Job Listing
🔗Ethnographic Resources Intern – 600 hours
Website National Park Service/NCPE Internship Program
San Juan Island National Historical Park (SAJH) protects and manages over 2,000 acres of Federal lands and waters previously owned and stewarded by indigenous Coast Salish Tribes from time immemorial. SAJH is located approximately 90 miles northwest of Seattle on San Juan Island, the largest of the San Juan Islands, an archipelago of 175 named islands north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and south of the Strait of Georgia. The park was designated as a National Historical Landmark in 1961 and established as a national park unit by Congress in 1966 for its association with the military standoff between the United States and Great Britain and peaceful resolution commonly known as the Boundary Dispute, or “Pig War” (1859 to 1872).
San Juan Island National Historical Park (SAJH) contains a diverse and growing collection of ethnohistorical references important to enriching the public’s understanding and awareness of the park’s period of significance. Ethnographic documentation from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge maintained by Tribes, include references to Tribal village sites, seasonal fishing and hunting grounds, sources of indigenous foods and medicines, Native and European trade, and early Euro-American settlement. These ethnographic data assist park management to work more collaboratively and effectively with Tribal Partners in the protection, co-stewardship, and interpretation of ethnographic resources, sacred sites, archeological sites, and places of continued significance to park-associated Coast Salish Tribes.
Under supervision of the Park Cultural Anthropologist and Liaison to Tribes, the intern will work in support of an ethnographic resources documentation project. Ethnographic Resources are defined as the cultural and natural features of a park that are of traditional significance to traditionally associated peoples.
Traditionally associated peoples are the contemporary Tribes, groups, and park neighbors that have been associated with a park for two or more generations (40 years), and whose interests in the park’s resources began before the park’s establishment. Living peoples of many cultural backgrounds—Tribes, Native Hawaiians, African Americans, Hispanics, Chinese Americans, Euro-Americans, and farmers, ranchers, and fishermen—may have a traditional association with a particular park.
Traditionally associated peoples differ as a group from other park visitors in that they assign significance to Ethnographic Resources—places closely linked with their own sense of purpose, existence as a community, and development as ethnically distinctive peoples. These places may be in urban or rural parks and support ceremonial activities or represent birthplaces of significant individuals, group origin sites, migration routes, or harvesting or collecting places. Although these places have historic attributes that are of great importance to the group, they may not necessarily have a direct association with the reason the park was established.
The intern will perform the following tasks: conduct thorough literature research and review of published and unpublished ethnohistorical sources; identify and categorize ethnographic references; document traditional and/or Tribal association; scan and digitalize information; sort and organize data into searchable spreadsheets and databases; summarize citations; produce annotated bibliographies; create maps and other materials. The intern will present the results of their work to park staff and volunteers. The intern may also work in collaboration with other park staff. This position may be performed remotely with some field-work related travel.