Salve Regina program wins U.S. grant for historical research
NEWPORT, R.I. — A $39,000 grant from the National Park Service will enable Salve Regina University’s Cultural and Historic Preservation program to conduct historical research on a battle associated with the Yamasee War, a conflict in the early 1700s in South Carolina between colonists and Native Americans.
The grant, from the Park Service’s Battlefield Protection Program, is one of 20 awarded nationally. A total of $1.2 million will support work that safeguards and preserves significant American battlefield lands for present and future generations, according to Salve Regina.
Salve Regina students in the CHP program will undertake site documentation for the Sadkeche Fight, one of the battles in the Yamasee War, which is not widely remembered today. Some of the defeated Indians escaped to Florida, where they formed what would later be called the Seminole.
“No one has ever located a battlefield from the Yamasee War, and unlike the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, we do not have a great deal of historical records to rely upon,” said assistant professor Jon Marcoux. “There is a lot of work to do, and Salve students will play a central part in the project, which is very much in line with our program’s emphasis on hands-on learning. There is no better teacher than experience.”
The project highlights the important relationship between archaeology, history, geography and historic preservation, according to Salve Regina.
“The CHP program at Salve is unique in that we emphasize the poly-disciplinary nature of cultural and historic preservation,” Marcoux said. “Through this project, the students will see how these disciplines work together to gain a better understanding of our past, as well as to protect that past for future generations.”
The Yamasee War — and the Sadkeche Fight in particular — have some historical parallel to King Philip’s War and Rhode Island’s Great Swamp Massacre, explored last year in the Journal’s Race in Rhode Island series.
—gwmiller@providencejournal.com
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