Fort Sisseton is a beautifully restored Indian Wars-era military fort in NE South Dakota maintained by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. Our Principal Investigator (PI) has taught several field schools at Fort Sisseton and CHC has completed numerous archaeological surveys at the site since the early 1990s. Some of the many excavation areas include the post bakery, laundress areas, officer-related locales, the post schoolhouse, doctor’s quarters, hospital, enlisted barracks, magazine, barn and guardhouse.
One of the more interesting excavation projects included the discovery of a laundress-related privy and/or dump. Our PI used archaeological data from both laundresses and officers’ wives to produce a detailed gender study regarding the use of material culture to delineate status among females at a frontier military fort. This study produced some surprising results and could modify some traditionally held beliefs among historians regarding the role of “true womanhood” during the Victorian period.
