Lying in the hammock, looking up at the palm thatched ceiling I could hear the mouse, or rat, scurrying along one of the rafter poles. We had been staying in the house of Luico Aerosemana this week, and he had graciously placed his cat to help keep the mice from keeping us awake. The cat reacted to the faint noise from the movement of the mouse and caused something to fall to the sand and coral floor. This caused a rooster to flap its wings, catching very audible gusts of wind as it drew in a large breath to begin crowing. With its loud exclamation a second rooster, several thatched huts away responded. Dogs in turn joined in the chorus that now included crying babies. Fishermen ready to take advantage of the first rays of sunlight glistening on the mirror-like water's surface, began taking oars and sails to their dugout canoes. Women began fanning the smoldering embers of spoke-like arrangements of logs to start the fires that would be needed to heat Kuna bread and coffee.

We had been working patiently for four days, talking in the town meeting hall and holding discussions in small groups. Our efforts had not been easy because we were introducing change, something foreign. We were proposing a survey of cultural resources within the sovereign territory of the Kuna (Commarca de San Blas, Yarsuit or Kuna Yala). There was a law, a law forbidding archaeological investigations in their territory. It had been enacted by their general congress to prohibit foreign scholars from excavating within the territory. Even though we had a permit for archaeological investigations issued by the Instituto National del Patrimonio, the Kuna were very guarded about the sovereignty of their territory. This is exceptional for Native Americans, most of whom live in poverty on reservations with Bureau of Indian Affairs administrators carefully overseeing everyday affairs.

A very impassioned speech had been made, with the points that visitors to the islands of San Blas in yachts could collect materials from their beaches with little supervision and leave with shells, archaeological materials, with no oversight. The point was made that in order to guard and protect their archaeological resources, they needed to know precisely where they were located. Their workers needed to be instructed to guard and protect these resources. Finally it had been agreed that if Kuna youth actually did the work with instruction from archaeological professor Stephen Hale from Georgia Southern University, the survey would be legal. Especially if it were open to all the members of the village of Playon Chico to evaluate the process and learn if the effort was in their best interest.

Four Kuna teenagers who were known for their contributions to the community and for their excellent academic standing in the local school began to arrive at Lucio's thatched hut. They had backpacks, packed lunches, and broad smiles. They were proud to have been selected as the participants in the first archaeological field school for Native American in Kuna Yala. This day was an opportunity, a chance to learn if archaeology was to be something beneficial to the community of Playon Chico, and, possibly serve as an example for the entire territory, all the Kuna. Three young men, and one young woman sat in the bow of the boat, holding the bags with the portable mapping table, the paper, the field notebook, and the alidade. The held them protectively, keeping the wake of the boat from getting anything wet. It was a large boat, one provided by the community for us to use on this historic occasion. We were going to an island where people from the village operated a tourist hotel. Knowing that tourists walk around the beaches of this island collecting shells and souvenirs it was decided that this would be a pertinent place to evaluate the possible contributions of archaeological study. Two members of the village had explained that in the past a well had been dug near the center of the island where large pot fragments had been discovered. This fact had also entered into the decision to begin our work near the tourists' cabanas.

As the boat neared the island of Yandup , the water became clearer, so clear that the horizon between the water and sky would have been imperceptible had it not been for dark rain-clouds forming ahead of us. The sound of the water gently being pushed aside by the slow moving boat stirred a cloud of small fish all around the boat. Slowing pulling us aside the dock, the four young Kuna helped the rest of us from the boat. Our group included a former chief (Saihla Brenes), a retired Spanish professor (Eudardo Estocel) and dignitaries from the community. With a display of great respect the youth escorted each of us down the narrow dock to the grass covered path leading to the cabanas.

Just as we had all gotten ashore, the dark tropical rain clouds began to lightly rain on our party. Taking the rain in stride everyone walked to the porch of one of the tourist cabanas to patiently let the rain pass and keep the equipment dry. As everyone found a seat on the palm covered porch, we discovered one of those golden teaching opportunities lying on the front of the planks. There to our amazement were two pot shards. We explained that someone, perhaps a tourist had collected these and forgotten to pack them. We also explained that we could not even be certain that these two shards were from Yandup. The opportunity to study these shards and have them yield important information had been lost by the disturbance of these artifacts. They could have been collected on any of the neighboring islands and brought back here. Immediately there were comments in Kuna, discussions about how artifacts alone are not enough. The young Kuna, the retired Kuna professor, the former chief, and other observers from the community began to fully understand. They began to understand that preservation of context, information, was as important as preservation of the artifacts in their commarca.

The calming sound of the rain gently tapping the palm thatched roof was only interrupted by the discussions of the implications of what had already been learned. There were smiles, those "Ah-Ha" smiles, ones where without question, you knew lights had figuratively come on, people understood with deep concern the need to record information about their past before it was lost like pages being ripped from a historic book, a book with only a singe copy remaining.

As the tempo of the rain hitting the roof calmed, the four youth made sure everyone present signed in the field logbook that had been dated 23rd of June 2005. The young Kuna woman made a note that we were about to systematically form a line and walk around the island, on the beach, and place a flag by any pot shards or artifacts we observed. She made notes about how important it was not to pick up the artifacts or move them until we had completed the mapping. Not knowing how many other artifacts would be found on the island, or if any more would be observed, everyone was very focused, with eyes scanning each patch of color, each crack in the coral rock. As they began walking, two of the Young Kuna men exclaimed excitedly. "Is this an artifact," they asked? It was their first undisturbed discovery. Their faces lit by the soft, clouded light, revealed a sense of pride, a sense of understanding. It was another one of those "Ah-Ha" moments. The entire line broke rank and everyone crowed around. It was quiet, everyone was spellbound, they all understood. They knew that from that moment on, they needed to be aware, to be informed about what resources they needed to preserve. With renewed fervor, everyone quickly found their spot, the line advanced further around the island. "Here's one," was quickly heard. As everyone gathered around, the second object was determined to be a piece of wood.

This was how the morning was spent in the subdued light of the cloudy sky as the team inched its way around the island. By lunchtime, thirty-two flags had been placed by artifacts, or clusters of artifacts. Everyone boarded the community boat and we returned to Playon Chico for lunch. As we ate yucca, fish and Kuna bread seated in our hammocks the clouds began to lift over the mountains and the sun began to shine brightly. Looking out the door of the thatched hut, I began to see the young Kuna archaeology students returning to the hut early. They had a sense of excitement, a sense or urgency to get back to the island with the break in the weather and complete this very important work. This was their project, they were the first Kuna archaeologists, the first to realize that there were things about their past they were discovering. They were thinking of questions that they could ask about their past, questions that could be answered by their work. Their excitement, their energy was evident in their countenance, their faces, the way they moved.

The warmth of the sun and bright colors of the rainforests in the background seemed very appropriate for the mood of the team of young archaeologists as they moved sprightly from the dock to the cabins where the equipment had been stored. They assembled the plane table for mapping and took out the wooden alidade with the folding sights. Securing mapping paper to the plane table with masking tape, the young Kuna woman began took a compass and drew a line indicating magnetic North. She then wrote on the map with notes about the scale to be used, which was a 1:100 scale where 1 centimeter represented 1 full meter. She then aligned the alidade from the center pin of the table with the first flag marking an artifact. With a faint line indicating the bearing drawn, she asked two of the young Kuna men to pull the metric tape line and determine the distance. "Four point twenty-three meters," one of them yelled back. With that information she picked up a metric ruler and made a point on the faint line she had drawn. As she looked along the centimeter marks she counted, "One, Two, Three, Four…Four point twenty-three centimeters." "That's four centimeters and a little more than two millimeters," she said kind of questioningly. The mathematics teacher from her high school smiled and nodded approvingly. Smiling, she said, "There really is a practical use for all that geometry and trigonometry you've been teaching us." Nobody had to say a word, everyone understood, this was another one of those "Ah-Ha" moments as a teacher and his student connected. The young woman with that "Now-I-see" expression and her teacher with that rewarding smile that says, "Yes, yes-now-you-see!"

Flag by flag, artifact by artifact the map continued to take shape. Then the young archaeologists began to map the shoreline of the island, the positions of the tourist cabins. Sections of the map were taped together with masking tape, details of context were put together spatially on the map. Realizations, possibilities were coming together in the minds of these young students. These were revealed in their discussions, their comments. By they end of the day, there was no end to the questions? Questions like, "Don't we need to know what is under the grass on the island?" One of the young Kuna men exclaims, "Those concentrations of potsherds could be the locations of historic or prehistoric cooking huts, or houses." The discussion continued on the boat ride back to the village as the first day drew to a close.

The next morning there were smiles, the smiles of four eager archaeology field school students arriving at the doorway to my thatched house. After loading the boat and heading toward the island the young students politely began asking more questions. They continued as we unloaded the equipment from the boat, set up, and began working. They took turns at all the different tasks, working as a motivated team. So motivated they were calculating the distances from the mapping table to the artifacts to the nearest millimeter. They were taking a great deal of pride in their work, it was evident in their expressions, their work, the map, the logbook. This second day of work involved the assignment of O bject N umbers ( ON #s) analogous to our F ield S pecimen N umbers ( FS#s ). In the field logbook they entered the bearings and distances from Reference Points. They had set these Reference Points with a Garmen Global Positioning Satellite unit. They were iron rods driven into the coral rock for permanent calibration of the maps.

All of the bearings and distances from these reference points were written on each bag containing an artifact by one young archaeologist, while another stood by making the same entry in the field notebook, a hard-bound K&E engineer's book. By the end of the day all of the young archaeologists were thinking about what to say to their community. They were expected to report to the entire community of Playon Chico with an evaluation of the project. They were all well respected for their community service and scholastic record in the community high school. Their comments would be valued by the members of the community, but they would also have to be prepared to answer questions about the work. As we loaded the equipment and artifacts into bags they were to guard and bring to the meeting, they began to talk. They began to discuss how they would present their findings, their thoughts to the community. Their high school teacher guarded the bags containing the artifacts and equipment as they disembarked from the boat. They smiled and departed as a group, deliberating about who would address each topic. The rest of our group bathed with dippers of water, dressed in more formal attire and ate supper.

As the afternoon ended and the temperature began to drop below 90 the relative humidity began to drop as well. It had been at 88% during the middle of the day. We swung in the hammocks, moving very little, as the stars began to appear. Slowly, against a red and blue sky they began to fill the night. Being away from cities and electric lights it is hard to imagine just how many stars can be seen in such an isolated setting. The students' math teacher came by with the map, the notes, and the artifacts and we talked about base twenty math systems. Their traditional mathematics, as well as Mayan mathematics had been based on units of twenty. From there the discussion drifted to Unified Theory and String Theory. The math teacher was thrilled at the enthusiasm he had observed in his students. We were delighted to be at the edge of a rainforest in Panama in the company of a colleague who could discuss some of the most profound questions being asked. Some of the individuals in the community had envisioned us arriving with very complicated, expensive equipment to complete the project. In agreement, we all decided to explain that the most elegant piece of equipment we had employed was the human mind.

As people began crowding into the Community Meeting House people were preparing hot chocolate in the back, and the chiefs were lowering their hammocks from the rafters. People were greeting each other, sliding down the wooden benches, making room for the crowd arriving to hear the verdict about the need for archaeological work in Kuna Yala. After everyone found a place to sit, or stand, the First Speaker of the House announced to visitors and delegates. The order of the evening was explained and the young Kuna woman, a girl of 17 stood bashfully. She asked us to unroll, and hold up the large map we had prepared. Dramatically, with elegance, she began to explain how we had found artifacts on the porch of one of the tourists' cabins at Yandup. She explained how tourists can collect artifacts from their islands unsupervised and leave with them. More importantly, she explained how the context with these artifacts had been lost, even though the shards remained on the porch. Using her arms and hands to emphasize points 4she profoundly explained to need for the Kuna to be aware of the natural, and cultural resources in their territory. With great conviction she explained, "This is a reason for us to do well in school because we need to help educate a Kuna archaeologist to be employed in Kuna Yala to preserve our history and where we have important sites that need to be preserved." After her presentation, it was quiet in the large, crowded meeting house. The entire village was astounded by the wisdom of this young Kuna woman of 17. Nobody could have spoken more eloquently, or with greater wisdom. She spoke with emotion and conviction. After a few seconds, one of the young Kuna men was introduced. He said, "Now I know, I know I am not limited to studying only the prehistory of the Maya, the Inca, and the Aztec in the New World ." With a short pause he continued saying, "I have a prehistory, a history, and we can study our own, the Kuna Prehistory." Again, the crowd was unexpectedly quiet. One by one, all of the young people who participated presented reason for their being knowledgeable about Kuna Archaeology.

The work in Kuna Yala on the islands near Ukubseni was not easy. It was very hot and extremely humid. There were days of lengthy political meetings and discussions. The awareness of the need for this information by the people of Ukubseni and the motivation of these youth have led to a decision to dedicate part of the Kuna Heritage Fund (# 0727) with the Georgia Southern University Foundation to the formation of a scholarship to aid one or more of these participants in attaining a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology with an emphasis in Archaeology. None of the universities in Panama have programs in archaeology at this point in time.