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Tribal Collaboration at Archaeology Southwest - Ep 71
1.1k Plays1 year ago
On today's episode, Jessica brings Ashleigh Thompson back on the show. You may remember Ashleigh from Heritage Voices Episode 21 (Food Sovereignty and Natives Outdoors). Today we continue her journey since finishing her Masters and focus on her work as the Director of Archaeology Southwest’s Tribal Collaboration Initiative. We especially dive into the Save History project focused on ending the theft and destruction of archaeological resources on Tribal and public land. This episode is packed with great advice for anyone wanting to do collaborative work with Tribes and other descendant communities.
Transcripts
For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/heritagevoices/71
Links
- Heritage Voices on the APN
- Save History Website: http://www.SaveHistory.org
- Save History Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savehistoryorg/
- Save History Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/save.history.2021
- Archaeology Southwest Newsletter: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/news/e-news/
- Heritage Voices Episode 21: Food Sovereignty and Natives Outdoors
- Heritage Voices Episode 54: Kwatsáan Voices, Kwatsáan Views
- A Life in Ruins Podcast Episode 132: Indigenous Archaeology and the Save Heritage Campaign with Ashleigh Thompson: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/ruins/132
- Ashleigh [email protected]
Contact
ArchPodNet
- APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
- APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
- APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
- APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
- Tee Public Store
Affiliates
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgments
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Heritage Voices, Episode 71. I'm Jessica Uquinto, and I'm your host. And today we are talking about tribal collaboration at Archaeology Southwest. Before we begin, I'd like to honor and acknowledge that the lands I'm recording on today are part of the Nooch, or Ute People's Treaty Lands, the Dinata, and the ancestral Puebloan homeland.
00:00:26
Speaker
You're listening to
Meet Ashley Thompson
00:00:29
Speaker
Today, we have Ashley Thompson back on the show. Ashley, would you like to introduce yourself?
00:00:30
Speaker
the Archaeology Podcast Network.
00:00:35
Speaker
Of course. Hello everybody. I am Ashley Thompson. I use she, her, hers pronouns. I am currently based in Donna O'odham in Posco Yaqui lands, also known as Tucson, Arizona.
00:00:52
Speaker
I am a Ojibwe or Anishinaabe archaeologist working as director of Tribal Collaboration at Archaeology Southwest, which is a nonprofit organization based in Tucson.
00:01:07
Speaker
I have my master's in anthropology from the University of Arizona. I come from the Red Lake Ojibwe community, though I was raised away from Red Lake and I currently am working full time.
00:01:23
Speaker
All right. Well, welcome back to the show, Ashley. And for those of you that haven't already, you should go back and listen to Ashley's first episode on the show. That was episode 21. Can you believe that? That was 50 episodes ago. So that was, yeah, four and a half years, four and a half years. That's crazy.
00:01:46
Speaker
But that episode, episode 21, food sovereignty and natives outdoors. So if you haven't listened to that one yet, definitely go back and take a listen and we're going to kind of jump straight in from where we were at that episode. But yeah, so excited to have you back and to get to chat some more.
Journey into Anthropology
00:02:08
Speaker
I'm excited to be here. Okay. So I said, let's start with your, your masters, but I suppose for those that haven't listened to your last episode, do you want to give the 62nd, you know, super quick version of how you, you got into this field and what got you interested in this kind of work?
00:02:27
Speaker
I first got into anthropology as an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota, Morris. And I serendipitously ended up in a freshman seminar class that was taught by an anthropologist. And I really loved her class. And so I took more anthropology classes. And she also happened to be an American Indian Studies faculty member. And so I found that I really loved both of those subjects.
00:02:56
Speaker
And I really found people and their cultures fascinating. I really loved studying Indigenous history as well as contemporary issues. And I thought that archaeology would be a good fit for me as someone who enjoys doing fieldwork, learning about the past,
00:03:18
Speaker
interacting with material culture and wanting to work with tribes and so I saw that there was a need for more indigenous archaeologists and I decided to study it in undergrad as well as graduate school and now it's the field that I work in.
00:03:36
Speaker
Okay. So yeah, last time we talked four and a half years ago, which is again, just crazy. You were working on your masters. You had the topic and everything, but you were still writing and figuring out what you wanted to bring back to the community specifically. So can you, first of all, refresh briefly our listeners on the topic of your masters and then what ended up happening there?
Master’s Project on Red Lake Ojibwe Foodways
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, so for my master's, I wanted to work with my tribe, the Red Lake Ojibwe, and so I was in contact with the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer there, and we came up with a project that would look into the traditional foodways at Red Lake, and so we decided that I could do
00:04:29
Speaker
an overview of what they are and their importance to the community. Part of the methodology was doing interviews with community members who worked or are knowledgeable with food, and so I got to talk to
00:04:45
Speaker
elders about our traditional food ways. And they really were the backbone of my thesis, what they were willing to share with me. And I identified seven major food ways of the community and then outlined their importance, which includes not only physical health, but also cultural survivance or like continuation of our traditional ways via food.
00:05:15
Speaker
It's important to the community's emotional and spiritual well-being and an important way to connect with the land and further develop tribal members' relationships with the land.
Pandemic Challenges and Academic Pause
00:05:35
Speaker
And so I finished my master's, and then about less than a year later, the pandemic happened.
00:05:42
Speaker
And so I was going to build off of the Masters for the dissertation, but I was treading water in graduate school while the pandemic was going on because I wanted to continue doing community interviews, but I felt really uncomfortable interviewing at-risk people.
00:06:00
Speaker
for my dissertation. And so I held off on the project and I ended up taking a step back from academia. I'm technically on a leave of absence, not really sure if I'm going to return or not. I'm still trying to see what direction I want to go in. I'm happy right now working full time in my field. So that's kind of where I left off with you because I remember
00:06:24
Speaker
I think when we were talking, I was transcribing interviews for my master's project. And so yeah, it's been a while and a lot has happened since then. Yeah, yeah, just a couple things. Yeah. Is there any interest in the future? Maybe not like through a PhD or something like that. But obviously you're working with archaeology Southwest right now. And that's based in Tucson, which is
00:06:48
Speaker
very far from Red Lake. Is there an interest at some point in continuing that work or doing work again with your community? Like doing the research made me really interested in our traditional foods on a personal level. And I think like cooking and working with food has been more of an interest of mine because of my research.
00:07:15
Speaker
And on a personal level, I'm not in a place where I can really engage in our traditional food ways just because I'm based in the desert and I don't even have like a garden because I don't have a yard. But I think that it taught me a lot about food sovereignty and why it's important and has definitely
00:07:35
Speaker
been in the back of my mind for like if I move back to the Great Lakes region or even if I can have my own garden someday, I've always wanted to learn hunting as well, that like I am interested in learning more on a personal level. And then if the opportunity in the future presents itself, I definitely would love to work again with Red Lake because I feel like it's one of my homes and I feel very comfortable there and I love learning and being part of the community there.
Role at Archaeology Southwest
00:08:05
Speaker
Yes, let's switch to your current position, which I'm really excited to hear more about. This was actually like what got us starting about, started talking about recording another episode again, was this current work that you're doing. So can you tell us a little bit about kind of more of an overview of your position to start and then we could go into some specific projects? Sure. So for people unfamiliar with the organization,
00:08:34
Speaker
Archaeology Southwest is a nonprofit organization based in Tucson, Arizona. I think we have something like over 20 full-time staff. And we do a lot. And so there's people that do research. There's people that work on advocacy campaigns to protect cultural landscapes.
00:09:01
Speaker
We do outreach and education about archaeology and as well as respectful engagement with cultural sites. And then we do things in the community and have volunteers. And so there's a lot going on. But one of the aspects of the organization that really drew me to the work was they
00:09:23
Speaker
try to practice preservation archaeology, which I think is in line with a lot of tenets and values of indigenous archaeology. But basically, they try to not do as destructive methodology that traditional archaeology does. So for example, when we're excavating, you're actually
00:09:47
Speaker
destroying and disturbing a site and part of preservation archaeology as well as using descendant communities values and input in the work. And so the organization was looking to do more and I think maybe better tribal collaboration in their work. And so this position, it was listed as director
00:10:12
Speaker
track of the Tribal Collaboration Initiative. And the job description when I was looking at it was really long, but it was a newly created position that was meant to help guide the research team, the education, educator people, the communications people, everyone at the organization, and working with
00:10:37
Speaker
Indigenous communities. And another aspect of my job was we have this anti-eluting and anti-vandalism program called Save History. And so that was another big portion of my work is helping to maintain the website and the social media and the content we put out about respectful engagement.
00:11:03
Speaker
with archaeological sites and so that's a little bit about what I do and it's pretty diverse and I work with a lot of different people but I really enjoy it and I get to keep working with indigenous people which is really great.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So I think we're, we're about at a break point, but when we come back first, uh, let me ask you about, you know, what does, what does the day in the life actually look like in your job? And I mean, I know I'm sure that imagines that varies a lot, but you know, if you could just paint a picture for us when we get back of what that job actually like looks like on a, on a day to day basis, we will be right back.
00:11:52
Speaker
here in a moment. So we are back, and let's go straight into painting that picture of what a day in the life of Ashley Thompson looks like. Yeah, so as I said, I do a lot of different things. And so I'm going to talk about a month in the life of Ashley instead of a day. Because one day might look completely different than the next.
00:12:21
Speaker
And so, for example, in November, I was doing a few different things. One was planning and executing a training. And so part of the Save History campaign is also
00:12:40
Speaker
training archaeologists in the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, as well as law enforcement in ARPA. And so when there's a violation of the act, and I guess maybe I should just do a quick summary of ARPA, it's basically federal legislation meant to protect
00:13:03
Speaker
archaeological resources on federal and tribal lands. And so it criminalizes looting of sites and vandalizing of archaeological sites. And so archaeologists are often called to do a damage assessment
00:13:23
Speaker
in which they record all of the damage at the site and that damage assessment is used by the judiciary to see the value of the damage done and help inform them on the next steps for someone
00:13:42
Speaker
who is found violating ARPA. And so it's kind of like a niche thing that some archaeologists have experience in doing a damage assessment, others don't. I really didn't have much experience at all in ARPA prior to this job. And so we host trainings on how to do damage assessments for both archaeologists and law enforcement. And in our trainings, we've been combining them because it's a really unique
00:14:13
Speaker
task when archaeologists and scientists have to come together with law enforcement to do a damage assessment because the law enforcement is going to be collecting evidence and moving forward with the ARPA violation aspect of the case and the archaeologist is the expert
00:14:32
Speaker
who's going to write the damage assessment and might be called to be an expert witness if it goes to trial. Like in November, we were invited out to a community in California where we got to train some tribal monitors, some federally employed archaeologists that worked for some different national forests in California, as well as we had one law enforcement person from a national park, from Joshua Tree.
00:15:01
Speaker
So that took up like a whole week of training out in California where we went and the classroom training as well as a field exercise to try to recreate an ARPA crime scene and get archaeologists familiar with what we do.
00:15:18
Speaker
when we come across an ARPA violation. And so that's a pretty significant part of my work. I've also recently been working on writing a report. It's like more of the boring aspects, but it's actually a report that comes out of something pretty neat. We were able to do one of these trainings while also restoring a site that had been damaged decades ago. And so there was a bunch of
00:15:44
Speaker
looters' holes at this archaeological site in Tucson. And we were able to take a few different groups of people out there. Some were employed by a tribe in Arizona. Some of them were archaeologists for the Forest Service.
00:16:03
Speaker
And we were able to train them on how to do damage assessment, and then also basically backfilled these looters' holes. So we were writing the report for that. And then I'm kind of involved in a few different projects at Archaeology Southwest. So last month, I was helping organize these meetings we have between our tribal working group, which we started that
00:16:32
Speaker
a few months into my job, like so earlier this year, 2022. And it's basically a group of indigenous archaeologists who advise our research team on how to make
00:16:47
Speaker
one of their projects more relevant and better for Indigenous people. And so I do a little bit of that. And then I'm also working on a national campaign where we're trying to get a national conservation area established. The campaign is called Respect Great Bend. And so Great Bend of the Gila is this river that runs, well, it actually doesn't run
00:17:14
Speaker
completely anymore, unfortunately. But this area known as Great Bend of the Gila is west of the Phoenix area. And in this area, there's thousands of petroglyphs, archaeological sites, trails that indigenous people have walked for hundreds of years. And
00:17:35
Speaker
We're basically trying to get a national conservation area established there while also working with the affiliated tribal nations. And so those are just like some of the things I do and you can find me doing at any given time.
00:17:52
Speaker
And so it's actually really nice to have such varied work. Gonna do a little bit of traveling, some field work, some training, writing, and networking with tribes. And so, yeah, that's a little bit about what I do. And anyone wanting to learn more about the Great Bend of the Gila project, I did a podcast with a couple of your archaeology Southwest colleagues.
00:18:17
Speaker
episode 54, Quatsan Voices, Quatsan Views. So definitely go check that out if you're interested in learning more. It's a really interesting interview. It's really fun. On another note, I should also probably mention that Archaeology Southwest, at least in the past, I'm not sure if they are today, has been a sponsor of this show. But I also just think that they're neat and, you know, really appreciate the work that they do. But I do want to throw in that caveat so people are aware.
00:18:46
Speaker
And then the other thing that I want to say about archeology Southwest is that they also have a really awesome newsletter, um, that, that goes out, I think every week.
Newsletter and Educational Outreach
00:18:56
Speaker
And there's just a ton of, of links to different podcasts and projects that are happening. And especially if you're in the Southwest, um, it's really, there's a lot of really interesting stuff in there, but I think even if you're not in the Southwest, there would probably be stuff you would find in there that would be really interesting. So.
00:19:15
Speaker
I definitely highly recommend signing up for the archeology Southwest newsletter. If you like this show, there's a lot of similar things in the newsletter. Okay, so going back to the topic at hand though, you mentioned that the training that you did was one aspect of save history. Is there other portions of that project? What else are you doing with that?
00:19:39
Speaker
Save History, we do a lot of things. And so another important aspect of Save History is our outreach with it. And so we have a website, savehistory.org, as well as a Facebook and an Instagram.
00:19:56
Speaker
where we do two things. There's a detection aspect of our website where we're trying to have a place for people who witness or see a looted or vandalized site, a place where they can submit a tip. And so we have an online reporting form and a phone number where people can call.
00:20:20
Speaker
And so that's the detection part. And I should say, if you see someone actively looting or vandalizing a site, please don't approach them. Go to a safe location and call the law enforcement or the land managing agency of whose land you're on. And so if you're in the forest and in a national forest, you'd want to call maybe that national forest.
00:20:45
Speaker
and let them know because our priority is first people safety and so but yeah part of safe history is this detection part where we're trying to make sure we're catching vandalized and looted sites and then the other aspect is
00:21:00
Speaker
the education part and so we also have a blog on our website and we try to shorten blog pieces and make them into social media posts but these blog posts are supposed to
00:21:18
Speaker
share with the public how and why it's harmful to Indigenous people when their sites are looted or when their sites are vandalized. And so it's our hope that by sharing stories from Native people that it will develop
00:21:36
Speaker
a respect for and an understanding of why cultural sites are not just important to Indigenous ancestors but are really significant to tribes today and future Indigenous people who, you know, will continue to interact
00:21:55
Speaker
and be connected to these archaeological sites. So if you want to learn more from different tribal members about how stealing of artifacts has impacted them, make sure to visit our website or check out our social media. Yeah, so that sounds really important. Sounds like really important work, really important project.
00:22:19
Speaker
And thank you for sharing all those places that people can go to learn more and learn more about the
Legislation and Tribal Collaboration
00:22:25
Speaker
impact. It's also really
00:22:27
Speaker
kind of interesting timing, I guess, to be talking about this because was it last week that Congress passed the STOP Act? So that's another exciting big moment in terms of protecting indigenous material culture from leaving the US. So it's kind of, I don't know, I was thinking about that while you were talking too.
00:22:50
Speaker
Moving on, I'm curious about what in this position, and obviously you're working with a lot of different archaeologists and also a lot of indigenous people, what are some pieces of advice that you would give to people that want to do tribal collaboration work?
00:23:14
Speaker
Right. One thing that my co-worker Skye Begay and I came up with was a model for tribal collaboration for our organization and basically a philosophical understanding of
00:23:33
Speaker
What does it mean to work collaboratively with tribes? And one of the first and I think more important pieces of advice for people, companies, organizations wanting to work with descendant communities
00:23:48
Speaker
is that I think a lot of indigenous people, especially in our realm of archaeology, they get consulted a lot. And if you want to like do meaningful work and collaborative work with tribes, it's important to move beyond consultation and build relationships first and maintain those relationships. And so, you know, there's a lot of
00:24:14
Speaker
consulting that goes on with tribal historic preservation offices for example where they're notified of a construction project and they're asked if they want to be involved or you know comment and I would say that that's like not true collaboration and so it's really helpful for researchers or whoever to instead of you know focusing on like
00:24:41
Speaker
the project, focus on how you can be a good relative to indigenous communities and involve tribes in the entire process from beginning conceptual stages of a project to the very end.
00:25:00
Speaker
Because I don't think that it's super black and white in terms of this project is collaborative and it's not. I feel like there's a scale where it's kind of collaborative to very collaborative and projects fall in between.
00:25:19
Speaker
I think that building relationships, maintaining them, and involving the Senate communities and the entire process is really important. And then the other piece of advice was, I think for a lot of Indigenous people, especially in light of a lot of justice and equity and diversity conversations that I think came out of the 2020 Black Lives Matter discussions,
00:25:48
Speaker
is that it's important that your actions speak louder than your words. And so I think that it's important to do things like Indigenous land acknowledgments or to make a proclamation of Native American Heritage Month, et cetera, et cetera. But I think what speaks even more loudly is actions that
00:26:13
Speaker
give back to Indigenous communities that help them, that build capacity for them, and that actually, rather than coming into community and trying to say that you're going to do this for them, I think it's important that people listen to Native people and hear out what they need.
00:26:36
Speaker
And I think that, you know, through the relationship building process with different communities that those types of conversations, those opportunities to listen to community needs and values and desires can help structure projects.
00:26:54
Speaker
in a good way and make sure that it can be beneficial to more than just the researcher or just the company that I think that it's important to like, if you're going to be in a relationship with someone that you also are asking yourself, what can I give back in this relationship? And how can I be a good relative? Yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
Well, and on, on that note, we're already at our second break point, but yeah, everybody go rewind and re listen to that again. And then, and then come back after the break. All right. Okay. So we're back from our break and, you know, thinking back on these two conversations. So last time, you know, four and a half years ago, and this time.
00:27:41
Speaker
in this past four and a half years since we last talked, what have been or have there been any major learning or aha moments or things that you would want to share with our audience?
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, so one big one that I've been noticing in my work is that I'm a huge advocate for tribal collaboration, but it is much easier said than done. So there's a lot of constraints working with indigenous communities. And I think one major one is time constraints. So in academia and people that work with grants,
00:28:27
Speaker
there's deadlines and there's certain timelines that we were required to stick to. But working with Indigenous people, they have their own timelines and their own hierarchy of needs that they work on.
00:28:45
Speaker
For me, just kind of seeing that play out in the real world, we want to get feedback from a tribe. And so we send something to them. It might take a while because the tribal council might only meet once a week or once a month. There's definite time constraints in doing collaboration with tribe. And then not only time constraints, but there's also capacity constraints.
00:29:15
Speaker
There's like a need for, I think, indigenous people to be involved in all types of community work, including tribal historic preservation and archaeology. But a lot of times those offices or those departments are really overburdened with work. They might not have the capacity to take on outside projects that aren't sort of regulatory mandated projects. And so
00:29:45
Speaker
It's really great, you know, I want to hear people that want to like work with tribes or like do a project that gets approved by tribes. But before you do that, just understand that there is a lot that goes into running a tribal nation, especially I think if you're an outsider to the community, you might not be like a top priority for time or for effort. And so I think also that goes along well with like
00:30:14
Speaker
And I think it happens a lot more now than it used to, but thinking about how you can be in a reciprocal relationship with people you want to collaborate. So whether that means giving them honoraria or, you know, some sort of agreement you have to provide a service or whatever it may be, think about like,
00:30:36
Speaker
how can you give back to the community and don't it's not like a one-way thing in a relationship it goes both ways and so that's some of the the major things I've learned I think the last few years yeah yeah absolutely I'm always the super annoying when I'm putting in a proposal or or things like no we need to we need to extend this timeline and make it as long as possible
00:30:59
Speaker
And also I think one thing that you were touching on that is really, you know, there was a moment not too long ago where this really was highlighted again for me is that what we're working on, it's important, but also sometimes it's not that important compared to like the major things that the people that we're working with are having to deal with. So, you know, because a lot of times we're working with tribal leadership or we're working with
00:31:27
Speaker
cultural leaders, spiritual leaders. So sometimes the things that end up on their plates, they're just a lot more important than what we're doing.
00:31:37
Speaker
Not that what we're doing is not important, but it's not life or death. And so just kind of remembering that like in the scheme of things, like what seems like the most urgent and important thing in the world to you like might not be in their top 10, you know, and that that's okay.
00:31:58
Speaker
I was just thinking about that when you were saying that and there was a moment not too long ago that really brought that into focus again where it was like, okay, they are doing really important things and when I can get their attention, that's great, but it's not the most important thing.
Future Hopes for Indigenous Stewardship
00:32:20
Speaker
Sorry, why not a tangent there, but you know, kind of continuing on in that vein, is there a direction that you'd like to, I mean, you already were touching on this in what you were just saying, but maybe there's other things that you'd like to add of what direction you'd like to see, you know,
00:32:40
Speaker
anthropology or tribal collaboration efforts move to in the future? What would you like to see more of or less of or changes? I think that one really big topic that's come up a lot lately with the Bears Ears National Monument
00:33:05
Speaker
is this idea of tribal co-management and this recognition that indigenous people are the first stewards of all of the land in North America and that we might know some things about managing them. So I really like what
00:33:25
Speaker
the administration, current administration is saying like the secretary Deb Holland of the department of the interior of the importance of indigenous co-management of federally managed lands. And so like I love hearing that, but I would like to see actual tangible examples and collaboration, co-stewardship co-management of these lands.
00:33:53
Speaker
And I think that there's also like this ties really well into another
00:33:59
Speaker
hot topic right now, which is the land back movement. And it's a really neat movement. And so I think it can mean returning land to tribes, but it can also be just reinstating indigenous management practices and stewardship practices on the land and getting native people involved in stewardship.
00:34:29
Speaker
For me, I would love to see this conversation continue. I hope that land back and tribal co-management isn't just a trend and that its actual hopefully change in how our lands are managed and
00:34:47
Speaker
On my Google alerts, I follow issues of land back and repatriation, too, of ancestral remains and material culture. And so I would just love to see these policies actually executed, I guess.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So now, okay. Again, two episodes, four and a half years. I mean, I'm just personally really curious. First, again, I'd love to know more about where you personally would like to take this position at archaeology Southwest specifically first. So your dream vision for what you'll be doing in this work or accomplishing.
00:35:35
Speaker
I think that we're definitely working towards what I want to see, which is true relationship building with the tribes whose lands we work on. And so I'm really happy that we've made strides in that regard. We've formed a tribal working group.
00:35:56
Speaker
we are doing a lot of outreach to the local indigenous communities of Arizona and beyond. And we're really trying to listen to TIPO's cultural and tribal leaders about how our work can be useful and relevant to them. And so I'd like to just keep heading in that direction.
00:36:21
Speaker
And I think like even before I came on to the job, because I've been in it less than a year now, they were doing a lot to work with indigenous communities. And as you mentioned, like you had a whole episode on Great Bend of Tequila. And so there's like examples of that.
00:36:40
Speaker
Also, there is an example of we have one of our archaeologists works in Chaco and does a lot of outreach with the New Mexico Pueblos and other affiliated nations there. And so just continuing in our relationship building and finding out ways that we can help as an organization, how we can help tribes accomplish their goals when it comes to protection of their cultural landscapes.
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah. And okay. So the second part of my question, is there anything like maybe outside of archeology Southwest, any other thoughts of, of where you'd like to go with your work or I don't know, personally, whatever, just like any, any additional visions that you have for, for your future?
00:37:30
Speaker
Yeah, so one thing I've been involved over the last decade is a desire to help protect, you know, water, the earth more than human can from the climate crisis. And so I think, like, overall,
00:37:52
Speaker
You know, in my work right now, we're working on preserving cultural landscapes through national conservation areas, through stewarding certain properties that we either buy or are given to us.
00:38:08
Speaker
And I think that helps contribute to helping to heal the earth from the climate crisis. And so I'm sure, I mean, people that are at least in touch with news and Indian country, there's been some research that shows that Indigenous people and Indigenous lands protect
00:38:34
Speaker
a large percentage of the world's biodiversity. And I really think that preservation work, like what we do at Archaeology Southwest, can help protect more lands and especially
00:38:54
Speaker
when we are working with indigenous communities. And so I would say like that's a major goal of mine is as someone who's really outside a lot as an outdoor recreationalist, like running, hiking, climbing, that sort of thing. And as someone who's attended
00:39:14
Speaker
quite a few events aimed at stopping harm to the earth. So like, for example, attending the No Dakota Access Pipeline camps and when that was going on on the Standing Rock Reservation or like advocating for the protection of bears ears and or advocating for the protection of Oak Flat here in Arizona, which is currently under threat from mining
00:39:44
Speaker
threats. I think that that's my overall vision is to just help curb the harms caused by capitalism, settler colonialism,
00:39:59
Speaker
in terms of protecting sacred sites. Because when we protect the archaeological material, we're also protecting the biodiversity and the land. So I see archaeology and indigenous archaeology as a way to not only preserve our sacred sites, but also everything and everyone that lives within them.
00:40:23
Speaker
Right. Right. And that brings up the regularly scheduled reminder that natural resources are cultural resources and that, um, you know,
00:40:34
Speaker
cultural resources are not just archaeology, but include all of those intangibles that you were just discussing that are not necessarily like fitting into that category of archaeology. Exactly. Yeah. And I also want to put in a shout out to the fact that you also did an episode with the A Life in Ruins podcast, Indigenous Archaeology and the Save Heritage Campaign with Ashley Thompson. So that's their episode.
00:41:03
Speaker
132, which man, Carlton came on this podcast before he started that podcast, but you can tell that they do a weekly one and we only do a monthly because 132, that's impressive. But anyway, definitely check out that episode as well. So again, A Life in Ruins episode 132, Indigenous Archaeology in the Save Heritage Campaign.
00:41:27
Speaker
I believe that you mentioned that you tried to kind of keep it a little different, so there would still be good stuff if people listened to both, right? Correct. There's some overlap, but I tried to think of new additional things to add. Well, even if there is overlap, I'm sure it's worth re-listening to because there's lots of like great little nuggets in there of like, oh yeah, that's a great reminder about this.
00:41:56
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's an important topic. So I would say I can pretty much guarantee it's worth listening to both and you know, the first episode with Ashley on this podcast again. So episode 21. So you got, you got lots of opportunities to, to learn.
00:42:13
Speaker
from Ashley. So again, I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming on again, taking probably four hours out of your life now between these two episodes to come talk to me and to educate our listeners about all of these different amazing topics. So thank you to you and thank you to Archaeology Southwest for all the work that you guys are doing. Thank you for having me and us.
00:42:45
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Heritage Voices podcast. You can find show notes at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com slash Heritage Voices. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, or the Google Play Music Store. Also, please share with your friends or write us a review. Sharing and reviewing helps more people find the show and gets the perspectives of Heritage Voices amazing guests out there into the world.
00:43:07
Speaker
No, we just need more of that in anthropology and land management. If you have any more questions, comments, or show suggestions, please reach out to me at Jessica at livingheritageanthropology.org. If you'd like to volunteer to be on the show as a guest or even a co-host, reach out to me as well, Jessica at livingheritageanthropology.org.
00:43:25
Speaker
You can also follow more of what I'm doing on Facebook at Living Heritage Anthropology and the nonprofit Living Heritage Research Council or on Twitter at LivingHeritageA. As always, huge thank you to Liable Enqua and Jason Nez for their collaboration on our incredible logo.
00:43:50
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Culturo Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Chris Webster. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archapodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.