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Department of Anthropology |
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Archaeological Field School in Montana & Wyoming: Exploring Historical and Social Landscapes of the Greater Yellowstone EcosystemMay 16- June 29, 2012 |
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EXPLORING HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPES OF THE
Indiana University will be offering its eighth cooperative program in archaeological field methods for summer 2012, in the beautiful Bighorn and Absaroka Mountain ranges of Montana and Wyoming. This field school is a holistic, field-based program in the social history and human ecology of the Northwestern High Plains and Middle Rocky Mountains with a special emphasis on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. If you like camping, hiking, and archaeology, this field school is for you! APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 9, 2012 Click here for an APPLICATION This course will be taught by Laura L. Scheiber at Indiana University. Field research will be conducted in three 10-day sessions with four days breaks between each field session. We will begin with a four day Pre-Session in which we will orient you to the project and travel to the Crow Indian Reservation. This field school is a combined program in archaeology, ethnography, and heritage management. Session 1 will be held at Red Canyon Ranch outside of Thermopolis, Wyoming, owned by best-selling authors Michael and Kathleen Gear. Base Camp is the historic 1916 Nostrum homestead. Students will be camping in the buffalo pasture around the house. This session will offer training in excavation, mapping, and artifact ifentification at an historic tipi ring site on the border of the Wind River Reservation. Sessions 2 and 3 will be held in the Shoshone National Forest. Students will be introduced to archaeological survey, GPS, mapping, artifact identification, and site recording. During Session 2, students will map features at a large Native American campsite and record an extensive associated lithic artifact scatter. Session 3 will be spent documenting recently identified sites in the Washakie Wilderness that were impacted by forest fires in 2010. The wilderness area base camp may require students to pack their personal gear several miles over mountainous country of up to 8,000 feet above sea lelvel. If necessary, a certified outfitter and pack string will deliver all field equipment and supplies to the camp. Students should be prepared to spend the majority of the session hiking and recording archaeological sites in the high country. The wilderness component to this program affords few luxuries in a potentially harsh but stunning environment with amazing archaeology. All students must participate in a USDA Forest Service sponsored “Bear Awareness” training program and carry bear spray at all times. Grizzly bears and potential bear encounters are a fact of camp life. Be prepared to walk several miles every day, possibly crossing up and down mountains, through heavily wooded areas, and across cold mountain streams. Due to weather-related circumstances outside our control, we may be unable to access the back county project area, in which ase we will conduct further sessions at Red Canyon Ranch.
FIELD SCHOOL SCHEDULE Pre-Session: May 16 - May 19 Session 1: May 22 - May 31 Session 2: June 5 - June 14 Session 3: June 19 - June 29 (possibly extended several days) 
COST IU Summer credit hour fees (6 credits) Field school fees Total for IU Undergraduates (Indiana residents) = $2,422.20
TRANSPORTATION
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS Students will be camping throughout the field school and should plan their equipment accordingly. Kitchen facilities and food are provided during the field sessions, but the student needs to provide personal gear (including a tent) and should be prepared for 10 days of field living. Early summer in the mountains is unpredictable and may vary from extremely hot to rainy to cold and snowy, with temperatures ranging from 20 to 100 degrees F. Be prepared for ANY weather conditions. During Session 1, students will be camping at the Red Canyon Ranch. Lectures and demonstrations will be conducted at the original Nostrum Springs homestead. We will have access to refrigerators and electricity, and we will be able to use the kitchen to cook our meals. Students will not have access to flush toilets. This session will prepare students for Sessions 2 and 3, which will require more logistical planning to get all of our gear and equipment into the mountains. We will set up a canvas wall tent for our kitchen and cook over camp stoves or over camp fires. Because of the presence of bears and other wildlife in the high country, we will be much more careful about camping, food preparation, and food storage during the last two sessions. 
Students will be living in remote locations, often without access to electricity, email, or phone lines. Cell phone reception is limited or unavailable. We can set up a solar shower, but there will often be days when you are unable to take a shower, although students may be able to bathe in the creek. If you have body piercings, you may want to consider taking them out or preparing ahead for hygiene measures when we enter remote locations. During the 10 day field sessions, meals are served communally. Each student will take turns preparing meals based upon previously planned menus.Students should be prepared to put up their tent and take them down often, especially during the breaks. Living in your tent for an entire field session represents an extreme use of your tent and will take its toll on your tent. DO NOT PLAN TO USE A CHEAP TENT! IT WILL FAIL YOU! FIELD TRIPS This field project is located in the middle of countless natural and cultural wonders. Weather permitting, we will plan several fieldtrips during the field school. Possible visits include the Crow Reservation, the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the Irma Hotel, the Buffalo Bill Dam Interpretive Center, Chief Plenty Coup State Park, Heart Mountain, Thermopolis Hot Springs, the Wind River Reservation, Legend Rock State Historic Park, and Medicine Lodge Creek State Historic Park. FOUR DAY BREAKS The project director, field assistants, and field school students will be based out of Cody, Wyoming, during the breaks between sessions. Students can spend days off exploring Yellowstone National Park or hiking and camping in the nearby Bighorn, Beartooth, or Absaroka Mountains. Cody, Wyoming, is a major summer tourist destination. Popular activities and destinations include river rafting down the Shoshone River, attending the Cody Nite Rodeo, and seeing the sights of the "Old West." The field school will pay for camping fees to stay at the Ponderosa campground in downtown Cody over the breaks. Students need to provide their own food during the breaks (group meal planning is also encouraged). Everything is centrally located, and students can walk to stores, restaurants, and museums from the campground. Students who do not stay in the campground after the sign up period is over need to reimburse the field school at a rate to be determined by the project director! Travel to the field site will generally occur during the last day of the break. Keep the project director appraised of your whereabouts during the break. Student should also plan to provide some assistance to the project director during the four day break by helping with tasks such as purchasing food or preparing equipment for field sessions. Expenses:
** Please keep in mind that you must bring home any purchases you make or goods you acquire during the field school that cannot fit into your packs. Space in official vehicles is limited. MISCONDUCT You will be working and staying in small rural western communities. Students are representatives of Indiana University at all times. Please act accordingly. Misconduct or endangerment to oneself or others will not be tolerated. Should such a situation present itself, you will be asked to leave, and you will be required to make your own travel arrangements home. Please be respectful of the perspectives of the project director and field assistants – they may have insights into what is inappropriate behavior that you have never considered. We will be living and working in close quarters with one another for an extended period of time and in difficult conditions. This means that everyone must be aware of how their behavior affects the rest of the group. We need to be considerate, tolerant, and above all flexible to insure that this is a positive field experience for everyone involved.WHAT TO BRING In the field school, you will learn as much about outdoor survival as archaeological field methods. However, this is not a class in wilderness backpacking (check out the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for this type of adventure) and you do not need to have prior experience camping or hiking to participate in the class. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how to properly plan to clothe yourself for more than 40 days of mountain weather, check out the NOLS equipment lists. 1. Your own tent (such as a decent 2 person backpacking tent), sleeping bag (consider a 10-20 degree bag), sleeping pad, ground cover, and stout metal tent pegs. If you are coming with a friend, you may share a tent. ** We recommend that you do not purchase tents, sleeping bags, or backpacks from the following locations: Dick’s Sporting Goods, (clothing is ok, including boots), MC Sports, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or any similar store. Their products generally fall apart quickly, resulting in cold, wet, angry campers. We recommend the following online vendors: ebay (make sure you are bidding on a reputable brand), REI, campmor.com, backcountry.com. In Bloomington, shop at J.L. Waters on the square. In Cody, shop at Sierra Trading Post. ** Remember that you are likely going to have to carry your personal gear into the backcountry, over difficult terrain. Your load should reflect this.
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Students need to provide their own transportation to and from the field school. Our goal is to ask students to convoy out there together if possible. At least one University vehicle and several personal vehicles will be traveling together to the field site. If students are unable to arrange their own transportation, they may be able to travel in one of these vehicles. Students will meet at the parking lot in front of the Student Building at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 13th. The distance between Bloomington and the Project area is approximately 1,500 miles, so students should plan to stay overnight for two nights on the way there. We will minimize costs by staying at campgrounds on the way out to Wyoming (typically students have stayed overnight at Devil’s Tower). Students often decide not to stop overnight on the return trip home. Students should plan to provide their own meals on the trip there and back, and during the four day breaks. Our intent is to get students back to Bloomington no later than July 3rd. The third session may be extended a few days if we have trouble accessing the site area immediately. Estimated cost there and back: $50 camping fees plus food for up to four travel days. Students are also welcome to fly directly into the Yellowstone Regional Airport in Cody, Wyoming. You must arrive no later than May 15th.
7. Bandana.