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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2012)
6 JANUARY 15,2012 Smoke Signals Edwards hived as tfiiirst Trobal arcfoaeoDogjiistt By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor Ask new Tribal archaeologist Briece Edwards what is the "cool eat" thing he has ever found buried in the earth and you'll get two answers. The "coolest" thing was a peahen egg shell found in a drain in Pom peii, Italy, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. "We pulled out the two halves of the shell that went together and it was over 2,000 years old," Edwards says. "And, to me, that is one of things about archaeology because it is just not the 'oh my' factor that this shell has survived, but we know what it was ... we know that most likely this was being eaten because the drain came out of the kitchen. We know that peacocks are not indigenous to Italy, so this was something that had to be imported, so we're talking about status and economy. So from this one artifact, for me, I just loved how we could go different places with it. It's diet, economy, social status, trade winds ... did they really like eating this?" For personal satisfaction, how ever, it was the discovery of a Nehi soda bottle cap found outside of Annapolis, Md., while working on a road project. "Probably the first artifact I ever found," Edwards says. "Wow, circa 1940." Edwards, 45, started as the Tribe's first archaeologist on Jan. 3. "Briece was the selection out of six candidates," says Tribal mem ber Eirik Thorsgard, the Tribe's Cultural Protection Coordinator and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. "His international and high level of work is what prompted his hiring. He has worked in Guate mala, Pompeii and owned his own business. His primary goal is going to be doing all of the Tribe's archae ological investigations in-house. "In the past, we have hired out side firms to come from Portland to V- . T I Photo by Michelle Alalmo Bricca Edwards, tha Tribe's new archaeologist, displays a piece of historic pottery that was found on the property where the Grand Ronde Fire Station was built. The archaeology work for the site before the station was built was contracted with an outside firm, but the hiring of Edwards now allows the Tribe the ability to do archaeological site work in-house. do this work, and now with Briece we will not need to. This should save the Tribe about $40,000 per year at a minimum; potentially much more as we develop more land in the local area. "Additionally when we can, we may pick up contracts off-reservation which can supplement some of the budgetary draw from the Tribe and lessen the budget over time." "The position is to do a lot of things," Edwards says. "One, is to flesh out the department, the Site Protection Program ... by bringing in and creating positions, having the personnel resources to handle existing lands, historic lands, in cluding the ceded lands, which is a very large area. "Sixty percent of the state's popu lation resides within Grand Ronde's ceded lands and a majority of the growth in the state also occurred within those boundaries. Through Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Youth Education Dldg 9613 Grand Ronde Rd, Grand Ronde, OR 97347. Op, House! en Jan. 26 5:15-7:15 P.M. Please join us in celebrating the completion of the new addition (over 2,500 square feet) to tiie Youtlv Education building. This newly added space includes a media center, sound room, culinary arts kitchen, cultural arts area and more! Staff will be presenting information about programs and services offered by the Youth Education Program! Light refreshments will be provided l CONTACT: 503-879-2101 This project wai funded by the Indian Community Development Block Grant. the THPO, we have the responsi bility to review projects under way through federal and state negotia tions." Edwards said he will help review the 1,500 to 2,000 projects going on in the Tribe's ceded lands and hopefully shorten the 30-day review process period. In addition, he also will be the Tribe's archaeologist on Tribal lands when it comes to monitoring new development. He'll also help survey new Tribal lands for any potential Tribal artifacts. Edwards grew up in an academi cally oriented family. His mother, Michele, is a clinical psychologist and his father, Stephen, is a her petologist. He grew up in Kansas, where his father was associate director of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Edwards says he enjoyed going out on specimen digs in the spring with his father and his colleagues, but he was drawn more to the cul tural artifacts than the bones. "Yes, very cool to have a bison skull or the femur of a mammoth, but over here I'm finding points and lithics (stone tools)," Edwards says. "So I had an interest from that point." He received a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Maryland and a master's from North Carolina State University. He studied for his Ph.D. at the University of Bradford in England and has worked at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, where he concentrated on the iconography of central Asian textiles. Before joining the Grand Ronde Tribe, he owned his own business, CRAG: Archaeology, in North Carolina, where he lived before he and his wife, Sibyl, relocated to the Pacific Northwest. While in North Carolina, he worked in collaboration with the Catawba Indian Nation in South Carolina as a cultural resource consultant in trying to protect archaeological resources from sub urban expansion occurring around Charlotte, N.C. "My position was to be the voice or the advocate for the resource," he says. Edwards found out about the Grand Ronde opening through Tribal member and fellow Cul tural Resources employee Melisa Chandler, who took a course at the University of Oregon with Briece's younger brother. "As a newly created position, it has the opportunity for really reinforcing the maintenance and protection of the resource ... the stuff in the ground," Edwards says. "And that was a big draw for me in going after this position. "Every nation, whether it is a Tribal nation or not, has an inter est in its resources. The concern for them is always in transition. . . . How Tribes are going about their resources is changing and has been under change for awhile. The work that Eirik is doing in bringing an indigenous voice to the resources and the understanding of that is occurring in a lot of places. "As an archaeologist who has been working in a variety of dif ferent contexts, this newly created position has the opportunity for setting a really strong example for how to interact with the resources, record them, process them and meet what Grand Ronde wants with those resources." Edwards is living in Salem with his wife and their 5-year-old son, Greyson. n 5asa.ftl"! Co cgi irca rc::suo van? eihIil Dr. Ashley Nunley Chiropractor at the CTGR-Portland Office 4445 SW Barbur Blvd. Suite 101 Portland, Or 97239 Tuesdays only 8:30 a.m. - Noon J. Patients need to call the Wellness Center patient registration to make their appointments or cancel V. 503-879-2002 mt Tribal members with Skooum health plan make your appointment now, start feeling better today. 'f- ,r 1 All "v i7 ' . - I, iniiiiin1"" Ad created by George Valdez Ad created by George Valdez
