My second state park adventure. Pro tip: remember to put sunscreen on your back. I'm going to have one strange tan line this summer.
No shit, Sherlock :)
Friday, June 8, 2012
Battle Mountain
BMS is a veteran's hospital in Hot Springs, SD. Aside from being GORGEOUS, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark the day before the hearing I was at. The VA is proposing to pull their services from BMS -- essentially abandoning it which will inevitably lead to deterioration. The legal jargon is "adverse effect" which need to be mitigated under 106.
Usually the public isn't invited to these meetings until later in the process, but this meeting was open to everyone. A bunch of self-proclaimed "angry vets" came and had no intention of listening to anything the VA reps had to say. The VA is arguing that consolidating services to Rapid City will help them better serve veterans. All the veterans hear is that they'll have to travel farther to get care.
Another problem is that BMS was built in 1903. To put that into perspective, it served veterans of the Civil War. That means the building doesn't currently comply with ADA standards and modern treatment modalities. The VA think that because BMS is a landmark and listed on the National Register, that it can't be touched or rehabbed or modified. Not true. The best way to preserve a historic building is to use it and if you understand historic preservation legislation, you know that there are avenues to approve rehabilitations and even get funding for it.
Overall, the meeting was just a bunch of yelling and nothing really was accomplished despite the efforts of the moderator. That was a little frustrating since getting all the decision-makers in a room together doesn't happen very often. The good thing was I got to meet all the decision-makers and do some networking.
On the drive, no one in the car talked at all. And then I Will Always Love You came on the radio and I could barely control the giggles :)
Monday, May 28, 2012
Farm Island
I decided to do a little exploring at a nearby state park and take advantage of the long weekend. I ended up chasing two turkeys through the woods :)
Sweet drift wood on the banks of the Missouri
Wherever I go, the Duluth Pack goes too
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
History Isn't Dead
Today I shadowed Paige, a staff Archaeologist, and sat in on a Tribal Consultation meeting discussing the leasing of land that has site of importance to Native Americans for the purposes of oil and gas development. Before even getting out of the car, Paige told me pretty bluntly that I needed to follow a certain set of procedures so that I, a white person, didn't offend any of the. I shouldn't shake hands to hard or look anyone directly in the eye. Basically, I needed to play the role of the doe-eyed, passive female in order to be accepted. Apparently I did pretty well, because I was invited to sit in on the caucus which not many white people are allowed to do.
One recurring theme that kept coming up through out the meeting (which was hectic, tense, and disjointed anyway) was that the lands in question were taken from the Native Americans to begin with. I appreciate that indigenous American peoples have faced undeserved and unacceptable oppression, but there was a sense of continued anger in the meeting that, to me, seemed to put the Tribes in their own way and proved that while these issues are still very present for Tribal people and not relegated to some distant bygone era. There also lacked a sense of collaboration toward a mutual goal that stalled any attempts at answering all of the questions that were flying about. I don't contend that Native American have a right to be upset, all oppressed people do, but being angry in and of itself is not constructive in these types of situations and here, proved to prevent meaningful dialogue.
There was also a large gap in education that required a lot of back tracking and explanations of dense topics that just seemed to eat time. Paige later explained to me that only on of the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers is actually qualified to hold his position under the Secretary of the Interior's standards and that's why there is so much confusion. Personally, if I was going to a meeting where the fate of my sacred sites was going to be discussed and potentially decided, I would want to know what laws and processes were going to be triggered and what ones I could use to prevent adverse effects. That just wasn't the case here and I think that more education (workshops, publications, etc...) needs to be provided so that meetings like these can be more effective and more efficient. But the lowly white-girl intern must remain mute.
It was a valuable discussion to be a part of and something I would definitely not be exposed to on the East Coast. Day 2 and I've already learned a lot :)
One recurring theme that kept coming up through out the meeting (which was hectic, tense, and disjointed anyway) was that the lands in question were taken from the Native Americans to begin with. I appreciate that indigenous American peoples have faced undeserved and unacceptable oppression, but there was a sense of continued anger in the meeting that, to me, seemed to put the Tribes in their own way and proved that while these issues are still very present for Tribal people and not relegated to some distant bygone era. There also lacked a sense of collaboration toward a mutual goal that stalled any attempts at answering all of the questions that were flying about. I don't contend that Native American have a right to be upset, all oppressed people do, but being angry in and of itself is not constructive in these types of situations and here, proved to prevent meaningful dialogue.
There was also a large gap in education that required a lot of back tracking and explanations of dense topics that just seemed to eat time. Paige later explained to me that only on of the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers is actually qualified to hold his position under the Secretary of the Interior's standards and that's why there is so much confusion. Personally, if I was going to a meeting where the fate of my sacred sites was going to be discussed and potentially decided, I would want to know what laws and processes were going to be triggered and what ones I could use to prevent adverse effects. That just wasn't the case here and I think that more education (workshops, publications, etc...) needs to be provided so that meetings like these can be more effective and more efficient. But the lowly white-girl intern must remain mute.
It was a valuable discussion to be a part of and something I would definitely not be exposed to on the East Coast. Day 2 and I've already learned a lot :)
How I Spent My Sunday Afternoon
State Capitol Building
WWII Memorial
The Cultural Heritage Center aka my SWEET office
No Green Mountains here! The view goes foreverrrrrrrrrr
Fighting (or smooching?) horses statue at the Capitol
Sunday, May 20, 2012
SoDak
The parentals and I left MN Friday morning for the drive out to Pierre, SD. For those of you who are unfamiliar with SD geography, Pierre is in the exact middle. The middle of nowhere to be precise. The winds were pretty strong on the first half of the trip and Mother had a death-grip on the steering wheel the entire way.
In Vermont, there's state legislation barring the construction of billboards. If SD had such a law, there would be absolutely nothing to do on I90. We counted 24 billboards for Wall Drug between Mitchell and the turn to Pierre alone. But the best billboard of the day comes from the American Taxidermy Association advertising their new exhibit with the tag line, "See Nature in Action!" Because when I think of nature in action, I think of dead animals in static postures.
And SD is flat. In VT, the mountains block any sort of stretching vistas, but here, you can see for miles. And for all the joking and complaining I will do in the next couple of months, SD is actually beautiful. The hills look sort of like sunken mountains and the lack of development is actually nice to look at (although it will become the bane of my existence in about 4 days).
Now I'm just biding my time until the internship officially starts on Monday. But at least I have Twins baseball to entertain me. Now if only they weren't losing to the Brewers. C'mon dudes.
Friday, May 4, 2012
A Little Bit of Ferry Dust
Our spring field trip was this past week and we adventured all the way across the lake to Keeseville, NY! We went to meet with Steven Englehart who founded Adirondack Architectural Heritage. Turns out when he was 25, he homesteaded for 5 years! So he built his own house, carried water, had no electricity, the whole shebang, and live that way for 5 years. That's when he got into historic preservation and went through the UVM program shortly thereafter.
To get to Keeseville, we took the ferry across Lake Champlain. It doesn't take very long, only about 20 minutes, but no one had told us that we'd be on a boat beforehand, so we were all pretty excited. Bob came through with awesome snacks, yet again, and Lisa brought Munchkins from Dunkin' Donuts to share, so we were a well fed bunch.
We spent the afternoon wandering around some po-dunk little town talking about surveys which wasn't all that interesting to be honest. And then Steven had the great idea to drive out to see this one place he swore was really awesome. It wasn't. We didn't even get out of the car. And because of this little adventure, we missed the 4:30 ferry back to VT by 3 minutes. Gah! It turned out ok though, because Essex, NY is adorable! We just wandered around looking at houses for 45 minutes before it was time to load the ferry.
On the way back, Bob really wanted to get out of the van and go stand on the observation deck. We were all exhausted and lazy and stayed in the car. Then we saw Bob turn around and look back at the van as if he thought we'd be right behind him. Cue a massive guilt trip and we all piled out of the creeper van to go stand on the top of the ferry in 20+mph winds.
After the NY adventure, I met Laura the roommate downtown for half-priced burgers at RiRa's. We went halvsies on the Guinness BBQ burger and the Mythos greek burger. Both were delicious! And we didn't say more than 5 words during the entire meal since we were so busy stuffing our faces :)
the gang at Wheeler House before departure
To get to Keeseville, we took the ferry across Lake Champlain. It doesn't take very long, only about 20 minutes, but no one had told us that we'd be on a boat beforehand, so we were all pretty excited. Bob came through with awesome snacks, yet again, and Lisa brought Munchkins from Dunkin' Donuts to share, so we were a well fed bunch.
We spent the afternoon wandering around some po-dunk little town talking about surveys which wasn't all that interesting to be honest. And then Steven had the great idea to drive out to see this one place he swore was really awesome. It wasn't. We didn't even get out of the car. And because of this little adventure, we missed the 4:30 ferry back to VT by 3 minutes. Gah! It turned out ok though, because Essex, NY is adorable! We just wandered around looking at houses for 45 minutes before it was time to load the ferry.
the house I will buy when I strike it rich.
the other house I will buy.
On the way back, Bob really wanted to get out of the van and go stand on the observation deck. We were all exhausted and lazy and stayed in the car. Then we saw Bob turn around and look back at the van as if he thought we'd be right behind him. Cue a massive guilt trip and we all piled out of the creeper van to go stand on the top of the ferry in 20+mph winds.
braving the winds for Bob.
After the NY adventure, I met Laura the roommate downtown for half-priced burgers at RiRa's. We went halvsies on the Guinness BBQ burger and the Mythos greek burger. Both were delicious! And we didn't say more than 5 words during the entire meal since we were so busy stuffing our faces :)
even R2D2 showed up on the field trip!
PS today is Star Wars Day.
May the Fourth be with you :)
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