I have an ongoing fascination with the Mound Builder cultures within the US, and the current top post over at /r/history has once again fueled a desire to know more. Like the title mentions though returning for a degree is not feasible at this moment in time, but I am in a unique situation to be able to volunteer - since I am pretty much in an equidistant location between the Cahokia and Kinkaid mound sites.
I guess my question is, who do I contact in order to volunteer my time and labor to? I would happily give up my two weeks vacation a year to go (carefully) dig in the clay and the mud at either location. The thought of even helping to make discoveries possible thrills me to no end; despite the drudgery and hard labor involved. Someone has to do it, right? Granted, that is what undergrads are for...but still.
Side note: fwiw, my interest in the mound builders cultures came from a curiously funny, and not-quite-accurate, source - Piers Anthony's book Tatham Mound, which he wrote to fund a dig for his daughter's University.
A lot of towns and states have local archaeological societies, and these would be great to contact. If nothing else, they often have lecture series by professional archaeologists which can be both informative and potentially a point of contact for you to get involved with a project. They might also have special member trips and projects for members.
For instance, the Missouri Archaeological Society even has a page on excavation and survey opportunities.
As an aside, as much fun as excavating is, conducting archaeological survey can be a real blast also. The goals of a survey are generally to locate and record archaeological sites on the landscape. Generally this doesn't involve much digging, but it does let you see some interesting parts of the country and also lets you see a huge variety of archaeological materials from Paleoindian to 20th century and everything in-between. That's all to say, don't look just for excavation opportunities, but also take a look for survey.
You might also want to check in with any archaeological museums nearby, especially those associated with a university. Basically every museum has work they need done and often they have volunteers who will do it. Often it's fairly tedious stuff like going through and re-bagging or helping catalog artifacts, but that sort of work would let you get hands on experience with an assortment of artifacts and other materials.
You can still read academic histories and journals, published by reputable schools. That's most of what a bachelor's in history is. Reading , digesting, comparing, and deciding. Edit: And writing. Can't believe I forgot all that writing.
I would suggest that you look into archaeological field school programs. For instance, this one at Montpelier lets volunteers assist with the excavation of slave quarters for 1-4 weeks at a time. Many don't, for various reasons, and you might not be able to work at either of your preferred sites specifically, but you may be able to find something similar.
Hi. I run excavations at Cahokia Mounds and occasionally Kincaid Mounds. To volunteer at Kincaid, contact Dr. Paul Welch at Southern Illinois University. There may or may not be opportunities. To volunteer at Cahokia, fill out the form at the museum website: http://cahokiamounds.org/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Volunteerapplication2016.pdf. There are usually opportunities.
Perhaps I will see you this summer. You may also be interested to know that many graduate schools will fund you to attend their program. You might be able to go back to school for free or cheap.