Living by Gichigami (Lake Superior): A Collaborative Approach to Managing Shoreline Sites in Miskwaabikang (Red Cliff, Wisconsin, USA)

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Methods for Monitoring Heritage at Risk Sites in a Rapidly Changing Environment", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Gete Anishinaabe Izichigewin Community Archaeological Project (GAICAP) is a collaborative undertaking of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) and academic archaeologists in northern Wisconsin. In 2021 and 2022, extensive shovel-test survey identified two historic-era activity areas along the shore of Red Cliff Bay. A layer of mechanical grading associated with the “Apostle Islands Indian Pageant” of 1924 and 1925 is above a buried A-horizon that produced both domestic and structural materials and may relate to late nineteenth century Indian Agency activities. Other recently eroding bank and beach areas of the bay yielded lithic debitage indicative of precontact and/or Early Historic Ojibwe occupations. We plan to continue monitoring these at-risk locations and may conduct a Phase II mitigation in 2023. This work fulfills GAICAP’s shared goals of identifying and protecting cultural resources on tribally-managed land, which includes lakeshore environments experiencing climate-driven processes of change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Methods for Monitoring Heritage at Risk Sites in a Rapidly Changing Environment   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow