Post by namakan on Apr 2, 2015 8:52:48 GMT -5
I am an archeologist (retired) with BA (1971) and MA (1973) degrees in Anthropology (specializing in archeology) from Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) and five years of post-graduate study in Anthropology at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX). I spent my career with the National Park Service based in Nebraska, working in many National Park units across the Western Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Northern and Central Plains, and Ozark Plateau. I now volunteer for the NPS and still participate in occasional field projects with my younger colleagues. Given that background, I have diverse interests (fur trade, pre-and post-contact history of the Great Lakes and Plains, Native American art, etc.), but have focused much of my research on the ethnohistoric and archeological record of the Bois Forte Ojibwe of northern Minnesota -- especially regarding the area currently within Voyageurs National Park (VOYA). I have conducted some level of fieldwork at VOYA each year since 1979. I have recorded about four dozen Bois Forte-related post-contact archeological sites within VOYA, and since about 2002, yearly have led groups of Bois Forte elders on boat tours to visit their ancestor's sites within the park. The park is a lake-based roadless 218,000 acre area along the US-Canadian border east of International Falls Minnesota. I plan to write concise threads on early Ojibwe history and other threads more specific to the history of the Bois Forte, including their band and clan structure, impact of treaties, and other topics for this site. I found the site by accident and am very glad that I did.