Join Concordia Parish Library and Concordia Bank & Trust Co. at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Vidalia Library to celebrate archaeology week.

Dr. Pete Gregory will be returning to Concordia Parish to present “Commercial Fishing Culture: Waterscapes and Artifacts.”

Dr. Gregory is an instructor from Northwestern State University who introduces information with interest, excitement and great knowledge relevant to the Louisiana and Mississippi River Valley area. Commercial fishing, artifacts and sites with evidence of human activity left behind are topics that Dr. Gregory will cover during his presentation.

There is so much Louisiana heritage tied to fishing, but little if any archaeology has ever been connected to it.

Dr. Gregory will be showing slides during his presentation for a visual treat.

Dr. Gregory is a returning favorite to Concordia Parish and has previously presented archaeology programs at The Grand Village of the Natchez Indians in Natchez.

With an early interest in human-land relationships and studies of regional cultural ecology, Dr. Gregory’s work has involved Native Americans, Anglo-Americans and Louisiana French fishing communities, the Anglo-Creole, and the African-American culture of the plantation regions, and the Anglo-Saxon culture of the upland South.

He is active in cooperative programs with the Louisiana Indian communities since the early 1970s and has worked with seven of the eight tribal communities in Louisiana and with three tribes in Oklahoma.

With his fieldwork being both archaeological and ethnographical, Dr. Gregory has worked with the Louisiana Creole communities on Creole ethnography and geography.

Louisiana Archaeology Week is an annual statewide event, sponsored by the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, to provide an opportunity for Miss-Lou residents to learn more about the recent archaeological work in the area and about the people who lived here in the past.

So if you want to know where the big fish were, come join us at the Vidalia Library at 6 p.m. Thursday for this great time of information and fellowship, co-sponsored by Concordia Bank & Trust Co.

Pat Biglane is a supporter of the Concordia Parish Library and the president of Concordia Bank & Trust.