Prior to 2009, South Texas was essentially an archaeological tabula rasa, largely unknown in the academic, public, or grey literature due to its location far from research universities, the state historic preservation office, and cultural resource management firms. Here, we relate how a consortium of anthropologists and archaeologists, biologists, historians, geologists, and geoarchaeologists have embraced a locally focused, place-based STEAM research approach to tell the story of a largely unknown region of the United States and make it accessible to K–17 educators,1 the public, and scholars with bilingual maps, books, exhibits, films, traveling trunks, and scholarly publications. The efforts of the Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley have been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally.
From a Tabula Rasa to the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation: How the CHAPS Program brought Archaeology to Deep South Texas
Roseann Bacha-Garza (MA) is the program manager of the CHAPS Program and Lecturer of Anthropology and History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Ms. Bacha-Garza has created reports documenting regional projectile point artifact collections with items that date back to the Paleo-Indian period and is a co-editor of the book Native American Peoples of South Texas which serves as part of a set of place-based educational tools for K-12 education. [email protected]
Juan L. Gonzalez (PhD) is Co-director of the CHAPS Program and Professor of Geology at the School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Gonzalez’s research interests are in Quaternary geology, geo-archaeology and the geology of the Rio Grande Valley. His scholarly work on the previously unrecognized lithic industry of the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the unique El Sauz chert of south Texas, has featured in Quaternary Research, Lithic Technology and Journal of Texas Archeology and History. [email protected]
Christopher L. Miller (PhD) is Co-director of the CHAPS Program and Professor of History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is the author of Prophetic Worlds: Indians and Whites on the Columbia Plateau (1985) which was republished in the Columbia Classics Series by the University of Washington Press in 2003. He was part of the Native American Civics Project at Humboldt State University and has served as a historical and legal consultant for various Native American groups. He also served as the executive producer for multiple short documentary films on the Native history of South Texas and for the production of Augmented Reality educational materials for teachers and the general public. [email protected]
Russell K. Skowronek (PhD) is the founding director of the CHAPS Program and Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Involved in archaeological research since 1973 he has published on a variety of archaeological topics in scholarly journals (e.g., American Antiquity, Historical Archaeology. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Lithic Technology, and Journal of Texas Archeology and History). [email protected]
Roseann Bacha-Garza, Juan L. González, Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek; From a Tabula Rasa to the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation: How the CHAPS Program brought Archaeology to Deep South Texas. The Public Historian 1 November 2022; 44 (4): 169–189. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2022.44.4.169
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