News

Last modified 04/08/13

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Highway 35 Display in UW-L’s Main Hall

Artifacts recovered from the recent Highway 35 project in Onalaska and the Wisconsin DOT Tribal Excellence Award that MVAC received for its work on the project, can be seen in a new display outside the Chancellor’s office in UW-L’s Main Hall. Stop by to see some of the artifacts recovered during the excavation. Main Hall is open during regular business hours.

Artifact Show a Success!

Thanks to all the collectors, volunteers and MVAC staff who helped to make this year’s Artifact Show a success! We estimate that over 4,000 people stopped by to look at artifacts displayed by MVAC and 16 area collectors. Highlights of the show were the display of artifacts recovered during the Onalaska/Highway 35 project last summer, Robert Keiper's flintknapping demonstration, identification of artifacts by MVAC staff, and the wonderful collections of artifacts displayed by area collectors.

Are you eager to get more involved in the area’s archaeology? Then consider attending an upcoming event – volunteer field survey, lectures, public/high school field school, or youth classes. Information about these events can be found on MVAC’s Events & Displays web page at: http://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/EventsDisplays/EventDisplay.htm

MVAC Wins Award for Work on Onalaska Highway Project

Archaeologist Kathy Stevenson recalls catching the first glimpse of an ancient village buried under Hwy. 35 in Onalaska. It was summer 2011, and building demolition for a large road construction project had begun. Amid the rubble, her team of researchers zoned in on some dark soil where a building foundation had just been removed.

In a time long before garbage trucks, these dark circles in the earth were left behind by 400-700 year-old garbage pits or “pit features” — spots where former cultures threw their garbage. The seemingly mundane find to a layperson was a treasure trove to her team of archeologists.

“What archaeologists study is the remains people left behind from their everyday life,” says Stevenson, projects director for the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center. “From their ‘garbage’ we can tell what tools they made, the animal resources they used, what kind of crops they grew, the size of the site, how long they lived there … there is so much information you can tease out.”

MVAC researchers knew they would learn more about the Oneota culture, which flourished in the La Crosse and Onalaska area from about A.D. 1300 to 1600. But the team was in for a surprise when the two pit features became six and eventually 500 as the workers began to peel away the roadbed in 2012, exposing remnants of the village, as well as human remains in more than 30 locations.

“There was an entire, intact strip of village right under the street for about five blocks,” says Stevenson. “The ramifications were huge and so were the responsibilities — especially when dealing with human remains, where there is a strict process that needs to be followed.”

Yet, the archeologists were keenly aware that they were working in the middle of a busy downtown area with a construction timeline to follow.

“When you have a road dug up in the middle of the city, you need to keep moving dirt,” says Chris Dahl, projects leader with the Department of Transportation. “I was fearful going into the project that it would be held up, but once I saw how the MVAC team got going on things —putting in long days and long hours — I saw they wanted to work with us to get the project done. They understood the time constraints we were dealing with.”

Stevenson says communication — every day and sometimes multiple times each day — was key. They had to work with multiple stakeholders in the project including the DOT, Federal Highway Administration, Wisconsin Historical Society, City of Onalaska, Ho-Chunk Nation and construction contractors.

For MVAC’s commitment and dedication to the project, the team was recognized with a 2012 WisDOT Tribal Excellence Award during a ceremony on Dec. 11, 2012, at the WisDOT Tribal Transportation Conference. The award is for providing exemplary contributions and services to building and enhancing partnerships with the Wisconsin DOT and Wisconsin Tribal communities.

“We are used to working with construction companies,” says Wendy Holtz-Leith, MVAC research archaeologist. “We are out in the hot sun, shoveling all day along with them.”

MVAC staff as well as student crew members pitched in to keep the project moving, says Stevenson. They found items such as pottery, animal bones, food waste, burnt rock, deposits of ash from cooking fires and more.

MVAC had suspected there would be artifacts in this location based on historic records, including newspaper accounts from as far back as the 1880s indicating people had found “Indian artifacts” and “Indian remains.”

“When I first started working in this area about 30 years ago, we knew almost nothing about the area having these kinds of sites,” says Stevenson. “We keep building more of a picture of the cultures who lived here and who they were.”

Excavation is only a small part of the archaeologist’s job. Now MVAC archeologists who worked on the project spend their days cleaning and cataloging artifacts found at the site. Above student workers catalog artifacts. Additional work will include writing reports and providing public lectures and displays.

Follow a Trail of Trash

Connie Arzigian, UW-L MVAC, stated “Pretty much all we know about ancient civilizations we learned by digging through their trash” in the La Crosse Tribune article entitled Follow a Trail of Trash. Read the whole article at: http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/following-a-trail-of-trash/article_44fd4444-62bc-11e2-b2ea-001a4bcf887a.html.

La Crosse Community Foundation Richard W. Brown Family Fund Donation

What a wonderful way to celebrate the New Year – with a grant from the La Crosse Community Foundation Richard W. Brown Family Fund! This grant will help MVAC continue educational and outreach activities that have given countless children and adults the opportunity to learn about this area’s archaeology and past cultures. Activities supported by the La Crosse Community Foundation Richard W. Brown Family Fund for the coming year will include MVAC’s annual artifact show, lecture series, school and community presentations, volunteer field survey, and summer youth classes and public field school. We are sincerely grateful for the La Crosse Community Foundation Richard W. Brown Family Fund’s support!

If you would like to make a contribution to MVAC’s Education Program, just send your donation to MVAC UW-L, 1725 State St., La Crosse, WI 54601 and indicate that you would like the funds to be used for MVAC’s Education Program.

Camille A. Lonstorf Trust Donation to MVAC's Educational Endowment

More great news for MVAC’s Education Endowment – we just received a $500 donation from the Camille A. Lonstorf Trust for our Education Endowment! How wonderful! Thanks so much to the Camille A. Lonstorf Trust for their support of MVAC’s public outreach efforts!

If you would like to make a contribution to MVAC’s Education Endowment, just send your donation to MVAC UW-L, 1725 State St., La Crosse, WI 54601 and indicate that you would like the funds to be used for the Education Endowment.

Anonymous Donation to MVAC's Education Endowment

MVAC just received some great news to start off the New Year - a $3,000 anonymous donation has been made to MVAC’s Education Endowment! In challenging economic times such as these, contributions to our Educational Endowment are particularly important and are especially appreciated. Contributions such as this anonymous donation allow us to continue to bring the excitement of the area’s pre-European people and the process of archaeology to adults, teachers and students through a variety of opportunities such as classroom presentations, fieldwork opportunities, and lectures. A big thank you to our anonymous donor! The contribution is truly appreciated!

MVAC Board of Directors News

MVAC’s Board of Directors has a new Chair, a retiring member, and four new members.

Former Board Chair Don Smith has completed his term and is now Vice Chair, with Reggie McLeod now serving as Chair. Colin Betts of Luther College has left the board with completion of his term. MVAC extends sincere thanks to Don, Reggie, and Colin and the other members for their service.

MVAC is also pleased to welcome four new board members: Jim Nepstad, Superintendent at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Macgregor, IA; Brad Foss from Dairyland Power Cooperative; George Howe, Conservation Director for the Mississippi Valley Conservancy (MVC); and Don Sloan, chair of the Art Department at UW-La Crosse. MVAC has partnered with Effigy Mounds National Monument for years, and Jim Nepstad’s addition to the Board offers a new opportunity to formalize our relationship and focus on educational and research activities of interest to the membership. Dairyland has been represented on the board since MVAC’s inception, and Brad Foss will continue this longstanding relationship. John Thiel, former Dairyland representative, has retired from the company but will continue on MVAC’s board as a public member. George Howe’s addition to the board reflects MVAC ongoing work with MVC to help preserve natural areas that incorporate important archaeological sites. Don Sloan, who joined the board this fall, is an art historian with strong interests in MVAC and UW-L’s Archaeological Studies major, and extensive development experience.

2012 Public Field School

Thanks to all who helped with this year's field school!

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2012 Exploring the Past National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for Teachers

The 2012 Summer Institute Exploring the Past: Archaeology in the Upper Mississippi River Valley shared the story of 13,500 years of human history with a group of enthusiastic K-12 educators from across the United States. The Institute covered both the process of archaeological discovery and the information learned to date about the succession of cultures that have occupied the Upper Mississippi River valley. The focus was on how societies have adapted and evolved to this unique region through time, and how archaeologists have been able to learn about and interpret that process of adaptation. Based in southwestern Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UW-L), home of the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center (MVAC), the Institute incorporated field trips and specific examples drawn from the rich archaeological record of this area. Presentations and discussions also included archaeological information that spanned the Midwestern United States, with reference to events and processes in the rest of the country, as well as larger concepts related to anthropology, culture, and human adaptation.

During the Institute, teachers completed an individual classroom implementation project with project staff facilitation that led them to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the Institute's content for use in their own classrooms. The projects covered a wide range, including creation of unit and lesson plans, supporting materials (worksheets, web resources, images, local resources and contacts, etc.), PowerPoint and Prezi presentations, a summer school course, and exploration of regional archaeology opportunities for educators. Many teachers completed activities and lessons that adapted what they had learned about archaeology to their own regions. Lessons were created in a wide range of disciplines that incorporated concepts from the Institute, including social studies, world history, U.S. history, anthropology, sociology and civics; life, earth, physical, and environmental sciences; general math and algebra; language arts – reading and writing; and visual arts. The Institute culminated with the teachers presenting their completed projects. The sharing of these creative and diverse ideas and projects was one of the most exciting parts of the Institute. Twenty-seven appropriate lessons have been posted to MVAC's Web site (http://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/Educators/LessonPlans.htm#NEH) to make them available to interested teachers around the nation beyond the project period.

	Twenty-five teachers from 13 states (FL, IA, ID, IL, LA, MI, MN, NC, NY, OR, PA, TX, WI) participated in the 2012 Exploring the Past NEH Summer Institute for Teachers