Category Archives: Snapshots

Random things about us

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Snapshots

There are so many dedicated and hardworking volunteers working in the RGC Cemetery this week on the excavations. There are five of us from UIndy and a large group from Texas State University.  We have already talked extensively about the challenges we face: the high temperatures, the difficulty digging in the ground here, and the depth of the burials (among other things). But, unlike what we faced in Sacred Heart Burial Park, each area of the cemetery where unidentified migrants are buried brings its own unique challenges.

Texas State team members excavating a burial.

The area that needs to be searched here is very large. While that might not be an issue in the sandy soil of Brooks County, here our normal search strategies are difficult or impossible. Probing the ground has proven impossible and the act of digging test pits or trenches is difficult and time consuming. Yet, they are still making progress and doing an incredible job facing the challenges of this particular site.

Texas State team members around a pit.

The area here is located on low ground. We had had several big overnight storms throughout the week that has left this area completely underwater.  Yet, this group came up with strategies to remove the water from the pit and continue to work without much delay.

Texas State team members.

This group is digging their excavation area completely by hand. This burial is expected to be 5-6 feet below ground surface and is located in a place that the backhoe cannot reach.   So they are using shovels to excavate the entire pit by hand. In this environment that is quite a task!

UIndy team standing in the bottom of an empty pit.

In this area of the cemetery the burials are deep! This has required a lot of digging to locate and remove each burial. Yet, this team has powered through it each day.

Every volunteer is facing the same collective challenges in addition to the unique challenges of their team’s particular excavation spot. It takes a lot of dedication, determination and strength to continue to make progress each day and we wanted to make sure all these hard workers are recognized!

~KEL

Our Last Day in San Marcos, TX

Snapshots
Group photo at an art festival.
Our team at the art festival

I have enjoyed an incredible three days at Texas State University at ORPL participating in the analysis of the skeletal remains that were recovered by the UIndy team in January, May 2013 or June 2014.  I learned an incredible amount in the process and I feel so far beyond grateful to be here.  After analyzing 9 cases (our goal was 6), today was our rest day before we travel to Rio Grande City tomorrow.  We left the hotel at 9am to go to Gil’s Broiler for Manske rolls.  We realized before we left that Gil’s didn’t open until 11am though, so we ran a few errands before going for breakfast.  A few of us needed a couple of odds and ends to survive the rest of the trip, so we stopped at CVS to pick up a few things.  We were on the hunt for a cooling towel, which will be essential when we are in Rio Grande City performing exhumations.  It is supposed to be around 100 degrees each day we are in the field, only allowing each of us to work about 4 minutes before we have to take an 8 minute hydration and cooling break.  During this time, a cooling towel will help tremendously to cool us down.  One of our team members forgot her cooling towel in Indiana, so we did some hunting around San Marcos to find one.

After CVS, we went to Lowe’s to pick up tarps to keep our van clean after our field days next week.  We want to preserve the beautiful brand new van as much as we possibly can, so we decided tarps were completely necessary.  After Lowe’s, we went to Academy, a sporting goods store, to find the cooling towel.  We were successful and what a cool store that was!  After that, it was nearing 11am so we headed for Gil’s to get our Manske rolls.  When we got there, there were a couple of people waiting outside.

Manske rolls bakery.

The doors finally opened a little after 11 and we were so excited.  We ordered our Manske rolls at the counter, a few of us adding half of a Hershey’s bar to our rolls, and then we found a table to wait.  After getting our rolls, it was very difficult not to scarf them down because they were so delicious.

A Manske roll.

After our breakfast, we traveled a short way past Texas State University, a beautiful campus, to an art show we were invited to by Kate Spradley.  It was located at the Eye of the Dog Art Center and was a pottery show.  The pottery on display was so beautiful.  We really enjoyed seeing it all.  We spoke with one artist who informed us that they have three art shows a year and this was their biggest one.  It was so neat to see all of the different ways clay can be used to make beautiful pieces of art.

After the art show, we went back to the hotel to relax and do laundry before dinner.  We left at 6pm for a restaurant called “54th Street”, which turned out to be extremely busy because of a prom being held nearby.  It was a lot of fun to see the prom dresses as we were waiting for our table.  We waited for about an hour before our table was ready.  The food was fantastic, and thus the wait was well worth it.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Rio Grande City at around 10am.  It will take us about 6 hours to get there.  I am so excited for this next leg of our journey in Texas.  I have had an amazing experience here thus far, and I very much look forward to being able to learn so much more about this process, as well as observe a different culture.  I am so glad that the University of Indianapolis offers experiences such as this one, and I am so thankful for Dr. Latham and the wealth of knowledge she is able to share.  I have learned so much from this experience already, and I am looking forward to learning a lot more.

Haley

FARF – The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility

Snapshots

  Team members going through the entry gate to the research facility.

   When I explain my field of study to friends and family members, the conversation almost always involves mention and questions about the renowned “body farms,” where research concerning the process of decomposition takes place. Until today, the only knowledge I was able to offer about these body farms stemmed from word of mouth and reading about some of the research being conducted there. Today, as a break from skeletal analyses in the lab, my fellow UIndy students and I were able to visit FARF, the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State University. And it was even cooler than I thought it would be.

A cow in a field.
Some of our team members may have been a little excited about the cows on the way to the facility…

two team members looking out the minivan window.

Our visit to FARF began with a light-hearted warning about fire ant mounds. Having visited Texas earlier in January, I thought I was familiar enough with the presence of fire ants to be able to avoid them easily (having been stung by one during said previous visit), but boy was I wrong. When the UIndy team was working in the field in Falfurrias, we would come across small ant holes, with fire ants pouring out of them, but they were fairly few and far between. At FARF, the fire ants created large mounds and almost every other step was carefully placed to avoid being swarmed. Needless to say, our eyes were glued to the ground being sure to avoid stepping on any of the mounds. Of course,

A spider in a tree
Yes, that is a spider.

we were  then warned about the large spider webs spanning the trees, so while our eyes were searching the ground for fire ant mounds, we were also conscious of what might be hanging between the trees.

Despite the insect and arachnid activity at the facility, FARF was very impressive. While walking through and observing the numerous research and educational projects being conducted there, I couldn’t help but think of new research questions that could be investigated there. The decomposition process is so highly variable and there are so many factors that may affect it that the possibilities for research are endless.

FARF is also where Texas State University allows their donated bodies to naturally decompose, while protecting them from carnivore scavenging. I greatly appreciated the amount of respect and sensitivity given to the wishes of those donating their bodies to the facility, and the amount of donations that FARF typically receives in a single year was impressive and inspiring, providing more opportunities for research in the field of forensic anthropology.

Overview of a grassy area with trees in the distance.

The end of the tour took a slightly more serious tone for me. Our final stop was the fenced enclosure in which the remains of the migrants who have perished crossing the border are allowed to decompose until they can be processed and analyzed. This final stop was made even more significant by the fact that the remains currently being held there were those that our UIndy team had recovered during the field season earlier in January. It was very humbling to see the next step in the process that will hopefully lead to the identification of these individuals whose families are still wondering what happened to them. Not only is FARF a very impressive research facility with many important projects being conducted there, but it is also part of the process that has brought the UIndy team to Texas year after year – to help identify those who have perished as a result of the crisis at the border.

Erica