Museums and More

 

Hi everyone !

My name is Chloe Trinka, and I am the newly appointed archaeology intern in association with the Niles History Center and the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. I am a junior at Western Michigan University (WMU) continuing in my path of a BA in Anthropology. Some of you may have read my blogs from this past summer as I was a student in the WMU archaeological field school held Fort St. Joseph. I am so excited to be taking on this role as I continue to work alongside some amazing people both at the Niles History Center and at Fort St. Joseph.

As the fall semester kicks off, we at WMU are continuing our work with the artifacts found over the 2021 field school season. This includes sorting, categorizing, and archiving artifacts. Working in the lab might be considered the boring part of archaeology, but nonetheless it is very important and rewarding. At WMU we have a lab dedicated to the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. The perk of having this space is that we have the ability to fully investigate each and every artifact. This is sometimes tedious work, but I assure you I thoroughly enjoy it.

In the beginning of October, field director Erika Hartley and I attended the MAC/MHAC conference in East Lansing, Michigan. There we presented a poster displaying our 2021 field school finds. This poster covers some of the most interesting finds of the season and the specific field work we did. With the help of Dr. Nassaney this poster was very much a success. I loved hearing all of the questions and comments the other conference attendees had. My first conference experience definitely taught me a different set of skills that I didn’t know were associated with this profession before.

I would also like to take a moment to talk about is Michigan Archaeology Day. A couple weekends ago Erika and I, along with a few past field school students attended this event in order to inform and engage with the public on the knowledge this project has to offer. It was a really wonderful opportunity to interact with the youth that we so dearly missed due to Covid-19. I think the field school students and I can both agree that this was a very rewarding experience. The other benefit of this incredible event hosted by the Michigan History Center is that we get to learn too. It can’t really get much better than that.

        That's all the information I have for you guys right now! I am so thankful to be a part of this Project and I cannot wait to continue posting more blogs updating you on all the exciting things the off-season has to offer. Until next time!

Stay healthy,

               Chloe