Water Quality in the St. Joseph River

Hello Community,

            My name is Antonio Wheeler and I am a senior at Western Michigan University. I am majoring in biology and have recently decided to minor in anthropology. I am now registered in Dr. Nassaney’s Anthropology in the Community class. Our goal as a class is to provide research and design services to promote anthropological knowledge about the St. Joseph River community. This will include economic, social, political and recreational roles of the rivers and waterways. In August, our research will be displayed in a panel at Fort St. Joseph open house.

            My group including Megan, Dion and I were chosen to research contemporary uses of the St. Joseph River in today’s community. Our subtopics will explore issues such as dam usage as an energy source, recreational use, and water quality and how the community chooses to use them. To gain more information about the subject, we will meet with Community Development Director in Niles, Sanya Philips. This will give us relevant information to use on our panel board. My focus within the group is to research water quality in the St. Joseph River.

            I am exploring if the water is good enough to drink and use on a daily basis. I will look at how the community gets their water, either directly from the river or does it come from some other water source. I hope to find information on contaminates that may be present in the water and how the community can approach the situation. With my research I want to build awareness in the community on the water that is being used and consumed.

-Antonio Wheeler

The Kalamazoo Living History Show

            This past weekend two independent study students and the Project’s intern joined Support the Fort at the Kalamazoo Living History Show. This living history show gives the opportunity for more than 270 vendors of pre-1890's goods and crafts to showcase and sell their products. Among them more than 10,000 members of the general public, historical re-enactors, enthusiasts, and collectors all attended this event. The goods being sold attract a group of people who are interested in pre-1890's history. This, of course, includes Fort St. Josep. With that being said, this weekend was a great opportunity to promote Support the Fort, Inc. and the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project (FSJAP).

John Cardinal and Austin George at the Support the Fort Table

            Support the Fort had multiple informational booklets and books about Fort St. Joseph, the French, and the history of the fur trade for sale. The FSJAP brought along fliers about this summer's Open House (August 6-7), pamphlets about our various summer camps, and a showcase filled with exciting finds from the 2015 field season. These artifacts were especially interesting to young kids, many of whom are involved with historical re-enactment. I overheard a mother comparing our artifacts to the products why use when re-enacting.

            It was encouraging to see the number of individuals who were already familiar with the FSJAP, and who were happy to see us and Support the Fort throughout the weekend. For those individuals who were not familiar with Fort St. Joseph, it was a wonderful opportunity to see newly peaked interest. Many individuals express an interest in the Open House, our summer camps, and our multiple social media outlets. We look forward to more opportunities to reach out and engage with the public to teach and discuss Fort St.

Joseph and the work of both Support the Fort and the FSJAP.

-Rebecca

Industry on the St. Joseph River

Good afternoon, everybody!  

My name is Alexander Milnikel; I’m a graduate student studying Public History at Western Michigan University.  As a member of Dr. Michael Nassaney’s “Anthropology in the Community” section this semester, I am, in collaboration with my research partner Ryan Murdoch, studying the impact that industry on the St. Joseph River has had on the Niles community throughout its history, going all the way back to the establishment and settling of Fort St. Joseph.  Questions we’re delving into include what industries in particular have utilized the St. Joseph River; how have these industries impacted the environment; and how have they helped Niles develop into the community that it is today?

Historical depiction of the French Paper Co. in Niles, Michigan

Since our research began, we’ve looked at a number of industries which have been critical in the history of the Niles area at varying points in time.  A great example of one such industry which most of our Niles readers should be familiar with is the French Paper Company, a paper mill in Niles which has been in operation since 1871.  This paper mill to this day utilizes electricity generated at a hydroelectric power plant at the Niles dam, and continues to produce a wide array of paper products.  What’s more, French Paper Company is just one of a number of paper mills which at different points in Niles’s history have operated along the St. Joseph River, as evidenced by both county histories and old Sanborn Maps of the city of Niles dating back to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  This shows us a pattern in the types of industry which have historically utilized the St. Joseph River in Niles, namely that there is a longstanding history of paper mills utilizing the river.

When this project is all said and done, Ryan and I hope to have compiled a sufficient rundown of some of the most important industries along the St. Joseph River in Niles’s history, and the role both they and the river have played in the development of the Niles community.  We’re reaching out to at least one community partner and still looking at a number of very promising resources which should greatly aid us in our endeavors.  As a native of southwestern Michigan hailing from St. Joseph who’s visited Niles many times, it’s my great pleasure to in some small way take part in assisting the Niles community in compiling and interpreting its history for the public.

-Alexander C. Milnikel

Native Uses of the St. Joseph River

A historic view of the St. Joseph River

Hello everyone! My name is Alicia Gregory and I am an undergraduate student at Western Michigan University, majoring in Anthropology and Biomedical Science. My research partner Carole and I are focusing on how Native American’s used the St. Joseph River around the time Fort St. Joseph and hopefully pre-fort period. What were Native Americans settlement locations based in part to the river? Were there rituals or beliefs involved with the river? An example would be that every time when Natives would get in their canoes and go hunting or just even traveling they would lay tobacco in the water to give thanks because the water supports life and helps with safe journeys. What are some activities that they did that related to the river? These are just a few questions we are hoping to get answered throughout the remainder of the semester.

I decided to focus on the Native American uses of the river because being Native American myself, I thought that it would be interesting to see how they used the rivers in their everyday lives. Many of us know that Native Americans lived off the land but few know how they used the rivers to connect with other tribes, hunt, and even how important it was for them. That is something that my research partner and I want to know so that we can learn about how Natives lived based off the river.

By the end of this project Carole and I are hoping to have uncovered just how Native Americans used the river and hopeful give visitors to the city of Niles some history about the river in general. We have already been in contact with one of our community partner gathering personal knowledge on the Native groups that lived along the river. However, we are planning on contacting local historians in and around Niles to give us more information how what was used from the river and how it impacted their lives.

          -  Alicia Gregory 

Let’s Talk About Transportation!

Historic depiction of the St. Joseph River near Niles, Michigan

But first hello, my name is Julia Tanner and I am studying the impact of the St. Joseph River as a network for transportation around the time that Fort St. Joseph would have been active, (18^th century). My research partner Lana and I are invested in finding out exactly what canoes were used for what jobs. What materials made up canoes that were for the fur trade business versus fishing canoes? An example would be that most Native Americans used birch bark canoes because of how light but durable they were. They were easier to carry on the ground when covering the area of a portage. Also how did the use of portages around this area of study affect canoes and the trading business? On a larger scale did the traders who were stationed up in Montreal around this frame use rivers to connect all the way down to Fort St. Joseph? We know that the St. Joseph River was an active channel for traveling and trading, we are going to research just how active and how far reaching the river went as a transportation and trade network.

Lana and I wanted to focus on transportation because everyone overlooks rivers and waterways now in the 21^st century. Rivers were the original 1-94 or 131, the highways of a past lifeways and native people and foreign settlers depended on them for surviving and for making a living. Their importance to our past should never be overlooked.

By the end of this project Lana and I hope to have a working knowledge of people who used the St. Joseph River for trade and traveling. We also plan on having contact with community members, in and around Niles to give us more personal information on the river and the uses for it, such as active canoeist and local historians. 

-Julia Tanner

Greetings from Niles!

Hello everyone! This past Monday and Tuesday, Julie Stein from the University of Washington came to visit Western Michigan. She is an alumna of the Department of Geosciences and Anthropology who now works as a geoarchaeologist out of the University of Washington and is the director of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. On Monday, Julie was greeted with bagels by graduate students of the anthropology department and she gave two lectures. First she spoke about gender in the sciences and later in the day she spoke about the archaeology of the Lewis and Clark expeditions. On Tuesday Julie, Dr. Nassaney, Austin, and I made a trip down to Niles to show Julie where we work. We started out by touring the floodplain, stopping at Father Allouez’s cross, the commemorative Fort St. Joseph boulder, and then went up to the Lyne Site. We then headed over to the Fort St. Joseph Museum and Chapman House for a tour there. We ended the day by grabbing a bite to eat at the Nugget in downtown Niles. We exchanged stories about Fort St. Joseph and Julie’s experiences and I learned some pretty interesting things from her. I enjoyed spending the day in Niles and I’m getting excited to be back this summer!

-Liz Mantyck

Creating a Teacher Program

In an effort to broaden awareness of Fort St. Joseph, we have found it very important that we focus on developing an educational program. Targeting young students, as well as those at the collegiate level, will spread knowledge about the fort as well as deepen understanding about its cultural heritage. Collaborating with schools is sure to be promising, as teachers and young adults have been attending summer camps at FSJ since 2002, and showing great interest. The WMU archaeological field school has been successful in gaining the interest of college students since 1998.

An example of "artifacts" in our trash bag activity

Currently, we are working to develop a teacher program that we can share with Berrien County as well as the surrounding counties in southwest Michigan. We have had success with a trash bag activity where we present students with a sheet listing present day “artifacts” (common household garbage) in separate bags, and ask them to tell us where they think these items are found. After experimenting with this activity at a recent Career Cruising event and meeting with Sue Reichert (a graduate student focusing on similar topics) and Elspeth Inglis (Assistant Director for Programs at Kalamazoo Valley Museum), we have decided to alter the activity a bit and present physical bags with actual items. Children are often more responsive to activities where they can engage “hands on.” Both Sue and Elspeth agreed that it would be wise for us to cater to the students in that sense, as well as ask more questions that will challenge the students to think “outside of the box” and independently. If any educators are reading this and are interested in learning more about this program, please check back frequently with our social media pages. We will be sure to update you all with of our progress!

-Anne Volpe