The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Receives An Award!

                Recently, the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project was registered with the Register for Professional Archaeologists Field School Certification Program. In 1974, the Society of American Archaeology passed a resolution stating, “no site deserves less than professional excavation, analysis, and publication,” and noted that while teaching the next generation of archaeologists is critical to the field, all archaeological fieldwork should have a serious research commitment to the resource.  The Register for Professional Archaeologists (RPA) recently awarded a $1000 scholarship from the Society of American Archaeology to the field school they felt best met the following criteria:

• The field school includes strong hands-on learning components in both the field and laboratory.
• The field school provides information on the culture history of the site as well as that of the surrounding region through lectures, tours to other archaeological sites, and if possible interaction with native/indigenous/traditional groups living in the area.
• The field school teaches students how to communicate their (technical) findings through written journals, blogs, etc.
• The field school teaches students to interact with the public through open houses, public days, or other outreach programs.
• The field school includes educational components designed to teach students about archaeological ethics and their responsibility to the various constituencies that they will serve in their careers.

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project is immensely proud to announce that we are the recipients of this exciting award!  In particular, the SAA was impressed with the program’s focus on community service learning.  We selected two students to receive the $1000 scholarship.  Here is a little bit about both of them:

Amelia Harp is a non-degree graduate student studying anthropology at Western Michigan University. She is also pursuing her M.A. in Anthropology at Georgia State University. She received her Bachelor’s in Anthropology from Kennesaw State University, and completed an internship with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Department of Language and Culture. Her research interests include historical archaeology, public archaeology, and Native American studies with particular focus on the Great Lakes region. She is currently studying architecture and critically analyzing the relationship between academia and other various stakeholders, including Native American tribes, in the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project as part of her thesis work. She has participated in previous archaeological studies at Fort St. Joseph, the Dabbs Site in Georgia’s Bartow County, and Fort Daniel in Gwinett County. She has also aided in analyzing historical artifacts that were uncovered during the 1970s in archaeological excavations associated with the MARTA subway system in Atlanta.

Erika Loveland is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan and completed her archaeological field school at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. Her research interests include historical archaeology, public archaeology, colonialism, trade, and regional analysis. She is currently examining the architectural components of Fort St. Joseph, a French mission-garrison-trading post complex. She has participated in research projects for the pre-historic Garden Creek Site in North Carolina and the Undocumented Migration Project in Arizona.

Congratulations to Amelia and Erika and a very big thank you to everyone who has contributed to making the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project what it is!