Scientists Seek Harmony With Native Americans : History: Archeologists hope to avoid opposition by working with tribes. Some Indians support digs as a way to learn about their own past.

Richard Boisvert solicited the blessing of the spirit world as he scraped for scraps of American Indian history on a wooded hilltop above the Winnipesaukee River.

Boisvert, deputy state archeologist, suspects that the hill was home to a seasonal fishing camp dating back 8,000 years. Its proximity to the river and a small lake would have allowed inhabitants to prepare for the salmon runs that turned New England waters turgid hundreds of years ago. The lake would have made waterfowl a common menu item during the noisy goose and duck migrations that once darkened the skies.

“The site seems to have been occupied off and on throughout the span of time,” said Boisvert, who chose the site for this year’s annual archeological field school.

Boisvert has learned the value of public relations in the hope of avoiding the negative perceptions of last summer’s field school along the Connecticut River in Haverhill.

A group opposed to the excavation paid a surprise visit and protested by beating drums and calling a reporter. The protesters accused Boisvert of desecration.

Boisvert, who often includes Native Americans on his teams, was startled but learned from the experience. This year, Boisvert sought help from American Indian groups.

He received the blessing of the New Hampshire Intertribal Council, a group formed three years ago to preserve the history and culture of the state’s American Indians. A shaman blessed the site and drummers performed several songs before digging commenced.

Boisvert has long worked closely with Native Americans, but decided this year to bring that relationship to the public’s attention.

Across the country, archeologists are developing similar relationships--if they haven’t already.

In the West, where some tribes have their own archeologists and tight communities are more common than in the Northeast, archeologists have long sought the help of Native Americans, said Dean Snowe, head of the anthropology department at Penn State and author of several books on American Indian culture.

Boisvert runs the field school once a year and tries to choose sites threatened by nature, development or vandals.

Stone chips can show what types of tools and materials were used. Sometimes, stone from other areas of the country is found, showing there was trading between groups.

At this year’s site, Boisvert suspects, the community fluctuated between zero and 100 inhabitants during different periods.

The inhabitants were food gatherers because the site, with its thick woods and slopes, would have been poor for agriculture.

They also may have fed on beaver and muskrat caught with traps and snares. White tail deer were as important for their hides as for meat.

The site’s inhabitants probably lived in oval homes covered with bark and hide, traversed the river and lake in dugout canoes in earlier times, then birchbark canoes later.

Boisvert hopes that the dig will help round out his speculations.

There were times in the past when he had difficulty finding Native American descendants, but there has been a reawakening of American Indians to their culture, he said.

Nelson Bolding, whose Bold Wing Warrior Drum group performed recently at the site in Belmont, also believes that close communication between archeologists and Native Americans is helpful. He said a majority of Native Americans support archeology because they have little written history and, increasingly, hunger for knowledge of their past.

“There is a great deal of mystery about how life was,” said Bolding, whose lineage is Mohawk Abenaki. “History was passed down through word of mouth and you can’t just go to the library and look it up.”