Last updated: April 27, 2022
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2020 John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology
The John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in National Park Service Archeology is awarded annually to honor the long and distinguished career and pioneering contributions of Dr. John L. Cotter. The award was established as inspiration for student and professional archeologists to continue Dr. Cotter’s model of excellence. The award recognizes the archeological accomplishments of NPS staff or a partnership researcher within a unit or units of the National Park System.
The Cotter Award recognizes two categories. The Professional Achievement Category is awarded to individuals with demonstrated long-term service in the NPS. The Project Achievement Category is awarded to an individual or a group of people for a single fixed-year activity or a multi-year effort with sequential phases for inventory, excavation, testing, mitigation, planning, or collection analysis regarding submerged or terrestrial National Park Service resources.
The winners of the 2020 awards are:
Rolando Garza (Professional Achievement)
Rolando Garza’s body of work at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park exemplifies the impact one person can have on a national park unit. He conducted numerous geophysical surveys to further understanding of the park and partnered with state, federal, municipal, and private parties to investigate and protect sites throughout the Rio Grande valley. Whether at the Annual Rio Grande Delta International Archeology Fair that he organizes, leading a Texas Master Naturalist class, or dressed as a circa 1846 Mexican soldier as part of a living history program he developed, Garza makes sure his knowledge of and passion for historic resources are shared with a broad public.
Matthew Guebard (Project Excellence)
The Castle A Oral History Project combined archival research, new fieldwork and analyses, and oral history to produce new data and interpretations of the occupation and abandonment of Montezuma Castle’s cliff dwellings. The convergence of archeological data -collected and analyzed in collaboration with university and non-profit partners- and oral history shared by the Hopi, Apache, and Yavapai tribes provides a compelling story with multiple lines of evidence for abandonment of the dwellings in the late 14th century due to a siege-like attack. Guebard’s work incorporates new findings into interpretive information.
Watch Guebard's webinar: Developing New Interpretations from Old Data at Montezuma's Castle National Monument.