological resources may be identified by using a geographical search,
or through subject searches. For example, search terms such as
“archeology/archaeology” (210 surveys), “Indians” (534 surveys), and
“ruins” (393 surveys) will identify projects with archeological and/or
Native American components.
To learn more about HABS/HAER/HALS, go to http://www.nps.gov/history/hdp/
To use the HABS/HAER/HALS collections online, go to
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/
Projects in Parks: Is taking a break.
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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