Group visiting Big Oak.

Group visiting Big Oak.

An important development related to the Oak Island archaeology projects was the creation in 1982 of the 'Indian Youth Project'. That year, Richard Shenkel and Pete Gregory launched a project with the Inter-Tribal Council of Louisiana and the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism to host a workshop (at UNO and on site at Big Oak) on archaeology for 50 participants from the Jena Band of Choctaw, the Coushatta Tribe, the Chitimacha Tribe, the Tunica-Biloxi, and the United Houma Nation. The workshop was intended to introduce young people to the goals and objectives of archaeology, the codes of ethics for professional archaeologists, and the benefits of archaeological studies of the past. Such an effort prefigures the increased attention to tribal concerns and stakeholder outreach that would eventually be enshrined in the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (or NAGPRA) in 1990.

UNO ARC

1980s

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