2025 Bender Field School

Location: Independence, KS

Season: May 19, 2025 to June 6, 2025

Application Deadline: January 22, 2025

Deadline Type: Contact for Details

Website: https://anthropology.ku.edu/field-experience

Program Type:
Field School

RPA Certified:
No

Affiliation:
University of Kansas

Project Director:
Dr. Lauren Norman

Project Description:

Apply using this application form listed on the website! Priority deadline to apply is March 1st, 2025. Applications will close once all spots are filled (we only have 20).

Instructors: Drs. Lauren Norman and Blair Schneider

Description: Join Drs. Norman and Schneider and other students to investigate the history of Kansas through the lens of the Bender Homestead. The Bender family arrived in Kansas in 1870, settling into the southeast corner of Kansas just after the forcible removal of the Osage Nation. Along with typical homesteading practices, they also engaged in robbery and murder, eventually being found out. Although there has been much written about this sensational story, this project is the first to investigate the homestead using archaeological science. Come learn the basic skills of archaeological survey, field work, and cataloguing while investigating an intriguing mystery at the frontier in Kansas history. Students will learn pedestrian survey, geophysical survey, mapping (hand and GPS), shovel testing, setting grids, excavation (shovel skimming and trowel), screening, recording (notes, artifacts, stratigraphy changes), stratigraphic profiling, plan view mapping, field note taking, photography skills, field cataloguing and recording, collaborative investigation, teamwork, communication with the media, community-engaged research methods, and much more!

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Field days will be May 19th - May 30th

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: None

Room and Board Arrangements:
This is a no cost field camp! Bob Miller, landowner of the Bender homestead, has generously donated to the KU Archaeology Field School to alleviate most of the costs for students participating in the 2025 field season at the Bloody Bender homestead. Miller’s generous donation provides funding for all subsistence and field work costs, valued at $,1250 per participant. Lodging at hotel in Independence, KS (includes hot breakfast). Transportation to and from (hotel to site and back). Field work equipment, including notebooks, tools, and gear. First aid and emergency supplies for field.

Academic Credit:
3 credit hours Students will be eligible to apply for a scholarship to cover tuition and KU fees. Applications for this scholarship are due prior to the field school, with scholarships awarded after the field school to reimburse tuition and fees costs.