*May 2013 Archeology E-Gram*
*
Joy Beasley Named Chief of NPS National Capital Region Cultural Resources*
Archeologist Joy Beasley has been selected as the new chief of Cultural
Resource Preservation Services for the NPS National Capital Region (NCR).
Beasley most recently served as the cultural resources program manager at
Monocacy NB, Maryland. While there, she directed several complex and high
profile projects, including the archeological discovery and investigation
of one of the largest slave habitation sites in the Mid-Atlantic region.
She has also served as acting superintendent at Monocacy NB, acting chief
of resource management at the National Mall and Memorial Parks and, for the
past five months, acting chief of Cultural Resource Preservation Services
for NCR.

Beasley has over 20 years of cultural resource management experience. She
came to the NPS in 2004 from University of Maryland, where she was a
faculty research assistant. While there, she conducted archeological
research projects at Manassas NBP and Monocacy NB. Prior to that she worked
at the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies, where she carried out
archeological compliance projects for state agencies in the Southwest.

Beasley earned a BA degree in anthropology from the University of Georgia,
an MA in applied anthropology (historical archeology) from the University
of Maryland, and completed a certificate in historic preservation at
Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland. She began her Federal career with the
NPS in 2004 as the cultural resources program manager at Monocacy.

By Mike Johnson

*North Cascades National Park Archeologist Bob Mierendorf Retires*
NPS archeologist Bob Mierendorf retired in April 2013. Over the past 20
years, Mierendorf has worked as an archeologist at North Cascades NP to
promote research in high-mountain archeology. When he began his career at
the park in the 1980s, the general perception among anthropologists and
archeologists was that indigenous people did not use the Cascade Mountains
in prehistory, but focused instead on riverine and coastal environments.
Mierendorf worked toward disproving those misperceptions and his research
at Cascade Pass, Washington, provides the direct evidence that people have
utilized subalpine environments of the North Cascades for many millennia.
His excavations in exploring human prehistory at Cascades Pass in 2005 and
2006 uncovered human history dating back nearly 9,000 years.

Mierendorf’s contributions to subalpine archeology have been recognized by
the 2007 award of the NPS Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award and the 2008 Washington
State Historic Preservation Officer’s Award for Outstanding Career
Achievement in Historic Preservation.

Mierendorf was recently the subject of a short video “Hozomeen” about his
work. The word Hozomeen means "sharp, like a sharp knife." Hozomeen chert
is a locally abundant and distinctive tool stone found exclusively in the
northern Cascade Range of Washington and British Columbia. Over the last
two decades, Mierendorf has studied quarries near today's Ross Lake
reservoir that reveal a 10,000 year long record of indigenous involvement
with this rugged, high-mountain landscape. The video was produced by
Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele, and  funded by Skagit Environmental
Endowment Commission.

Watch the video at http://bdsjs.com/portfolio/hozomeen/ or
www.facebook.com/NorthCascadesNationalPark/posts/543138799071911

*2013 Winners Announced for John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS
Archeology*
The John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology Committee has
announced the winning Project Award and Career Achievement Award.

The Project Award goes to Darlene Hassler-Godwin and Justin Ebersole for
their outstanding work at Harpers Ferry NHP. In addition to field
excavation, mapping, and lab processing and analysis, special attention was
given to soil, ceramic and lithic analyses. Pollen analysis on soil
samples, and starch and protein extractions on ceramic and lithic samples
confirm the presence of maize that was processed in the ceramic vessels,
dated to about 900 A.D. One projectile point, dating to the Late Archaic
(c. 2,500–1,200 B.C.), was used on a fish.

Another interesting outcome of this multi-faceted project was mapping of
the tail race for water powering armory machinery. The tunnel is comprised
of two sections, forming a “Y,” constructed as a series of arched vaults
that document the complex evolution of the tailrace system. Other
discoveries include use of brick in transitional or curved areas of the
vault, and in other locations corresponding directly with armory shops.

The Career Achievement Award goes to Chris Finley (now retired) at Bighorn
Canyon NRA, for his outstanding stewardship of the cultural history and
values of Bighorn Canyon. Chris has been a tireless advocate for promoting
partnerships and collaboration between American Indian groups and the park.
He has carried out many seasons of mapping tipi rings with Native American
students.

NPS archeologists created the Cotter Award to honor the distinguished
career and pioneering contributions of John L. Cotter to professional
archeology in the National Park System. This unofficial award was
established to inspire student and professional archeologists to continue
Dr. Cotter’s model of excellence in scientific archeology. The award
recognizes the accomplishments of NPS staff or a partnership researcher in
the execution of a specific project within a unit or units of the National
Park System.

Contact:  Pei-Lin Yu, Cultural Specialist, Rocky Mountains CESU (406)
243-2660

*Scott Tucker Named Superintendent at Lewis and Clark National Historical
Park*
Scott Tucker is the new superintendent of Lewis and Clark NHP, Washington.
Tucker has over 15 years of Federal experience. He is currently the manager
of President’s Park in Washington, DC, where he has responsibility for the
54 acres of NPS property immediately outside the White House complex.

Prior to working for President’s Park, Tucker spent five years at the
Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, where he
served as the first manager of visitor services. Scott also  helped launch
the Corps of Discovery II Project, serving as the deputy chief of
interpretation in 2003 for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail’s
traveling exhibit. In this position, Scott launched the traveling exhibit
in Charlottesville, Virginia, and traveled the Eastern Legacy of the trail,
telling the story of Lewis and Clark. While on the trail, he was
responsible for community engagement, planning, education, and visitor
services.

Tucker, a Colorado native, has a BA in Social Science from the University
of Northern Colorado, with minors in history and archeology. Scott will
begin his new assignment in late June 2013.

*NPS Issues New Director’s Order and Reference Manual for Wilderness*
NPS Director Jarvis signed Director’s Order #41: Wilderness Stewardship on
May 15, 2013. The revised DO is intended to provide clarity on wilderness
preservation and management policies included in NPS Management Policies
2006, Chapter 6. Replacing a 1999 version, the 2013 revisions to DO #41
include six key thematic changes:

   -  Clarification on eligibility determinations and wilderness studies
   - Consistent direction on identifying wilderness boundaries
   - Emphasis on the importance of wilderness character preservation
   - Consistent language with respect to fire management in wilderness
   - Updated language for the management of climbing activities
   - Guidance on commercial services related to “extent necessary,”
   filming, and air tours

The section on Cultural Resources (Section 6.12) is essentially the same as
the 1999 DO #41, with a few salient changes. The 2013 DO recognizes that
all areas now designated as wilderness have had some level of prior human
use. It also requires that “cultural resources specialists must fully
participate in the development of a park’s Wilderness Stewardship Plan.” A
more subtle difference between the 1999 version and the 2013 version is
that the earlier DO recognized cultural resources as “contributing elements
to wilderness.” The more recent version recognizes cultural resources as
“contributing to our appreciation of wilderness” (emphasis added).
Elsewhere in the DO, consideration of cultural resources in planning and
management is strengthened.

The revised Resource Manual (RM) #41 provides practical guidance, examples,
and templates that supplement the contents of the DO. Other than a
Wilderness Leadership Council White Paper “#1 Cultural Resources and
Wilderness” issued in 2002, there are no sections specifically pertaining
to cultural resources. The RM does, however, refer readers to the Arthur
Carhart National Wilderness Training Center.

*Resources at the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center*
The Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center Online Courses has a
series of three training modules collectively labeled ”Managing Cultural
Resources in Wilderness” that provides much information about the
consideration of cultural resources within a wilderness context. This
information targets all Federal agencies with wilderness responsibilities;
individual agencies may have more or different guidance. The NPS, for
example, recognizes cultural resources as wilderness character components
under a fifth quality, in addition to the four qualities that are drawn
from the Wilderness Act.

In addition, the training center has recently sponsored a series of
webinars that directly pertain to cultural resource issues, “The Fifth
Quality of Wilderness Character.” Session 2, in particular, focuses on
cultural resources. Also, the “Wilderness in the Courts” webinar series
Session 2: Cultural Resources examines recent court cases that centered on
management of cultural resources in wilderness areas.

 Find these training modules, webinars, and other cultural resources at
http://carhart.wilderness.net/

The DO and RM #41 for Wilderness Stewardship are available on the NPS
Office of Policy’s website at
http://www.nps.gov/applications/npspolicy/DOrders.cfm

*Pueblo Stories in New Mexico Honored*
NPS National Trails Intermountain Region (NTIR) partnered with the Pueblo
of Pojoaque in New Mexico to tell stories of pueblo life before 1598, after
80 years of Spanish influence, during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, and pueblo
culture today. The Pueblo of Pojoaque was one of 19 pueblos in New Mexico
impacted by Spaniards who traveled north along El Camino Real de Tierra
Adentro starting in 1598.

 This historic trail weaves through communities as well as wildlands. There
are many stops along the way from Mexico City, Mexico, into the United
States south of El Paso, Texas to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), north of
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Over time colonizers brought iron, silver, chiles,
silks, domestic animals, seeds, and other products from Mexico City - items
still used today across America. Congress designated El Camino Real de
Tierra Adentro in Texas and New Mexico as a national historic trail in 2000
as part of the National Trails System. The trail is co-administered by the
NPS and BLM.

This is the first time that a pueblo culture in New Mexico has worked with
NTIR to develop outdoor exhibits, which are located at the Poeh Museum, 16
miles north of Santa Fe.

You can read the exhibits at www.nps.gov/elca/historyculture/exhibits.htm

 By Lynne Mager

*Saratoga National Historical Park Carries Out Archeological Survey*
During FY 2011 and 2012, Saratoga National Historical Park undertook a
major program of survey intended to assess the location and integrity of
archeological sites along the floodplain and in the Hudson River. The
terrestrial investigations focused on identifying sites connected with the
Revolutionary War. Locations with potential for Native American sites were
also investigated. This work was intended to address an absence of
archeological information on floodplain resources in the park. A
combination of shovel test pits and backhoe trenches were used as the
primary methods of investigation. The Louis Berger Group, Inc. conducted
the excavations in the Fall of both 2011 and 2012.Several National
Register- eligible sites and features were identified during the survey,
including two possible British battlefield features, the remains of an 18th
century roadway, remains of a 19th century canal settlement known as
Wilbur's Basin, and a large Native American site near the Schuyler House.

The submerged resources survey included areas in the Hudson River adjacent
to park in the south to Schuylerville in the north. The underwater survey
assessed the effect of a docking facility to bring visitors to the park by
the river. It was also designed to identify resources in the river
associated with colonial battlefields from King William's War (1690), King
George's War (1745), or from the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and was
supported by an American Battlefields Protection Program grant. A team from
the NPS Submerged Resources Center conducted the underwater survey in the
summer of 2012; additional work is planned for FY2013.

*Wildland Fire Forecast for Coming Summer Issued*
The National Interagency Fire Center has released its national wildland
fire potential forecast for May through August 2013. Above normal
conditions are predicted for much of the west. Archeologists can support
wildland fire efforts by obtaining training and volunteering to be Resource
Advisors (READS) on wildland fires.

*May*

   - Significant fire potential will be above normal for south central
   Oregon, the interior mountains and foothills of southern California and the
   Sacramento Valley and adjacent lower foothills.
   - Significant fire potential will increase to above normal in
   southeastern Arizona, much of western New Mexico, and northern Virginia.
   - Significant fire potential will be below normal for most of the
   southeastern U.S., Puerto Rico and the southern half of Alaska.

*June*

   - Significant fire potential will be above normal over much of
   California and Oregon, south central Washington, most of Arizona and New
   Mexico, and southern Utah and Colorado.
   - Significant fire potential will remain below normal for the central
   Gulf states and Puerto Rico.
   - Significant fire potential will return to normal in northern Virginia.

*July and August*

   - Above normal significant fire potential will remain in California,
   Oregon, and Washington while expanding into central Idaho and southwestern
   Montana.
   - Significant fire potential will return to normal in the Southwest.
   - Significant fire potential will be below normal in the far Southeast
   and Puerto Rico.

Read the full report at
http://www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf

*Museum Response Team Aids In Hurricane Recovery*
Hurricane Sandy hit the New York/New Jersey coast on October 29, 2012,
causing widespread devastation and seriously damaging the Statue of Liberty
NM, Gateway NRA, and Morristown NHP. Within days, NPS Museum Emergency
Response Team (MERT) first responders from National Capital Region were on
the scene.

The team first assisted Morristown NHP with mold in collections resulting
from a lack of environmental control due to the power outage. Next, they
assessed the needs of museum collections at Gateway NRA's hard-hit Sandy
Hook Unit and at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

The first priority at Statue of Liberty NM was the initial stabilization of
a small number of exhibited objects at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum
that had been affected by sea water. After treating them onsite, the team
sent these objects to the NPS' Harpers Ferry Center for Conservation. The
approximately 1,000,000 archives and history objects at the museum were
moved to the NPS' Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland.

Starting in late December and continuing into January, the Northeast Museum
Services Center worked through the Incident Command System to coordinate
teams of trained curatorial staff to assist staff at Ellis Island and Sandy
Hook with packing and moving the museum collections. Thirty-five people
representing six regions of the NPS assisted in the effort. The majority
came from parks in the Northeast Region, including Delaware Water Gap NRA,
Frederick Law Olmsted NHS, Fort Stanwix NM, Independence NHP,
Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Sites, Richmond NBP, Maggie Walker NHS, Sagamore Hill
NHS, and Thomas Edison NHP.

Teams worked under skylights during the short daylight hours and used
headlamps after dark to pack and move collections. The teams hand-carried
the collections from the third to the first floor since the elevators were
inoperable. In all, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island staff and MERT team
members filled three vans and eight trucks with museum collections destined
for Maryland. The Ellis Island Immigration Museum remains closed to
visitors and the museum collection will remain offsite until utilities are
restored, ensuring the objects will return to a stable climate-controlled
environment.

MERT formed in response to 2003's Hurricane Isabel that devastated NPS
facilities at Jamestown, Virginia. They serve as “first responders” for
rapid deployment to NPS emergencies to assess and stabilize museum
collections and to assess damage to other cultural and natural resources
following a manmade or natural disaster. This model has now been
incorporated as a permanent part of the NPS incident command structure.

By Laurel A. Racine

Senior Curator, Northeast Museum Services Center

*Cannibalism at Jamestown Settlement Confirmed*
Archeologists excavating a trash pit at the Jamestown colony site, in
present-day Virginia, have found the first physical evidence of cannibalism
among the founding population, corroborating written accounts left behind
by witnesses. Fragments of a skeleton of a girl were found in a cellar full
of debris in the fort established on the James River in 1607 that sheltered
the starving colonists. Parts of the skull, lower jaw, and leg bone — all
that remain — bear marks of an ax or cleaver and a knife. Cut marks on the
skull and skeleton show that the girl’s flesh and brain were removed,
presumably to be eaten by starving colonists during the harsh winter of
1609. The skull bears shallow cuts to the forehead and four strikes to the
back of the head, one of which split the skull open.

It is unclear how the girl died, but she was almost certainly buried before
her remains were exhumed and butchered. Her teeth indicate that she was
about 14 years old. Isotopes in her bones indicate that she had eaten a
high-protein diet, so she was probably not a maidservant but the daughter
of a gentleman. The ratio of oxygen isotopes in her bones indicated that
she had grown up in the southern coastal regions of England; the carbon
isotope signature pointed to a diet that included English rye and barley.

The young woman probably arrived on one of the six surviving ships from a
supply fleet that sailed from Plymouth, England, in early June of 1609. A
week short of its destination, the fleet was scattered by a hurricane. The
flagship was driven onto reefs at Bermuda. In mid-August, six of the ships
eventually reached Jamestown, but their arrival, with little food and many
extra mouths, did not bring relief or comfort.

The settlers’ insistent demands for food antagonized the neighboring
Powhatan Indians, who at first had provisioned them. In October or early
November 1607, with about 300 colonists crowded into the narrow confines of
the James Fort, the Powhatans launched a full-scale attack and siege,
cutting off any hope of outside relief. People ate leather from their
clothes and boots and killed their horses, cats and dogs for food. Those
who ventured into the woods in search of roots were killed by Indians.

That cannibalism occurred during the winter of 1609-1610 was never in much
doubt. According to a letter written in 1625 by George Percy, president of
Jamestown during the starvation period, the famine was so intense “thatt
notheinge was Spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things which seame
incredible, as to digge upp deade corpes outt of graves and to eate them.”
Five other historical accounts refer to cannibalism during the Jamestown
siege.

The colony was saved in May 1610 by the arrival of the settlers who had
been marooned in Bermuda. They found 60 survivors, as thin as skeletons. In
June 1610, another relief fleet arrived, commanded by Lord De La Warr, who
would later lend his name to the state of Delaware. De La Warr’s men swept
the grisly remains of the siege — dog and horse bones and those of at least
one person — into a trash pit.

The remains were excavated by archeologists led by William Kelso of
Preservation Virginia, a private nonprofit group that owns land adjacent to
Jamestown NHS, and analyzed by Douglas Owsley, a physical anthropologist at
the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

*San Jose de los Jemez Mission Becomes NHL*
San Jose de los Jemez Mission Church in northern New Mexico, considered one
of the best preserved examples of a 17th century Spanish colonial mission
in the country, was formally designated a National Historic Landmark in
mid-May along with the associated Giusewa Pueblo.

 The site includes the remains of an early 17th-century mission complex and
a Jémez Indian pueblo importantly associated with the Spanish colonial and
Native American history of the nation. The Franciscan order led the
mission-building activities in New Mexico, assigning to the pueblo Fray
Alonso Lugo, one of the five priests accompanying Don Juan de Oòate’s 1598
expedition. In 1621 Fray Gerónimo de Zárate Salmerón arrived at Gíusewa to
design and direct the building of an imposing stone church and a large
convento.

The Indians resisted efforts to abolish their religion and culture,
carefully selecting which newly-introduced concepts they would retain. The
Franciscans abandoned San José de los Jemez around 1639, although the Jémez
continued to live there until about 1680, when they joined other pueblo
peoples in successfully driving the Spaniards out of New Mexico.

*Defense Department Announces Call for Legacy Program Pre-Proposals*
The Department of Defense (DoD) Legacy Program Fiscal Year 2014 has
announced a call for pre-proposals that support military mission needs and
improve the management of natural and cultural resources. Proposals that
support readiness and range sustainment; species at-risk, species of
concern and declining species and habitat; and streamlining the
identification and management of DoD cultural resources.

*Cultural Resources Areas of Emphasis

Archeological Collections Managemen*t
The primary concern of collections management is to ensure that DoD retains
the necessary information to make informed decisions that support
regulatory requirements and mission objectives, and that promote
responsible stewardship of DoD’s archeological collections held in public
trust in accordance with its responsibilities under NAGPRA. Relevant
efforts that support these goals include DoD’s cultural and archeological
collection policies, curation standards and methods, standards for curation
facilities, and the cataloguing of collections, associated records and grey
literature. Proposals are solicited that:

   - Develop innovative ways to address DoD-wide custodial responsibilities
   for collections, objects, associated records, NAGPRA-related items, and
   other cultural resources.


   - Explore ways to improve access to archeological data, inventories, and
   collections; and to associated data and reports.


   - Demonstrate cost-effective ways to store, house, catalogue, and
   steward archeological collections.


   - Improve archeological collection and curation strategies.


   - Promote the use of cultural resources in ways that are beneficial to
   the military mission, the resources, and public interests.

DoD especially seeks projects that will be broadly applicable and assist
DoD in improving stewardship practices of archeological sites and
collections.

Although projects may take more than one year to complete, recipients of
Legacy funds must obligate and, sometimes, expend those funds by the end of
the fiscal year in which they are awarded. Requests for funds must be for a
single year, and appropriate obligation and expenditure mechanisms must be
available. All Legacy-funded efforts must have a stand-alone product within
one year of receipt of funds, even if this is not the final project outcome.

Only proposals submitted via the Legacy Tracker website
https://www.dodlegacy.org and coordinated with appropriate installation and
headquarters personnel will be eligible for funding. Updated guidance on
the proposal process and requirements for Legacy-funded projects is
available on the Legacy Tracker (
www.dodlegacy.org/legacy/intro/guidelines.aspx).

All pre-proposals are due to the DoD Legacy Office by July 31, 2013.

Contact: Peter Boice (571) 372-6905

*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
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
pagewww.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm on the NPS Archeology Program
website.


Contact: Karen Mudar at [log in to unmask] to contribute news items, stories for
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