With National Science Foundation support Dr. Joe Watkins and the Society for American Archaeology will expand their Arthur C. Parker fellowship program which provides archaeological training for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. Currently the fellowship provides $1,500 yearly to permit one student to participate in a summer archaeological field school or similar training activity. The NSF award will permit the size of the award to be doubled and thus allow payment of both a stipend and tuition costs. The award will also increase the number of yearly scholarships to 4, all at a $3,000 level for a period of three years. The program is administered by the Society for American Archaeology which has established rules for the competition, organizes evaluation of proposals and selects the awardees. The Society also widely announces the availability of these funds. The most immediate goals of the fellowship are to encourage Native Americans and Hawaiians to pursue archaeological careers and also to gain insight and understanding which will be useful to the communities in which they reside.
Native Americans and Hawaiians are under-represented in the ranks of professional archaeologists and in part this is because of lack of familiarity with the field. Unfortunately Native American and Hawaiian communities are often at odds with archaeologists over who should control cultural remains and how these should be treated. In good measure this situation results from lack of mutual understanding in both communities. It is essential for the future of archaeology in America that links between the two groups be strengthened and that a corps of individuals who are familiar with both worlds be developed. The Society for American Archaeology program should help to accomplish these goals.
