Historic Preservation Office Offers to Train Paraprofessionals
The Comanche Nation Historic Preservation Office will host Heritage Paraprofessional Certification Training for those over 18 from April 29 through May 3 at 1608 SW 9th St. in Lawton, Oklahoma; however, only 20 applicants will be selected.
Crew Boss Gary Parker said the training is for those who want to be on a shovel test program.
He said the shovel tests are part of a mandatory survey, and the Comanche Tribe began a crew to do the shovel test probes.
“And the reason we're doing those shovel tests because there's a law called Section 106 within the Forest Service, which basically states that before the Forest Service can do any ground-disturbing activities in their forest, some have compartments, some have units, we're dealing with units right now before they can do anything in those units, they have to have those surveyed,” Parker said. “Somebody has to do those surveys and why not the Native American tribes, Comanche tribe, and that's what we're doing right now.”
However, their importance comes from preserving native culture.
“The most valid things that we find are Native American-type artifacts, arrowheads, different kinds of points, tools, the corn grinding tools…and then there's sometimes we come across old homesteads,” he said. “To where there was an old homestead there, and we find glass, plateware, cookware, nails, just everything that says that at one time there was a house here.”
But they’re not the only ones on the ground; archeologists are there as well.
“When we identify something, find something, they identify it. Let us know what it is, where it comes from, what it is,” Parker said. “And what makes it really neat is when you're digging, and you're down there 70, 80 centimeters, and you bring something up like we found an arrowhead the last time. Just looking at that thing and saying, ‘Man, I wonder who the last person was that touched that.’ And over the years, it's just settled through that sand, and it's just awesome to think about where that comes from or how it got there.”
He said a typical day on the field is a long one.
“Getting up, leaving the motel at seven o'clock in the morning, working out in the field until five o'clock in the afternoon,” Parker said. “And our day consists of shovel test probes out in the forest. And we have one person who digs and one person who screens. And we're doing that all day.”
He said the best people for the job are those who have time on their hands because the crews are gone for two-week intervals.
“So, the work can be hard because it's cold, then it gets warm, and then it gets hot,” Parker said. “So, you're working under arduous conditions at all times, whether it's cold. It's nice and hard and arduous, but it's satisfying.”
The sites are throughout the southeast of the United States, and southern Texas and Louisiana were his favorite spots.
“In those areas, there are some places in Louisiana and in south Texas where it manages all kind of artifacts,” Parker said. “There's places that they haven't surveyed before and we'll go out there and we'll start a survey.And you just know when you find something, you know, you're digging through there and you hit a little clink down 40, 60 centimeters, you know that there's something going to be in that screen.”
More information can be found by calling Historic Preservation at 580-492-1153.
