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"!
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