海角社区 Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geography and Anthropology Research Preservation of Native American Sites
August 9, 2023
BATON ROUGE, LA 鈥� Research has shown that the Louisiana coast is slipping away little by little, which will continue to impact coastal communities. One such community that goes mostly unnoticed are Native Americans, whose archaeological sites are greatly affected by coastal erosion. Wanting to help Louisiana tribes sustain their sacred ground, faculty in the 海角社区 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and 海角社区 Department of Geography and Anthropology are working alongside other Louisiana universities to evaluate and determine how these tribes can protect their land.
海角社区 Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Navid Jafari has teamed up with 海角社区 Geography and Anthropology Associate Professors Kory Konsoer (principal investigator) and Jill Trepanier鈥攁long with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette anthropology department, Tulane University鈥檚 archaeology department, and the National Park Service鈥攖o come up with a vulnerability and risk assessment that can inform mitigation plans for preserving Louisiana Native American tribes鈥� archaeological sites, such as earthen mounds.
The project鈥攐fficially known as the Mississippi River Delta Archaeological Mitigation, or MRDAM, project鈥攊s funded by a two-year, $293,000 grant from the U.S. Geological Survey-South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center.
鈥淭his is a really exciting project because it鈥檚 interfacing archaeology with engineering,鈥� Jafari said.
鈥淭he whole motivation behind the [MRDAM] project is to focus on cultural resources that are being impacted and bring them to light,鈥� Konsoer said. 鈥淵ou have the coastal zone of Louisiana that is in crisis, but a lot of the emphasis is on the broader picture鈥攅cosystem, infrastructure鈥攁nd this is trying to bring a little more attention to those cultural resources that include Native American archaeological sites, like earthen mounds, some of which are single mound sites while others are more complex, such as a series of mounds typically built in an oval or circle with a central plaza communal space within in it. There are hundreds of these sites in coastal Louisiana. Some of them are already lost; some are being actively eroded; some are subsiding and becoming inundated with water. Right now, it may be subsidence or storm surge, but as we lose more land, those sites will be exposed to the coastline and have active wave erosion.鈥�
Since the sites are at different positions within the coastal zone, they will experience different pressures from climate change, sea-level rise, and land loss.
鈥淓xtreme weather behavior is expected to worsen in our changing climate, including more severe hurricanes and higher intensity precipitation,鈥� Trepanier said. 鈥淲e want to try and provide as much insight as possible into what the future may look like for these sites, so they can make decisions on how to best protect their resources.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e working with tribes to find out which sites are most important to them, how they would like the sites preserved, listening to oral histories, and learning the significance of these sites,鈥� Konsoer said. 鈥淔or myself as a geomorphologist, and [Jafari] in geotechnical engineering, we hope that through these collaborations we鈥檒l be able to learn more about how these mound sites were constructed and their erodibility.鈥�
鈥淚 think something that has been under-investigated is the construction of these mounds,鈥� Jafari added.
He said that the 海角社区 mounds are made of two different soils, one of which is siltier and the other more clay, meaning they were sourced from different areas.
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite interesting to get an idea of what materials they used and how they engineered them to have higher strengths, leading to high mounds without any landslide or slope issues,鈥� Jafari said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e coming from an engineering perspective to look at their strengths and index properties. When doing this, you can see how resilient they鈥檒l be to sea level rise.鈥�
The team鈥檚 first step is to find out which mounds are more resilient so it knows where to prioritize resources. Next, will be a discussion with the tribes on how they want to mitigate, such as doing shoreline protection to keep the mounds from eroding.
鈥淚t鈥檚 up to the tribal partners on how they鈥檇 like to move forward, whether it鈥檚 preservation or mitigation,鈥� Konsoer said.
Michael Rodgers, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, is helping on the MRDAM project and has been communicating with the tribes. He will be guiding interviews and workshops to direct MRDAM鈥檚 efforts and center the concerns of stakeholders.
鈥淚鈥檓 serving as a cultural anthropologist, and my role is to facilitate with the Louisiana tribes to see if they鈥檙e interested in helping us with the project,鈥� Rodgers said. 鈥淲e want to put them in the driver鈥檚 seat in determining what sites are most important to them and what they want done to the sites. Mitigation is up to them.鈥�
Rodgers said the MRDAM team would like to expand this research opportunity to as many Louisiana tribes as they can. Currently, they are looking to work with the Chitimacha tribe and have reached out to the Houma tribe.
鈥淚 think what makes this a special project is having the tribe members lead us in accomplishing what they want us to accomplish,鈥� Rodgers said. 鈥淭his is important. It鈥檚 a very existential moment for a lot of these things. It鈥檚 a very good project with a lot of talented people involved.鈥�
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