Talking With A FEMA Archaeologist

Hi everybody, my name is Cameron Youngs and I am a field student here at the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, and a student at Western Michigan University. This is my fourth week excavating here in Niles, Michigan, and I am having the experience of a lifetime. I have met many wonderful people, I have ate a lot of good food, but most importantly I have learned a lot about Fort St. Joseph and working in the field. Each day has been a new adventure, and by the time Friday comes along I don’t want to go home. Last week we had a guest who came to visit us at the Stables and gave a lecture at the library. His name is Brock, and he was a former field student here at the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project.

Brock told us all about his career working as an archaeologist, and how he is currently employed as a FEMA archaeologist working in New York. FEMA archaeologists are responsible for making sure a particular location does not have any archaeological sites before FEMA builds an emergency structure. Since FEMA is a federally funded agency, they are required by law to comply to the National Historic Preservation Act before a structure is built. If there is historic or archaeological significance present, they either have to excavate or advise to change the location of their emergency structure. I thought this was very interesting, and I had no idea such a career even existed! Also, I did not know that FEMA was even required to build around archaeological sites under the National Historic Preservation Act. To me it sounded like a very fulfilling career to work as an archaeologist while contributing to disaster relief.

Brock Giordano at the
Niles District Library last Wednesday. 

At the lecture Brock talked about his work at the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project as a graduate student at Western Michigan University. He talked about the exchange of goods between the French and the Native Americans, but more specifically he focused on the concept of repurposing trade goods in a way that was completely unintended by the item’s original manufacturer. His focus was on tinkling cones that Native Americans would construct out of brass or copper, which they used to adorn their clothing. Tinkling cones are constructed out of scrap metal, usually from worn out brass kettles traded to them from the French. This metal was cut from the kettles, and then they were bent into a conical shape. Native Americans were the originators of crafters of tinkling cones, but we are not exactly sure if blacksmiths began to craft them too. Tinkling cones have been found in the archaeological record at Fort St. Joseph. I haven’t found any yet, but I would be very stoked if I did. (After Cam finished this blog he recovered a tinkling cone in his unit. (Edit: Meghan Williams)).

Tinkling cone found in Cam's unit.

After the lecture I asked Brock some questions about his career, and some advice for a budding archaeologist. He did not hesitate to tell me about his experiences, and what jobs I should expect to find with an undergrad in archaeology. He told me that I could find lots of work traveling around the United States through Cultural Resource Management. Cultural Resource Management or CRM, operates under a similar process as FEMA archaeologists. When a large federally funded structure or roadway is being built, CRM archaeologists must make sure that there are not any archaeological sites in the area before the structure is built. This is really exciting for me because it gives me an opportunity to travel, and work with artifacts. He told me that most undergrads do this kind of work in their twenties, and it is a good way to get familiar with working in the field. I look forward to my future of working and traveling across the United States as an archaeologist. Working at Fort St. Joseph has given me the opportunity to learn some of these field skills, and I am grateful for this opportunity. I also want to thank Brock for speaking with us, and everyone else during field school who has helped me navigate a future in archaeology.