A group of 15 to 20 App State student excavators worked in the hot North Carolina sun to find pieces of history in the middle of Lumbee Tribal Territory. These kids were some of the first to be given this unique look into the archaeological past of the Lumbee people.
This summer, students spent four weeks at an ancient dig site near Pembroke learning about the history of Native American cultures. The group learned about archaeology while honoring the Lumbee culture and land. They were led by Assistant Professor Seth Grooms in the Department of Anthropology.
Students don’t often get the chance to do study and chat with people in the community at the same time.
“They were fully immersed in all parts of our culture. Even at dinner, they were going through the culture and learning from the very beginning,” Grooms said.
There was only one teacher, 14 kids, and two teacher’s aids, so Grooms had a lot to do.
Nashaliz Velazquez-Santa, a teacher’s helper, said, “The three of us were always working together to make a plan. We met every night to make a plan for the day and how we were going to teach.”
Every day was different, and the group had to deal with rough summer weather and sudden storms that made them move to different spots several times during the summer.
Grooms said, “An archeological picnic is not a game; it stinks.”
It took the group time to look over the land for possible dig sites and make square-shaped pieces for digging. The team collected different kinds of pottery, arrowheads, spears, and other things over the course of 4 weeks.
The pottery showed Siouan-speaking influences from the Piedmont, which Grooms said helped the team understand the past of the land and connect with the people who lived there.
Grooms said, “We know they spoke these languages because we can see it in our hands.” “It’s cool to see how these two ways of knowing fit together.”
People from the area came together on June 15 for a Community Day to see the work that had been done all month. Families were allowed to look at the artifacts, and there were stations set up where kids could learn about archaeology. Some people in the community got to touch and play with items from their ancestors for the first time at the event.
“To say, ‘Here’s a piece of pottery, hold it in your hands, your ancestors made this,'” Grooms said as he talked about how he interacted with other family members. “That’s cool.”
The place where Grooms grew up is less than an hour away from the center of the Lumbee tribe in Robeson County. He is a member of that tribe. His uncle took part in powwows and made clothes and other crafts.
Grooms said that this helped him and his brother understand their culture better as kids. This early participation with the tribe made Grooms want to work with his community, which is what led to the planning of this dig.
When Grooms was young, he fell in love with history while on vacation with his family on Topsail Island. He thought of a story about how his parents set up a treasure hunt for him and hid “Blackbeard’s treasure.”
“At the house we were staying at, they hid a small bag in the sand. I had so much fun digging it up,” Grooms said. “As a child, I was always interested in history. I liked to dig things up, be outside, and do things with it instead of just reading about it.”
When Grooms graduated from high school, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and was sent to Iraq. Grooms said that being near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have a history that goes back thousands of years, made him understand how much he really valued it.
“I realized how much I liked the ruins and the landscape. My friends would ask me, ‘What’s wrong with you? We need to focus on something else,’ but all I could think about were the ruins,” Grooms said.
Grooms’ travels made him interested in history for a long time, which led him to study anthropology and become a teacher. Once Grooms got to App State, he was sure he would be able to plan his dream historical dig back home on the Coastal Plains. For years, Grooms had planned and looked forward to making it happen.
“It was an amazing and life-changing experience—everything I had hoped for and more,” Grooms said.
There were many ways for students to connect with the land and the people of the area. Along with digging, the team worked with the Lumbee Cultural Burn Association to start controlled fires. Grooms explained that the Lumbee have been doing this for thousands of years to get rid of underbrush in the forest and stop wildfires.
Grooms said, “The students were fully immersed in all aspects of our culture because they learned how to do archaeology and had the rare chance to ask, ‘How do you do this with a native community?'”
Since the program’s start went well, Grooms said he is happy and hopeful about what the future holds for the dig and how long it will last.
Grooms said, “I want this project to live longer than me. This was the first year of a project that will live on for many, many, many years.”