Shumla is a school that educates through Studying Human Use of Materials, Land, and Art. Their mission is to incorporate the arts and sciences in their research of the Lower Pecos Rock Art. Shumla’s programs provide a learning experience for people of all ages based on interactive education. Together people can come to an understanding of the past in the Lower Pecos region.
I chose this school out of a wide range of internships because of a children’s program established in Mexico: Los Niños del Rio Bravo. I was offered the opportunity to teach children of Mexico the culture of our ancient ancestors in the Lower Pecos while at the same time integrating the importance of protecting local resources. Before I began my internship, Dr. Boyd recommended I take the Rock Art Fields Methods course taught at Shumla from May 12-29. I gained indispensable knowledge at the field school which made my internship much more enjoyable. Anyone considering an internship with Shumla should consider the Field Methods in Rock Art as a prerequisite. Understanding of the cultural area of the Lower Pecos comes only by studying the local archaeology, flora, and fauna.
A typical day at the field school started out with a delicious breakfast by our cook Momma Donna and then we would drive sometimes for an hour, depending on the site. In three off road vehicles, the team bounced and jolted closer to the site. The rock art sites were strategically placed by their artists throughout the vast landscape of the Lower Pecos. Once the trucks were unable to continue in the rough terrain, we took to foot. Finally reaching the site, our adventure took another course of action. Divided into “stations” of three, our tasks were to record the rock art by filling out a list of characteristics found on an Anthropomorph Recording Form and then draw as close to scale as possible a specific anthropomorph in the rock art panel. An anthropomorph is a human-like figure. The goal of this year’s field school class was to record as many anthropomorphs in different shelters as possible. Another “station” took photos of the hand recorded anthropomorphs and filled out a Photo Reference Form. The last “station” worked with Dr. Prewitt to fill out a State of Texas Archeological Data Site Form, a helpful tool for future archaeologists. This form has to be filled out before any dirt can be moved, or rock art recorded, on any Texas archaeological site. Throughout the day, students would switch “stations” so that everyone experienced how to do each job. We were required to keep a field journal in which we wrote the weather conditions, how we felt, the lighting, as well as thoughts and observations we had about the rock art. Keeping a field journal is very important to archaeologists and anthropologists doing field work because it is helpful to remember things brought up in the field that might not stick around until the end of the day. Once a week we had a day devoted to lab work. On this day, we would digest all of the information we had gathered in the field and enter it into the Shumla database.
I began my internship on June 2nd in the Shumla office. Time in the office was spent preparing for the next three days, which would be spent in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico exposing the children to the material culture of ancient ancestors in the Lower Pecos region. The people involved with Los Niños (Del Rio Bravo) were led by the Education Director, Valerie Varner, whom I worked closely with. Also on the Los Niños team were Angel and Jack Johnson, along with Missy and Jack Harrington (who donated the land on which the Shumla campus is built). Jack Harrington taught the students to throw a spear with an atlatl. His wife Missy led the hydrology station. Neal Stilley is an expert on primitive technology, and instructed the students on friction fire. We held programs three days at a time, Tuesday through Thursday. On days of the program, we would go out to the park about 8am and load all the supplies needed for six, sometimes seven, stations. Buses packed with excited 5th and 6th grade children began showing up around 8:30am. We split the kids into 6 or 7 different “clans.” A clan is a relatively small group of people sharing a common ancestor. This is most likely the type of organization that was prevalent in the Lower Pecos at the time the rock art was created. All of the students would receive a booklet with a list of questions from each of the stations and a clan button proclaiming their membership to a particular group-family.
In the month of June when I was not in Mexico, I stayed in a little red house that Dr. Boyd’s father, Walker, refurbished. There were many mornings I would sit out on the porch and wonder how it was I attained such a remarkable internship. I was able to participate in legitimate archaeological research and was taught the process of how to begin my own scholarly research project. In addition to archaeological field experience, I was grateful for the opportunity to teach anthropology and science to children of a different culture. Teaching children about the world around them and the history of our human past has become a passion of mine and I will continue to follow Shumla’s example of hands-on, interactive teaching. On top of all that I learned, the most rewarding part of the whole Shumla experience was getting to know the people who work there. Even though I was far away from everything I knew as familiar, the love of their work and each other makes Shumla a noteworthy school and fertile site for success.