November 2012 Archeology E-Gram

Dava Davy McGahee Announces Her Retirement
Dava Davy McGahee, cultural resources manager for Capitol Reef NP, will
retire on December 1, 2012, after 21 years of Federal service, almost all
with the NPS. McGahee grew up on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida and received
a BA in anthropology from the University of South Florida. Her field work
as an anthropologist was done in Guatemala through the Universidad de San
Carlos. Later, she earned an MS in sociology, an MA in world history, and
certification as a funeral director. McGahee began her Federal career in
1972 with the VA as an adjudicator. She transferred to the NPS and was
assigned to Saguaro NM. She then moved to her first park ranger position in
law enforcement and living history interpretation at Guilford Courthouse
NMP. The next opportunity was at Ocmulgee NM as the archeologist,
overseeing the Southeast Region archeological collection. McGahee
supervised the American Indian living history partner program with the
Creek Nation and the resurfacing of an earth lodge. She also established a
National Environmental Study Area (NESA) and wrote the Teachers’ Guide for
the Mother Earth NESA. The next challenge took McGahee to the newly
established Guadalupe Mountains NP as the first chief of interpretation.
Here she wrote The Pinery Station, produced the parks first media with the
artists-in-residence program, and developed designs for visitor center
exhibits.

McGahee took a break in service to manage a growing family of five
children. She and her husband opened a restaurant in New Mexico called
“Essential Ingredients.” McGahee later taught school in Connecticut and
developed an after-school environmental education business “Nature Fun
Club.”

In 1995, McGahee rejoined the NPS in Santa Fe as a curation technician
working on NAGPRA research. In 1998, she was permanently re-instated at San
Antonio Missions NHP, where she rotated to manage three of the four
missions, Rancho de las Cabras, the visitor center, and the volunteer
program over the next twelve years. Here McGahee developed permanent
exhibits at Mission San Francisco de la Espada, Mission San José y San
Miguel de Aguayo, and Mission San Juan Capistrano, earning Star Awards. She
also implemented 24 cell phone tours for sites throughout the park.
McGahee’s liaison work for Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan with Florentine
Films resulted in the filming of “Untold Stories: San Antonio Missions:
Keeping History Alive” as part of The National Parks series. McGahee was
offered her “dream job” as the cultural resources program manager at
Capitol Reef NP in 2010.

McGahee was twice the recipient of the Edwin C. Bearss NPS Fellowship award
(2002 and 2003) and awarded an NPS Conrad-Wirth Grant in 2004-2005, as well
as the Spirit of Service Award – Learn and Serve America - in 2007.

McGahee’s next life chapter includes hiking and kayaking adventures with
her husband and friends, travel, scuba diving and snorkeling, and
volunteering. McGahee can be reached on Facebook. She will check snail mail
at 7970 West River Bend Rd., Crystal River, FL 34428. Her friends and
colleagues wish her all the best for her retirement.

Physicist Given National Honor for Archeological GeologyJohn Weymouth,
emeritus professor of physics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has
been selected for a national honor from the Geological Society of America.
Weymouth has been named the 2012 recipient of the Rip Rapp Award for
outstanding contributions to the field of archeological geology. He was
among a small number of scientists with training in physics who worked to
develop instruments and methods that would help archeologists locate
subsurface features at sites. Researchers continue to learn from his
unparalleled body of work, which spans four decades.

Much of Weymouth’s work has been in assistance to the NPS. He has conducted
geophysical investigations on more than a dozen park units, ranging from
Fort Clatsop and Chaco Canyon to Abraham Lincoln’s Home and Hopewell
Culture NHP.

By Dawn Bringelson, Archeologist
Midwestern Archeological Center

New Archeologist at NPS National Center for Preservation Technology and
Training (NCPTT)
Tad Britt is the new Chief of the NCPTT Archeology and Collections program.
His past experiences include serving as a Senior Researcher at the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory,
Champaign, Illinois. Britt has developed several technologies that have
cross-disciplinary applications. He has co-invented a hand-held a mobile
GIS / GIS enabled standoff mapping and image capture technology. Britt
received the 2007 Federal Laboratories Consortium Award for Excellence in
Technology Transfer. He holds a MA in anthropology, from the University of
Mississippi.


NPS Archeology Program Sponsors Webinars on Current Topics in Archeology
The NPS Archeology Program has posted webcasts from an on-going webinar
lecture series devoted to dissemination of information about current
research in archeology. Topics range from recent developments in our
understanding of Native American colonization of the New World to
archeological investigations of World War II Japanese internment camps.

To listen to the webcasts, go to
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/webinars.htm.

Festival at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park Focuses on Hawaiian
Culture
On November 15 and 16, 2012, Kaloko-Honokohau NHP hosted a Hawaiian
cultural festival for approximately 500 fourth grade students from local
schools in the Kona area. This annual event, held every November, also
commemorates the start of the Makahiki season, a time of peace and
celebration in the Hawaiian culture. During this time of year, Lono, one of
the four main Hawaiian gods, is acknowledged and recognized.

Both days began with an oli (chant) by a kumu (teacher) who explained the
significance of the Makahiki season. Many schools brought gifts to offer,
usually food (such as taro which is used to make poi) wrapped in ti leaves
(a local native plant). The offerings are in appreciation for this season
of peace and abundance.

Children’s activities included learning about the parts of a Hawaiian
sailing canoe, the behavior of sharks, planting by the Hawaiian moon
calendar, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. Over 50 volunteers and
staff participated in this event to help the students navigate all 14
learning stations.

By Jon Jokiel, Supervisory Park Ranger
Kaloko-Honokohau NHP

Petroglyph Boulder to be returned to Capitol Reef National Park
Dava Davy McGahee has completed negotiations with Chaffey College President
Henry Shannon to bring back a 19,800 pound artifact and cultural resource
to Capitol Reef NP. The artifact is a basalt boulder with deeply-pecked
petroglyphs and historic inscriptions on several surfaces. The boulder was
a significant monolith to the prehistoric people who lived in the area now
part of Capitol Reef NP. The historic inscriptions may have been inscribed
by Mormon pioneers and others who settled in the area.

The boulder was moved by a private individual in the 1950s from its
original location in (then) Capitol Reef National Monument to a ranch in
Teasdale, Utah. It was later moved again to its current location in a
sculpture garden at the entrance to a museum on the Chaffey College campus.
Before the boulder was moved from its original location, it was
photographed by Noel Morss of the Peabody Museum in 1927, and by Charles
Strevell and Charles Pulver during their 1935 archeological expedition for
the Utah State Museum Association. The photographic documentation was
crucial for identification of the boulder as being removed from Capitol
Reef lands.

This project will repatriate a significant cultural resource to the park
that will be returned to the landscape it came from. It is also the
capstone of a remarkable career of dedication and service, as McGahee
retires in December.

For more information about Capitol Reef NP, go to
http://www.nps.gov/care/index.htm

Students Participate in Workshop at Navajo National Monument
Kayenta Unified School’s Outdoor Challenge Club participated in outdoor
education activities and an ancestral Puebloan survival workshop offered by
Navajo NM interpretation and resources staff on November 3, 2012. The club
consists of high school students, with a high enrollment of Native American
youth from the surrounding Navajo Indian Reservation.

Students could not have asked for a better day, weatherwise, and for a
better mix of rangers. The hands-on educational activities presented
included ancestral Puebloan yucca fiber weaving, atlatl throwing by
interpretation ranger Patrick Joshevama, flint knapping education by
archeologist Brian Yaquinto, and hands-on fire starting the ancestral
Puebloan way with interpretation ranger Max Benally. There was also a tour
to the ancestral Puebloan site of Betatakin with archeologist Matthew
Marques.

By Curlinda Mitchell,
Lead Interpretive Park Ranger, Navajo NM

2012 Cultural Resource Activities at Carlsbad Caverns National Park
BAER/BAR Project
In FY 2012 the park received BAER/BAR (Burned Area Emergency
Response/Burned Area Rehabilitation) funding to assess and monitor
potential wildfire damage to archeological sites within the footprints of
the 2011 Loop Wildfire and the 2012 Horse Canyon Wildfire. The park hired
Robert Carpenter, archeological technician, who, with YPP students,
monitored sites in the two wildfire areas. Damage from the wildfire was
assessed as moderate with most vegetation burnt; no suppression or
vandalism impacts; fire effects of cracking/spalling on cultural and
natural rocks, burned stump/root holes, and fire and minor smoke/soot
damage to remaining vegetation.

YPP Year 2
Carlsbad Caverns NP completed the second year of a YPP (formerly YIP)
project in which college students Nicole Herzog and Michael Ordemann, led
by NPS employee Samuel Denman, relocated and documented archeological sites
in the park. This past summer provided experience in NPS archeological
procedures and gave interns a broad overview of NPS cultural resource
management and skills in field archeology. The students received
instruction in safety, use of GPS units, conducted archeological surveys of
major park projects, assessed wildfire-affected sites, photo-recorded
National Register District sites, assisted in the annual museum inventory,
assisted in a BAER damage assessment project, updated site files, and
conducted research on projectile point typology and chert sources for a
park Cultural Resource Management Plan. The students also received training
from the biology and cave resources specialists and observed bat flights
and the more rarely seen javelinas, deer, rattlesnakes, and a mountain
lion.

Loop Fire Cultural Resources Report Available
On June 13-15, 2011, the Loop Fire burned 8,261 acres within the boundaries
of Carlsbad Caverns NP. Survey was conducted in compliance with the BAER
team led by Richard Gatewood from June 27 – July 21, 2011. Based upon the
known boundary of the fire, 115 archeological sites were found to have the
potential for damage from this event. Cultural resources staff completed
the report on the 2011 Burned Area Emergency Response (Baer) Assessment of
Archaeological Sites in Walnut Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns National Park by
Robert Z. Selden Jr., Leigh A. R. Cominiello, and Joel P. Lennen. 82 pp, 51
figures; 6 tables, maps, bibliography. Available in pdf from David Kayser
at (575) 234-6717.

Rock Art Management Plan
NPS archeologist Andrew Veech completed the Carlsbad Caverns National NP
Art Management Plan to be part of the Carlsbad Cavern NP Cultural Resource
Management Plan.

New NPS Website Provides Information for Native AmericansThe NPS has
announced the launch of a website to connect Native Americans with NPS
cultural resources programs. Connecting with Native Americans brings
together information about programs and policies that affect Native
Americans and the NPS. The website contains information about the cultural
resources programs in the Washington Office and will expand to include
information from NPS regional offices and parks. Included on the website
are “Quick Guides for Preserving Native American Cultural Resources” that
provide information on the National Historic Preservation Act and
associated laws and programs to assist in the protection and preservation
of tribal historic places and cultural traditions.
To visit the website, go to www.nps.gov/tribes. For further information or
to provide feedback, contact Ronnie Emery or Rachel Brown at (202)
354-6965.

By Ronnie Emery
NPS American Indian Liaison Office

Hands-on Archeology Programs at Dayton Aviation Heritage National
Historical Park
 “Digging into History” at Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP offers an
opportunity for Title 1 students in grades 4-6 and their teachers to get
out of the classroom and into the outdoors, whether throwing an atlatl,
making a pinch pot or uncovering a mock excavation pit. One of the goals of
the project is to instill in students the need for historic and prehistoric
preservation and an appreciation of the fragility of the archaeological
record and to make them aware of their own roles as potential stewards of
the past.

The program incorporates math, science, social studies, art, and language
arts standards while generating a special kind of excitement as students
work in teams honing their motor skills and social skills. Dayton Aviation
Heritage NHP, a 2012 America’s Best Idea grant recipient, will continue the
hands-on archeology programs in the spring.

By Judi Hart, Educational Specialist
Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP

Man Punished for Removing Human Remains from Wilson’s Creek National
Battlefield
Coy Matthew Hamilton has admitted to removing human remains from the
Wilson’s Creek NB. Hamilton admitted that on February 27, 2011, he found
the human remains while canoeing through the national battlefield, looking
for archeological artifacts. Recent heavy rains had eroded parts of the
riverbank, and Hamilton saw a bone sticking out of an eroded embankment by
the creek and dug into the embankment, removing additional bones. Through
an intermediary, Hamilton turned the bones in to the NPS. He was identified
during the ensuing investigation.

In April 2011, Caven Clark, NPS cultural resource management specialist,
performed an emergency restoration and repair of the excavation site. Clark
determined that the remains belonged to a person at least 20 years old at
the time of death. Gender could not be determined. Eight handmade,
machine-tooled, bone buttons were also. These buttons were manufactured
between 1800 and 1865. The buttons are consistent with buttons used during
the Civil War. The buttons appear to be attachments for instep tabs
typically used by mounted troops during that period.

The date of the Civil War battle at Wilson’s Creek was August 10, 1861. The
remains were found in an area of intensive fighting. Mounted, infantry, and
artillery units were in and near the vicinity of the human remains. The
shallow grave suggested an expedient but respectful interment. Differential
disposal of Union and Confederate dead following the battle suggests that
this individual was part of the Confederate forces killed during the
battle, and quickly buried thereafter.

Hamilton signed a pretrial diversion agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s
Office, in which he admitted that he disturbed an archeological site and
removed human remains from Federal lands. This conduct could have been
prosecuted as a violation of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act
(ARPA). Under ARPA, Hamilton could have been sentenced for up to two years
in prison, and a fine of up to $20,000. Hamilton agreed to pay $5,351 in
restitution, which reimburses the government’s costs of restoration and
repair of the site. Additionally, Hamilton will perform 60 hours of
community service under the supervision of the NPS.

The Federal pretrial diversion program is an alternative to prosecution
which seeks to divert certain offenders from traditional criminal justice
processing into a program of supervision and services administered by the
U.S. Probation Service. In the majority of cases, offenders are diverted at
the pre-charge stage. Participants who successfully complete the program
will not be charged or, if charged, will have the charges against them
dismissed; unsuccessful participants are returned for prosecution.

Chief Archeologist of Albanian National Park visits Fort Stanwix National
Monument
Dhimitër Çondi, Chief Archeologist of Butrint National Park in Albania,
recently visited Fort Stanwix NM to learn more about the NPS protocols for
the storage and preservation of archeological collections. Staff in the
Division of Cultural Resources showed him historic, ethnographic, and
archeological artifacts in the Marinus Willett Collection Management and
Education Center. The staff also discussed environmental controls, pest
control measures, and similarities of the NHPA Section 106 compliance
process with those carried out at Butrint National Park.

Assisted by Tom Crist of Utica College, this is the second time the park
has hosted a visiting archeologist from Butrint National Park. Butrint
National Park was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992 and
established as an Albanian National Park in 2000. The historic city of
Butrint served as an international hub for centuries to Venetians, Romans,
Greeks, Turks, and the French creating a complex and diverse record of the
past.

For more information about Fort Stanwix NM, go to www.nps.gov/fost.

From story by Amy Roache-Fedchenko

NPS Park NAGPRA Workshop in Southeast Region Open for Registration
The NPS Park NAGPRA program is offering a training session in the Southeast
Region about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(NAGPRA). The session will take place on January 29-30, 2013, at Castillo
de San Marcos National Monument (CASA) in St. Augustine, FL. Park
superintendents and resource managers as well as archeologists, curators,
and other staff with NAGPRA duties are invited to attend. The training will
provide a comprehensive overview of NAGPRA and prepare participants to
respond to inadvertent discoveries and plan for intentional excavations as
prescribed by the law. Issues of special concern to the Southeast Region
will also be addressed. Other topics covered will include dealing with
cultural items subject to NAGPRA in collections, evaluating repatriation
requests, complying with the new culturally unidentifiable rule,
consultation, disputes, and reburial on park lands. An optional tour of
CASA will be offered on the afternoon of the second day.

There are no fees or tuition for the training session. To register, log in
to DOILearn and search for NAGPRA in the Parks (Course Code=NPS-CRS3401).
The deadline for registration is January 15, 2013.

For more information, contact Mary S. Carroll at 303-969-2300.

National Park Service’s 2013 Archeological Prospection Workshop
The NPS 2013 workshop on archeological prospection techniques, “Current
Archeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destructive Investigations in
the 21st Century” will be held May 13-17 at the Cedar Point Biological
Station near Ogallala, Nebraska. This will be the twenty-second year of the
workshop dedicated to the use of geophysical, aerial photography, and other
remote sensing methods as they apply to the identification, evaluation,
conservation, and protection of archaeological resources across this
Nation. The workshop will present lectures on the theory of operation,
methodology, processing, and interpretation with on-hands use of the
equipment in the field. The field exercises will take place at Alkali
Station near Paxton, Nebraska. Alkali Station was a major trail facility
used by travelers on the Oregon and California trails, the Pony Express,
the transcontinental telegraph, and the frontier army.

Co-sponsors for the workshop include the NPS Midwest Archeological Center,
the Lute Family, and the University of Nebraska’s Cedar Point Biological
Station. There is a registration charge of $475.00. Lodging will be at the
Cedar Point Biological Station.

For further information, contact Steven L. DeVore, Archeologist, NPS,
Midwest Archeological Center, Federal Building, Room 474, 100 Centennial
Mall North, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508-3873: tel: (402) 437-5392, ext. 141;
fax: (402) 437-5098. Application forms are available on the Midwest
Archeological Center’s website at http://www.cr.nps.gov/mwac/.
Projects in Parks:  is taking a break this month.

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 Projects in Parks web page
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/index.htm or through individual
issues of the Archeology E-Gram.

Archeology E-Gram, distributed via e-mail on a regular basis, includes
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