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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 20 - July 1, 2009 |
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EXPLORING HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPES OF THE
This is the 5th cooperative program in archaeological field methods 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 14, 2009
This course will be team-taught by Laura L. Scheiber at Indiana University and Judson Finley at Northwest College, with contributing faculty members Kelly Branam (St. Cloud University) and Tim McCleary (Little Big Horn College). 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. Sessions 1 and 2 will be held at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Base camp for this project is the Ewing-Snell Ranch, a fully restored National Register of Historic Places landmark first established in 1896. Bighorn Canyon and the Ewing-Snell base camp offer easy walking access to field sites from paved or gravel roads. These sessions will offer training in survey, GPS, mapping, artifact and feature identification and analysis, and excavation at Crow domestic sites located along an important travel corridor called the Bad Pass Trail. Check out our recent articles in the American Surveyor and in the Billings Gazette. Session 3 will be held at a remote camp in the Shoshone National Forest. The wilderness area base camps may require students to pack their personal gear 10 miles over mountain summits of up to 10,000 feet. 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 surveying for protohistoric period Shoshone 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. We will continue research after the field school is over, with further sessions in the mountains, made possible with support by the National Science Foundation. Limited positions are available, so let us know if you are interested as soon as possible. FIELD SCHOOL SCHEDULE Pre-Session: May 20-May 23 Session 1: May 25-June 3 Session 2: June 8-June 17 Session 3: June 22-July 1 
COST IU Summer credit hour fees (6 credits) Field school fees Total for IU Undergraduates (Indiana residents) = $2,230.30
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 Sessions 1 and 2, students will be camping at the Ewing-Snell Ranch at the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Lectures and demonstrations will be conducted in the recently renovated Science Center. We will set up a canvas wall tent for our kitchen, and we will have access to a refrigerator to store our food. Park service bathrooms are available (no running water or flush toilets). These sessions will prepare students for Session 3 which will require more logistical planning to get all of our gear and equipment into the mountains. 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 Session 3. 
Students will be living in remote locations, without access to electricity, email, or phone lines. Cell phone reception is limited or unavailable. We will 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. The first two sessions at Ewing Snell, students will be cooking over camp stoves. During the third session, students will be cooking exclusively over open fires. 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. In years past, we have visited the Crow Reservation, the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Big Horn County Historical Museum, Chief Plenty Coup State Park, the Worland Museum, Thermopolis Hot Springs, Red Canyon Ranch, and rock art sites at Legend Rock State Historic Park, Medicine Lodge Creek State Historic Park, Pictograph Cave, or Valley of the Shields. FOUR DAY BREAKS The project directors 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, the Cody Nite Rodeo, and Horsethief Cave. 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. We should be able to negotiate some shared use of one of the University vehicles during the breaks (students pay for gas). Students who live locally will also be participating in the field school, and additional opportunities usually arise. 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 directors! Travel to the field site will generally occur during the last day of the break. Keep the project directors appraised of your whereabouts during the break. Student should also plan to provide some assistance to the project directors 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 any purchases you make or goods you acquire during the field school that cannot fit into your packs MUST be shipped back home at your own expense, as vehicle space is limited. MISCONDUCT We will be working and staying in small rural western communities. Students are representatives of Indiana University and Northwest College 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. 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 going to have to carry your personal gear into the backcountry, over difficult terrain. Your load should reflect this.
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Transportation to and from Indiana University and during the field sessions is provided. Students will meet at the parking lot in front of the Student Building at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 17th. 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 (last year we stayed overnight at Devil’s Tower). Students often decide not to stop 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. A vehicle will leave the project area after the third session on July 2nd, arriving in Bloomington on July 3rd. Estimated cost there and back: $50 camping fees plus food for up to four travel days. 
7. Bandana.