Is most of OSA’s work related to Native Americans? What does an archaeologist study in Iowa?
When I was just out of graduate school, the emphasis was very much on the prehistoric period, the ancestral Indian stuff. Over the past 20 years, there’s been a growing recognition in our society of its own history, so more and more importance is attached to things that happened in 1830, 1850, even the 1890s. I think that’s partly because as each year goes by, that stuff gets that much older, and less of it is preserved, and as we’re getting further removed from what life was like then, it becomes something that people want to learn about. I’ve moved from being a strict prehistorian to being more and more involved with the historic time period. In August I spent a week in Fort Madison working on the 1812 battlefield there. I never would have predicted 20 years ago that I was going to do that kind of archaeology, but it’s really fascinating. What’s most rewarding about the work that you do? The thing I get the biggest kick out of is when someone calls with a complaint that—in their view
