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CANE RIVER CACHET – October 27, 2001
By Ada D. Jarred
Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, and Sidney Lippman used the 26 letters of the alphabet to catalogue the assets of a lover in 1949:
“A” you’re adorable;
“B” you’re so beautiful;
“C” you’re a cutie full of charms....
Dustin Fuqua has a more formidable task: he is inventorying, numbering, and cataloguing the more than 250,000 artifacts that Cane River Creole National Historical Park has recovered from Oakland Plantation and the outbuildings of Magnolia Plantation. The collection includes furniture, books, farm equipment, and fragments of china and iron. The park stores the objects at the former Press Box building while the personnel restore buildings and prepare for a formal opening.
Fuqua’s work requires limited conservation (such as wrapping and freezing books), stabilizing artifacts, compiling numerous reports for the National Park Service in Washington, filling in worksheets, entering digital information, and physically labeling each object. The label applied to each artifact contains an accession number, a catalog number, the name of the object, perhaps a description of the object, the name of the conservator, and the date processed.
Fuqua, a native of the Spring Bayou area of Marksville, came to the job in August. Previously he worked as a curator with the Marksville State Historical Site. He also has archaeological experience with Los Adais, Fort Jesup, and Camp Beauregard. His interest in history and archaeology began early; as a child he picked up arrowheads. By the age of 16 he was employed as a tour guide at the Marksville State Historical Site.
In 1999 Fuqua transferred to Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site as a costumed interpreter and entered Northwestern, majoring in anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology. He is currently a junior, serves as president of the Archaeology Club on campus, and is a member of Theta Chi fraternity. On weekends he still serves as an interpreter at Fort St. Jean Baptiste.
Fuqua credits Kathleen Jenkins, the curator at Natchez Historical Park, with his introduction to cataloging historical artifacts. In addition to her instruction he utilizes the National Park Service automated cataloging system software, Rediscover, in his work as well as other useful tools, such as The Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging, a set of museum handbooks, and a National Park Service periodic publication, Conserv-o-gram. The latter is so helpful and explicit that “a chimpanzee could conserve,” asserts Fuqua. It is doubtful, however, that a chimp could understand and develop Fuqua’s deep appreciation for the necessity of standardization in cataloguing.
As park superintendent Laura Soulliere explains, the Park Service is understaffed in field areas, so a law enforcement officer, for example, may have to do collections work, also. Standardization of terminology, policies, procedures, and stabilization becomes highly important as various persons work on the same, long-term projects.
Fuqua enjoys museum-type work better than his earlier archaeological experience. “It is more hands-on. More interpretation is involved. One gets to tell a story of an artifact, rather than just pulling it out of the ground,” he asserts. He does not find the cataloguing work monotonous because the variety of tasks keeps him interested and fresh.
The university junior plans to pursue a career in the National Park Service and to do graduate study eventually. He came to Northwestern primarily because of the numerous scholarships available. Touring the campus, he saw Dr. Hiram Gregory’s Williamson Museum and the archaeological labs and was hooked. The advantage of being able to transfer from the Marksville State Historic Site to Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site also was a plus.
Fuqua’s devotion to his assignment is obvious as he guides one through the massive collection of boxed and shelved artifacts. He sees the story in each object, from a cotton bale stencil to a sausage injector to a coffee grinder mounted on a low, child-size stool. He takes particular pride in the painted family portraits. “This is my favorite artifact,” he shares, pointing to a primitive, well-worn prie-dieu.
Why does superintendent Laura Soulliere want you to meet this young employee of Cane River Creole National Historical Park? “First of all, the park needs to care for its collections, and Dustin is working on a multi-year project.” His cataloging assignment is probably an aspect of park service of which few members of the public are aware. She continues, “Secondly, I am always looking for additional bridges to Northwestern State University. A good relationship between the park and the university benefits higher education, the park, and the American people. Students who work with the park get training on the job, an asset that places them ahead of graduates without experience when they hit the job market. Frankly, we are building for the future, creating strong professionals as well as caring for our resources.”
Another Northwestern student employed by the park is Amanda Rabalais, who began as a volunteer. Christy Longlois, a Northwestern graduate in anthropology and currently a graduate student at the University of Arkansas in historical archaeology is finishing documentation of the bottle garden at Oakland Plantation as part of her graduate work. The park also employs a high school student, Kendrick Jones, on its preservation crew.
The song sums up:
It’s fun to wander through the alphabet with you,
To tell you what you mean to me.
It’s fun, also, to wander through the artifacts collection of Cane River Creole National Historical Park with Dustin Fuqua, to have him share the fascinating variety of objects, and to listen to the stories of the artifacts that he knows and imagines. It is easy to see what the collection means to him and to share his pride in objects that reflect the rich history of the Natchitoches
area. Such an experience makes one even more eager for the future of the park when the artifacts will be returned to the plantations to take their place in interpretation of the Creole life that flourished there.
The Cane River Creole National Historical Park is located in the Cane River National Heritage Area. The park and the heritage area are telling your story and singing your song.
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