Non-Profit Spotlight UTRGV Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS)

Since its founding in 2009, the award-winning Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has illuminated many untold stories of our region’s rich cultural and natural history from Laredo in Webb County to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Cameron Country.

CHAPS’ effectiveness and strength is based on the fluidity of its interdisciplinary team of anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, educators, geologists, historians, and others whose personal research agenda is locally focused. They often note that their personal pronoun of choice is “We,” not “I.” Each participant’s strengths are complimented by their colleagues, resulting in initiatives and “products” that are far beyond the ability of a single scholarly effort. Of course, that is the nature of all good scholarly endeavors, but what distinguishes the CHAPS Program is that they not only produce peer-reviewed scholarship but also bring that new knowledge to our school-aged children and to the broader South Texas community.

During the past fifteen years, the CHAPS Program has undertaken several initiatives to celebrate our region’s rich but often overlooked cultural and natural history. These include From Porciones to Colonias (a place- and community-based learning project), Native Peoples of South Texas, and “A Porción of Edinburg” (a series of experiential-learning reports that focus on farmers who created the Magic Valley in the 20th century). Readers of SOCIALIFE may recognize some of the CHAPS Program’s most famous initiatives: the Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail (a military history project highlighting Tejanos, Anglos, and African American troops), Ancient Landscapes of South Texas (a geoheritage project), Pathways to Freedom (underground railroad activity US-Mexico borderlands). The Program has worked to make “history” accessible by creating bilingual products (maps, traveling museum exhibits, podcasts, books), five award-winning documentary films, TEKS-aligned lesson plans, and traveling trunks for K-12 educators. Hundreds of teachers across 23 RGV school districts and thousands of students have benefited from specialized educational tools.

Recognized on the Texas State Senate and House floor in 2021, CHAPS received the 2020 Texas Historical Commission’s highest achievement, the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation. Internationally, their efforts in heritage education, public archaeology, and community programming were recognized by the Society for Historical Archaeology in 2017 and the Society for American Archaeology in 2024.

To learn more about the CHAPS Program, visit www.utrgv.edu/chaps