The Dry: A Case Study of Collaboration between Archaeologists and One Descendant Community

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Democratizing Heritage Creation: How-To and When" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Dry, an early twentieth-century Black homesteading community, offers a long-lasting example of collaborative public archaeology. Thanks to generous grant funding, we practiced inclusive teaming with the descendant population, from project conception through every stage of our work, even beyond completion of the project. The extent and depth of what we learned at The Dry was only possible through direct partnership with the descendant community. The project was featured in multiple newspaper and radio stories while the work was ongoing, but even after the project was finished, information about The Dry continued to garner public interest, leading to a comprehensive story and interview on Colorado Public Radio, and finally culminating 10 years later in a beautiful and poignant photo exhibition that opened in Colorado’s state history museum in 2023 and remains on display today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Democratizing Heritage Creation: How-To and When   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39296.0