Located in beautiful southwestern British Columbia, the Welqámex Household Archaeological Research Project focuses on questions concerning the emergence of complex political institutions and inter-community relations within the last 500 years of aboriginal Stó:lo-Coast Salish history. This is a data-driven, ground-up investigation into the everyday activities and organization of Stó:lo-Coast Salish households at a large Late and Colonial period settlement situated on an island near present-day Hope. Previous investigations at Welqámex have revealed examples of elaborate and substantial residential architecture, multiple building phases and techniques, and evidence for defensive fortification. Home to upwards of 250-300 people, Welqámex expanded quickly in the early-mid nineteenth century. High-resolution data emergent from household-level investigations at Welqámex are shedding new light on the spatial organization of socially stratified Stó:lo settlements and the florescence of indigenous political economies at the time of European contact. Working on the river, we will continue our excavation of several plank longhouse features on Greenwood Island in summer 2010.

This is a culturally immersive field school experience in which students live, work, and interact with a descendent Stó:lo community. The course has several objectives: (1) to provide training in archaeological excavation techniques, recording procedures, survey and mapping procedures, artifact recognition, and laboratory methods; (2) to provide a practical working knowledge of how these procedures are applied in archaeological field research; (3) to familiarize students with anthropologically substantive research addressing Stó:lö history and lifeways; and (4) to familiarize students with research that incorporates oral history as one of several primary lines of evidence.

These objectives are generally shared by our project collaborators at SRRMC, with priorities placed on (1) conducting research of interest and utility to the Stó:lo ; (2) sharing Stó:lo history - through direct experience - with newcomers as a way of expanding student knowledge-base and frame of reference; (3) providing archaeological training and exposure to Stó:lo history to Stó:lo community members; and (4) ensuring that Stó:lo cultural protocols are recognized, followed, and enforced.

Importantly, curricular emphasis is placed on understanding and exploring links between Stó:lo oral history, cosmology, historical texts, and the archaeological record. Students work with an international team of scholars, including archaeologists and cultural advisors from the Stó:lo Research and Resource Management Centre and members of the Chawathil and other Stó:lo First Nations, making for a uniquely collaborative, culturally immersive, and research-based field school.



This is also a methodologically rigorous training program. Students walk away with a marketable skillset, including a solid grasp of stratigraphic excavation, site survey, digital mapping, data recording, and intensive laboratory procedures. We place considerable emphasis on teaching students the rationale for all field methods. By learning the most rigorous data collection techniques, graduates of this field program are empowered with the knowledge of how and when to apply these techniques in academic and CRM settings.

Field school students also learn to apply practical outdoor skills, including how to use machetes, how to navigate forested environments, river boating skills, knott tying, and basic field site construction techniques. Field trips include a 40-km raft trip down the Fraser River on which students learn a landscape approach to Stó:lo worldview, a white-water rafting trip down the Chilliwack river, a tour of the UBC Museum of Anthropology (one of the finest in the Pacific Northwest), and several others.

Credit: This is a UCLA accredited field school and confers 12 credits/units, all of which are transferable to most North American universities.
Tuition: Tuition is $4100 for UC students and $4550 for non-UC students. The field school affords 240 hours of on-site and in-classroom instruction and applied learning. This breaks down to about 20 hours of instruction per credit/unit, and about $17 per hour of instruction. (By comparison, UC students pay about $215 per hour of instruction in a typical UCLA term.) Our ratio of instructors and staff to students is 1:2.

Scholarships in the amount of $1000 are available through the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of America. Students who apply have the opportunity to reduce tuition by as much as $2000.

CIOA Scholarships: http://www.archaeology.ucla.edu/students/scholarships/CIoA%202010%20Scholarship.pdf/view
AIA Scholarships: http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10400

Financial Aid: Most student financial aid can be used in conjunction with UCLA Summer Session CIOA Archaeology Field Schools.

More information, including a preliminary syllabus, can be found at: http://www.archaeology.ucla.edu/programs/north-america/british-columbia-welqamex-archaeological-research-project

Contact information
Dr. Anthony P. Graesch
UCLA Dept. of Anthropology, 341 Haines Hall, Box 951553
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553
USA
310-267-4256
anthony.p.graesch@ucla.edu