Career Cruising with Fort St. Joseph

Hello all, Genevieve here again.

Genna working with an interested student

            I am also among some of the students from the 2015 FSJ field school that have decided to work with Dr. Nassaney in the Independent Study course this semester. One of the most rewarding things about participating in this course is that we have the privilege to attend many important activities on campus and around Kalamazoo, if not around the country. Recently, some of the students in this course, including myself, were able to participate in WMU’s Career Cruising event for middle school students in the area. This WMU event allows students to broaden their career options by exposing them to different fields. There were several stations set up presenting different departments at Western. We represented the Anthropology department along with a biological anthropology professor and graduate student. Middle school students came in small groups, to which we presented a short activity teaching them how we use the material objects that previous humans have left behind in order to determine what these peoples’ lives were like or what activities they participated in.

A biological anthropologist showing different kinds of bones

            When asked the question “what is an archaeologist?” we are used to the occasional response of “oh, well you find dinosaur bones”. Many archaeologists may chuckle or grimace at this response, but we, as students ourselves, take this as an enormous teaching opportunity. Teaching children about the function of archaeology in everyday life and expanding their views of archaeology as a future career is a key component of getting support in this amazing field. We planted a seed in hundreds of middle school minds to get them thinking about themselves as future archaeologists. Getting the youth excited about archaeology is so rewarding. Many had no idea that archaeology happened around the United States let alone right around their community with the FSJ project. These events are a huge focus of ours when it comes to creating support for the project and for the Anthropology department at Western. Make sure to tell the middle school students in your life about the amazing opportunities that the FSJAP offers with our Summer Camps. For more information on the summer camps be sure to check out our flyer at: https://wmich.edu/fortstjoseph/docs/2016CamperFlyer.pdf

-        

           - Genna

Fort St. Joseph at the SHAs

The Society for Historical Archaeology’s (SHA) annual conference in Washington D.C. was a great way to start the New Year. This was my first conference which I attended and it was a great experience. I got to see several great presentations that really caught my interest and I got to present my project that I had been working on for the past six months. I got to work with the other students from Western Michigan University to prepare for my speech and I gained a lot of new knowledge on how to present and what a good paper looks like.

Austin George presenting at the SHA

Presenting at such a young age really opened my eyes as to what I need to do next. While I was at the conference I learned a lot about all the different types of archaeology and projects that were going on around the world that I could research more about. I enjoyed hearing presentations that related to events and activities that took place at Fort St. Joseph. Erika Loveland said, “Attending and presenting at the SHA’s was great! I was able to go to talks on a variety of topics that I am interested in as well as receive feedback and ideas on my own research.” We all learned a little bit more and got a lot of good feedback on our presentations which will help us in future times to come. As John Cardinal stated, “The first time going to the SHA's annual conference was an enjoyable and exciting opportunity where I was able to discover new projects, presented a poster focusing on the 2015 field season, and won a number of awards in the ACUA's photo contest. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience.”

Fort St. Joseph alumni in Washington D.C.

Getting the opportunity to attend and present at the SHA’s was such a rewarding opportunity for me. It was neat to see the past generations that have worked at the fort and get to hear stories about events that happened during their field season. The really neat part was when they told us about their jobs and where they were going in their lives. I really enjoyed the conference and cannot wait for next year.

-Austin George

Hello again everyone! 

After coming home from field school this past July, I knew that I wanted to stay involved with the project as much as possible, so I decided to take on an independent study under Dr. Nassaney along with a few other students from this past season. One of the tasks I’ve been focusing on for my independent study is working on a voice over recording for a video geared towards our week-long middle school camp held annually each summer. 

Liz showing the video to a fellow student 

Previously in the season, Stephen Ketner came out to film some of our middle school campers. Steve used some of this footage to piece together a promotional video called “Get Dirty!” The project is planning on distributing the video to the Niles area schools to get middle school students interested in our summer camp. This video highlights some of the best parts of our summer camp program, including how to identify, care for, and preserver artifacts. I spent about an hour in the studio with Steve recording the script that myself, Becca, Gary, and James worked on this summer. A few months ago, I was able to view the finished product of the video and it looks great! Keep an eye out for this video and make sure to contact the Fort St. Joseph Museum in Niles to find out how you can register your middle school student for our summer camp. 

You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFSPMLdgSPM 

Get ready to get dirty!

-Elizabeth Mantyck

Laboratory Work Continues

Despite the summer being over, work for the Project hasn’t ended. This past semester, four students from this summer’s field school along with the staff have been working on things in the lab back at WMU. We have cataloged our artifacts from this past summer, entering them into a digital database, as well as updated the Project’s fliers, brochures and public outreach opportunities.  We also have had several opportunities to attend public outreach events.

Rebecca Stoddard works with Michael Nassaney in the lab.

Starting in September, Dr. Nassaney worked with students to catalog new artifacts. We learned more about the characteristics of our artifacts, helping us to identify each one. Once the artifacts are initially cataloged we then entered them into an online database, called PastPerfect.  This program allows us to look back and easily locate each of our artifacts, rather than digging through a box to find them. Along with working with the artifacts we have updated the Project’s summer camp and teacher fliers. The Project was present at multiple public events this fall. In October a group of us went to Michigan Archaeology Day in Lansing, as well as MHAC in Minneapolis. These were great opportunities to engage with the public and promote the Project. In January we are also sending a group to attend the SHA conference Washington D.C.

As we wrap up our projects for this semester and start thinking of our projects for next semester we will be working more towards public outreach. We will be doing this so that we can hopefully get the word out to more people and a younger group of people on what archaeology is and what the Fort St. Joseph project is. One of the projects will be a teaching program which we will be visiting different middle school and elementary school locations in Kalamazoo county to spend the day sharing information about archaeology with students and teachers. The project is still in its draft stages but we hope to include details on how archaeologists conduct their field work and to include information about the coming 2016 Fort St. Joseph Archaeological field season.

MHAC 2015

The Mill City Museum could not have been a more apropos setting for this year’s Midwest Historical Archaeology Conference (MHAC) which was held on October 10-11, 2015. The conference was first held in 2005, envisioned by the senior editor of Le Journal, and has been hosted annually throughout the Midwest region ever since. With approximately 50 people in attendance, this year’s meeting was a resounding success for all those who attended.

Many of the themes for this year’s presiding; war and conflict, industry, immigration, and exploitation, were visible both in the museum’s content, and in the keynote address presented Friday night by Dr. Paul Shackle. His focus centered on the excavations and community involved with the site of the Lattimer Massacre. The Lattimer coal mine near Hazleton Pennsylvania was the site of a peaceful protest that turned tragic when 19 strikers were shot by the local sheriff and his posse.

Photo credit: Jeremy Nienow

Saturday Morning began with two rounds of “Ignite” style presentations (see appendix E for a full list of presentations and authors); each speaker was provided five minutes to discuss his or her topic. The themes for these talks expanded upon what was started by Paul Shackle the night before. Warfare and conflict was the topic of the first set of presentations, the focus being primarily on Fort Snelling and the Dakota Conflict. Industry, immigration, and exploitation were the concentrations for the second round of talks. After the presentations, a period of time was allocated so that attendees could tour the museum and surrounding area. After lunch the conference resumed with a session entitled “Knowledge Cafés” which coincided with specific time set for poster displays. This portion divided those attending into groups of approximately six per table, and the speakers from the morning sessions sat one to a table. After a brief period of time, the speakers rotated which facilitated further conversation about the topics presented; the commitment to intimate discussion is a hallmark of this conference. The conference concluded with a few words from Dr. Michael Nassaney hailing the success of this conference and calling for volunteers to host next year’s gathering. 

Archaeology Day 2015

Rebecca and Stephan at Archaeology Day

            On October 10th, a group of WMU students representing the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project headed out to Lansing for the 2015 Michigan Archaeology Day. We set up two display tables where we shared with the public some of our new finds from the 2015 field season. The public asked questions concerning French and Native American artifacts as well as the activities of the FSJAP and some general questions about archaeology itself. We also had on display a video made with a GoPro camera by field school student Austin George during the field season. Austin’s GoPro video gives a first person view of the activities performed by both field school students as well as participants in the annual camp program. It gives great insight into how public archaeology is done at Fort St. Joseph. Austin’s will present this video at the 2016 Society for Historical Archaeology conference in January.

            The event featured many speakers throughout the day. One of these speakers was Terry Martin from the Illinois State Museum. Terry has worked with FSJ students in the past, teaching them how to identify different animal bones found during the field season. Terry spoke about archaeological recovery of animal bones. During his presentation he highlighted many finds from Fort St. Joseph. Another presentation was the Ongoing Quest for the Wreck of the Griffon was presented by Dr. Dean Anderson, Michigan’s state archaeologist. His work showed many different false claims that were once thought to be factual claims of the Griffon wreck. Through the use of modern science such as dendrochronololgy, it was shown that these old claims were not the wreck of the Griffon.

Erika Loveland at Archaeology Day

          Overall, Michigan Archaeology Day was a great experience and opportunity to speak directly to the public about new finds and exciting updates on our activities. I had a chance to walk around the event and see the different archaeological projects going on in Michigan. I think it is important for us to continue sharing with the public that archaeology does go on, and it happens right in some of our backyards. It makes me proud to be a part of a project that is so strongly focused on working and integrating the public into their own history through archaeology. 

Closing Time

This field season’s Open House theme was “Seeking Shelter from the Storm.”  This is in keeping with the season’s archaeological focus of architecture at Fort St. Joseph, and on Saturday was a very fitting title for the festivities.  Attendees crowded under white tents to hear opening remarks from Robert Myers and hoped the rain would soon subside. The community of Niles again showed its resilience to the elements, however, as people came out to enjoy many sights, activities, and presentations from the Open House participants. The rain from the previous night was enough to raise the river and prevent entrance onto the archaeological site yet again but attendees enjoyed many other events and had a great time.

Our new interpretive panels were a highlight of the Open House
(photo by John Cardinal)

The weather on Sunday was much more appealing to most as the sun shone and birds chirped. The sun brought out around 550 visitors to the site.  These visitors enjoyed learning about a native style structure built on-site by the Pokagon band of Potawatomi from Amelia Harp, tours of Father Allouez’s cross and the commemorative Fort Saint Joseph Boulder as well as the Lyne site (a nearby archaeological site associated with the fort), and demonstrations from a number of historical interpreters including timber frame construction, blacksmithing, textile spinning, cooking, and quill writing. Sarett Nature Center also provided rides in a Voyageur canoe, offering participants a look at what being a voyageur during the Fur Trade would be like, about a dozen passengers at a time!

A french timber framing demonstration
(photo by John Cardinal)

Other activities were provided for children such as a mock dig that taught kids how archaeologists excavate and sift for artifacts.  Appetites were satisfied throughout the weekend thanks to Boy Scout Troop 579 from here in Niles, MI.  Noel Bash and her company of talented dancers demonstrated a wide array of 18^th century style dancing and on many occasions got the public on their feet to join in and dance along. We could not be happier with the turn out of the Open House and can’t wait to see everyone out in the summer of 2016!

Speaking on behalf of the archaeological team, we are extremely grateful to everyone who participated in and attended this year’s Open House.  I was a field school student in 2013 and am still amazed to witness the excitement and openness of the Niles community at the Open House and throughout the season.  Although we are sad that this exceptionally challenging field season is almost at a close, we are truly grateful for the words of encouragement and offers of assistance from supporters of the project.

Tomorrow the archaeology crew will be packing up and leaving Niles.  For the project veterans, this always comes with a pang of sadness as we think of Niles as a second home.  I’m certain the students will be saddened as well.  Niles has been a key instrument in their growing not only as experienced archaeologists, but as members of a community. We’d like to thank everyone who made this field season one for the books and a wonderful learning experience for all of us.

Cheers!

-Aaron

We'll see you at the 2016 Open House!
(photo by John Cardinal)