I spent several weeks as a volunteer at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center during the summer of 2005. The first site I was on (in May 2005) was the site of a new housing development being built on the reservation.  We were working just meters away from the construction crew building the road. The site had already been blasted once and they were just waiting for us to finish so they could bull doze it over and continue their work.  The same week we also went ot a couple of other random housing sites in the woods to test for archaeological sites. 

The second week (June 2005) I was working at the site of the Pequot fort with school groups that came in for archaeology days. We had groups of middle school age children that we were teaching the basics of archaeology.  Most had little interest in it and were afraid to get dirty or afraid of the bugs. But there were a few kids who really go into it.  It was fun to share the archaeology experience with them.

The third week I worked (July 2005), I have no photos. I was working a disturbed burial site and photography was not allowed. It was an experience that I expected to affect me more than it did, but it was really not much different than digging test pits, shovel into the screen and shake. The main difference was that anything we found was treated with great respect and transported back to the museum by a Tribal member.  It was a hot grueling week and my body ached more than ever when I finished that week.

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