Hello
everyone,
My name is Carmell Dennis, and I am
one of the undergraduate students from Western Michigan University working on
the Fort St. Joseph archeological site in Niles Michigan. This field school is
my first field experience and so far it has been great! Next year I will be a
senior majoring in both history and anthropology. My mix of interests in anthropology
and history first started from listening to my grandpa who used to be a
professor himself at Purdue University. My grandpa would always be calling me
into his study to talk and teach me random things, whether it be in the car,
kitchen, in the middle of a movie, living room, restaurant, or wherever we were
and tell me stories from past events in history. He would try explaining to me
why these things happened and how they possibly could have been prevented. He
would also challenge my thinking in other ways giving me “what if” scenarios about
the past such as when things were invented and ask me what effects these things
would have in the future which sparked my interest in history and anthropology even
more. Finally when I was able to attend Western Michigan University and had
taken a few courses I signed up for Dr. Nassaney's Introduction to Archaeology
class and Professor Tim Bober's First Americans class. After taking these two
classes they both really opened up my eyes to anthropology and I have been
hooked ever since.
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| Seed bead found by Carmell and Rebecca (photo by Carmell Dennis) |
We have now been at the Lyne site
for four days which have been colder than expected but everyone including
myself was very eager to start digging and see what we could find. My unit
partner Rebecca Stoddard and I started digging in our 1x1 meter unit on Tuesday
and we started off great but we were not finding very much. Finally on
Wednesday between fifteen to twenty centimeters below datum we had found our
first culturally significant artifact a glass seed bead which we were so happy
about! The seed bead was actually a common item in the Fort St. Joseph area during
the 18th century especially since the site was a trade site. The
bead also was our first culturally significant find because it showed that some
type of human activity had gone on in the area that we were searching. Seed
beads being made mostly in Europe had played a significant role between
interactions with Europeans and Native Americans because they were used mostly
for trade. They also were an item of high value for Native Americans because
Native American made their beads out of bone, animal horn, deer hooves, turtle
shells, and clam shells as opposed to glass.
Seed beads were sometimes used as diplomacy trade good items between
Europeans and Native Americans. Seed beads got their name for looking very small
like a seed are different than other beads like necklace beads which were
strictly worn around the neck.
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| Some of the 2015 crew cleaning up units (photo by Carmell Dennis) |
Finding
the seed bead makes me often think about what my grandpa and I talked about the
"what if" in history. What if Europeans didn't trade glass beads and
other items to establish a friendly diplomatic relationship with Native Americans?
As I continue through the next six weeks of the field school I will continue to
think about what my grandpa has said and as I find more artifacts continue
research information about them.
-Carmell
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