Engaging Veterans in North American Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As professional archaeologists who are charged with carrying out meaningful research and long-term collections care, one of our ethical and professional obligations is to inform and engage the public in what we do and why it is interesting and important. Our attempts at this are often uneven, but we recognize the best way to engage the public is by direct participation in our science. The Veterans Curation Program, sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), is a successful public archaeology program. The premise is simple: Veterans, who want to develop skills to compete in a civilian environment, are systematically schooled in modern curation and collections management, thus assisting the Corps. Our professional staff teaches them the basics of archaeology, modern cataloging, records management, heritage management, and computer and communication skills. All of this alternative public archaeology not only contributes to the organization of our national patrimony, but more importantly, furnishes skills and confidence to our new civilian workforce.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23795