First Day of Field Work... Clearing, Cleaning, Cleansing!

Hello fort followers!

This week began with a visit to the Fort St. Joseph site. Before we arrived, the students and staff helped to load up a few vans, several personal vehicles, and a trailer with materials needed for site excavation, lab work, and our living quarters in Niles. Despite the heat and humidity, everyone was very helpful and efficient with moving the site equipment in, out, and around the buildings that we will occupy for the duration of the field school.

Upon arriving at the site, students and staff had the chance to meet with Matthew Bussler, the Michigan Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. He was delighted to share with us the details and meanings of a smudging ceremony, which he explained was to bless and cleanse the site as we break ground on another year of excavation.

Matthew is pictured above on the left.

Students and staff were able to observe and participate in the smudging ceremony, which involved touching smoke that emanated from a burning bundle of sage against one’s body, and allowing Matthew to send smoke along the parts of the body that one cannot reach. Afterwards, he offered us some cedar oil to rub onto the top of our heads, and on our arms and legs as an effort to keep disease from touching us if it were to release during excavation.

We hope to continue to strengthen our relationship with Matthew and the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi as the summer continues and into the distant future.

After participating in the smudging ceremony, field school students, staff, and volunteers began to clear the area surrounding the areas of excavation with rakes, loppers, lawn mowers, machetes, chainsaws, and weed cutters. The areas we will excavate this year are within a few trenches dug into the site’s modern landfill (20^th century), and required a lot of labor to cut back the brush, branches, and weeds that would impede an efficient and careful excavation.

 

After clearing a path around the trenches, students, staff, and volunteers began to clear a pathway for the Historic Walking Tour on July 15th at 6pm. The walking tour will involve the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project along its path, from the historical marker near Bond St. to the site itseld. The walking tour begins at the Niles Amphitheater, and will last for approximately two hours. An event page for the walking tour is on the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Facebook page.

Our work so far has been wonderful, and the students have shown their dedication to this project and their understanding for its importance to the community. We look forward to seeing what this year's field school season will teach us!

Back to the Base(ics)!

Hello to our fort followers! My name is Hannah Rucinski, and I am this year’s site photographer. I am also one of our public outreach coordinators along with Raegan Delmonico (also our Lab Coordinator) and Miro Dunham (also one of our field assistants). This past week, we held a very productive orientation for the 2019 Field School. This year, we had nine field school students and seven staff to get to know during the first couple days at Western Michigan University. We quickly became close with one another as our collective enthusiasm over site excavation and public outreach involvement was understood. The beginning of orientation involved brief icebreakers, questions about one another’s excitements and concerns about the field school, and bagels.

After we were comfortable with one another, Dr. Michael Nassaney gave lectures on the archaeology of the fur trade in North America, the Michigan underground railroad, and field & lab procedures in Niles. 

Students participated in several field exercises, including right-angle mapping, unit surveying, and operating a total station. 

The students and staff also had the opportunity to travel to a nearby construction site in Kalamazoo to examine some animal remains recovered by the construction crew. They were able to look at examples of stratigraphy at the dig site, soil colors in a pile of backfill, and the procedures that Dr. Nassaney takes when such a situation arises.

We are looking forward to the beginning of the field school’s excavation in Niles. It will be an education and memorable experience for all who participate. We can’t wait to see all of our fort followers at this year’s Open House, which runs from 10am – 4pm on August 3^rd and 4^th. For those who wish to participate in other public FSJ events this summer, we will hold four lectures at the Niles District Library as a part of our annual lecture series. This year’s theme is “Curation: Preserving the Past for the Future”, and will be held on each Wednesday in July at 7pm, beginning with July 10^th. Erika Hartley, the Fort St. Joseph Curatorial Fellow, will give the first lecture on the 10^th.

Feel free to follow along with this year’s events on our Facebook page, titled “The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project”, by liking the page. We hope to see you, our dedicated fort followers, at some of our upcoming events!