Abstract

Recent investigations of the waterlogged component at Scowlitz (DhR1-16W) in the Fraser valley of southwestern British Columbia, illustrate the socio-political complexities of the process of doing archaeology. Aboriginal administrators, individual band members, university educators, students, volunteers, wet-site archaeologists, conservators, and government managers see the project from different, intersecting perspectives. The concerned parties do not have the same goals for research, resource management, and public awareness. Thus, the methods as well as the results of the archaeological investigations reflect multiple, sometimes conflicting, lines of thinking. This paper attempts to mirror reality through simultaneous consideration of disparate viewpoints.