Inverness Garden Club features talk on archaeology laws and indigenous site protection

On Thursday, Aug. 20, McKenzie Sweno will present “The ABCs of Archaeology — Artifacts, Bills, & Conserving Cultures” for the Garden Club of Inverness.

This free program will be held at 10:30 a.m. at All Saints Lutheran Church, 630 S. Quentin Road in Palatine.

McKenzie Sweno is an archaeology assistant with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and an Masters in Science in Archaeology. She has worked for various archaeological companies in the United Kingdom for two years and currently works for a small cultural resource management company in Crystal Lake.

Archaeology is an important part of any construction project, large or small, as the federal government passed laws to protect archaeologically significant sites through the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

Individual states are required to regulate archaeology at a state and local level as well, through state historic preservation offices and county archaeologists.

Her talk will focus on how archaeology is regulated and enforced within both federal and state policies, and what she does as an archaeology assistant on projects, including pictures of artifacts she has found and sites worked.

She will also discuss how current federal changes have put major archaeological sites at risk of development and mining, which would destroy very important indigenous cultural sites across the country.

For information, visit gardenclubofinverness.com or facebook.com/Gardenclubofinverness/.