Cultural items transferred from SOULA to Tribe

Members of the Coquille Indian Tribe met with SOU representatives on June 16 to commemorate the historic transfer of 11 archaeological collections to the Tribe’s new Me’-dn Mv-ne’ Curation Facility in Coos Bay, which was recently approved to serve as a regional repository for archaeological collections.

The collections resulted from several collaborative archaeological excavations going back nearly 30 years between the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) and the Tribe. The excavated cultural items have been securely housed at SOULA’s on-campus curation facility, which carefully stores thousands of archaeological objects from around the state. Coquille Tribal members and staff can now care for the items at their new curation facility.

“We were grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this milestone with Chief Justin Futch, Bridgett Wheeler and the Tribal members that participated in the transfer, and look forward to continuing building opportunities for collaboration and support,” said Chelsea Rose, director of the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology.

SOULA bills itself as “an on-campus archaeological firm” that conducts grant- and contract-funded research in partnership with private, local, state, federal and Tribal organizations. Students in various majors connect with SOULA to learn through fieldwork, laboratory analysis, conference presentations, writing and more – at excavation sites as well as SOULA’s on-campus laboratory and curation facility.