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Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian studies at Washington University in St. Louis - Ep 85
604 Plays7 months ago
On today’s episode, Jessica chats with Eric Pinto (Assistant Director at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian studies at Washington University in St. Louis; Descendant of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Pueblo of Zuni). The Buder Center is part of the Brown School of Social Work, Public Health, & Social Policy that offers the only social work program in the country with an American Indian/Alaska Native concentration. The two talk about Eric’s transition from personal training to getting a Master's in Social Work and how the social work program led him to cultural projects, archaeology, and land/cultural resource protection efforts through the Buder Center. We also discuss the Buder Center’s Indigenous community and Tribal Nation engagement efforts, including an ongoing trail marker tree initiative, as well as their student practicums, scholarships, and events. Additional topics that came up during our conversation include land acknowledgements, the Urban Relocation Program in the 1950s, enrollment, and blood quantum.
Transcripts
- For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/heritagevoices/85
Links
- Heritage Voices on the APN
- Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian studies at Washington University in St. Louis
- Digital Indigenous Storytelling Project
- Missouri Humanities
- Land Acknowledgement
- Buder Research Reports (PDFs for Indigenous Land, Peoples and History of Missouri Brief and Trail Marker Trees)
- Cahokia Mounds
- Mastadon State Historic Site
- For more links head to: https://www.archpodnet.com/heritagevoices/85
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
You're
Introduction to the Podcast & Episode
00:00:01
Speaker
listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. Welcome to Heritage Voices, Episode 85. I'm Jessica Equinto, and I'm your host. And today we are talking about the Catherine M. Booder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Before
Acknowledgment of Indigenous Lands
00:00:22
Speaker
we begin, I'd like to honor and acknowledge that the lands I'm recording on today
00:00:26
Speaker
are part of the Nooch or Ute People's Treaty Lands, the Denaita, and the ancestral Puebloan homeland.
Introduction of Eric Pinto and His Role
00:00:33
Speaker
So today we have Eric Pinto on the show. Eric is a Native American descendant of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Pueblo of Zuni, and is the Assistant Director at the Catherine M. Booder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he supports Booder scholars, recruits prospective Native American students,
00:00:52
Speaker
collaborates with community partners on Native American projects and events, and provides educational presentations throughout Missouri. So welcome to the show, Eric. Yeah, Alito. Hello. Yeah, thank you. I'm excited about this. My very first podcast ever participating in.
00:01:09
Speaker
I love it. That's awesome. Well, I'm very excited to have you as well. You came very highly recommended from a fabulous past guest. So I'm very excited to talk to you. And also I'm really excited because we always touch on a lot of the topics that you're going to be talking about today in our work in heritage and cultural resources. But
The Role of the Booter Center in Heritage and Anthropology
00:01:30
Speaker
not directly from this angle. Well, I'll let you introduce what the Buddha Center does. I won't get too into it, but I think it's going to be really important for people that work in heritage and CRM and anthropology and land management to have some understanding of some of the things that you guys work on. So I'm very excited to have you. So speaking of me being super vague about what it is that you do, what got you interested in what it is that you do.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, so I guess it all stems back to when I was actually a personal trainer. This is prior to COVID. I was actually a personal trainer here in St. Louis for 10 years working through Gold's Gym. And within that, I wanted to
00:02:19
Speaker
find out a way to reach native communities on helping improve their health disparities and increasing opportunities to access to gyms and ways to exercise, improve physical activity, resulting in better health outcomes. I kind of think it was also a divine intervention that one day I went and visited Cookey amounts, which is right next door to me, and
00:02:44
Speaker
I was going up there to visit some native artists who are friends to the family and I ran into at the time the director of the Booter Center and you know we just got to got to talk and everything and she was asking you know what I do and everything and you know what would I like to do and maybe how I could maybe contribute to giving back to our people and stuff and
00:03:05
Speaker
So, from there, yeah, she kind of promoted the Booter Center and how it offers scholarships to Native students. And I had the fortunate opportunity to apply for a scholarship and get tuition paid for and go to, yeah, Washington University in St.
Impact of COVID on Eric's Journey
00:03:21
Speaker
Louis and be part of the Brown School of Social Work, Public Health and Social Policy. And within that, I was part of the American Indian Alaska Native concentration. This is all through the Social Work program.
00:03:33
Speaker
And yeah, I was kind of looking at ways to develop my skills, enhance my knowledge on ways to create these types of programs, health programs to help Native people out. And from there, it kind of was going towards that direction until the pandemic happened.
00:03:50
Speaker
And then from there, things were halted and installed. But luckily, you know, when I graduated from the program back in 2020, the Buddha Center kind of acknowledged that, yeah, you know, hey, you live here in St. Louis and you do great work. And how about you hop on board with the Buddha Center and do some community-based projects and research. And so I've held multiple positions here at the Buddha Center.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, so can you talk a little bit more about some of that work that you were doing when you were getting your master's, some of the different areas that you were focusing on before getting it, and then also once you started working for the Booter Center?
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah. So when I was a student, you know, I was very new to like, what, what do social workers even do? Like, you know, I kind of knew like, you know, they work maybe in a hospital setting or, you know, some type of health clinic, but, you know, other than that, I was not aware of like how broad the field is really. And, you know, I was happy to kind of dive into kind of like the education side, looking at school social work. And I worked with the curator of invertebrates at the St. Louis zoo. He has an initiative called
00:04:57
Speaker
native foods, native peoples, native pollinators. And he's helped support tribes or native people, native communities with any food sovereignty projects. So I got to the system with that. And right about that time, that was when actually the pandemic happened and stuff. So the program itself really allowed me to see what's available out there and what direction I go into. But
Digital Indigenous Storytelling Project
00:05:19
Speaker
then once graduation happened and it was still like pandemic time and
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, I was offered that position to work for the Booter Center. We were still working virtually and trying to figure out ways we can still engage with the community and maybe educating them about Native people, what's going on in our communities and such. One of the very first projects I worked on was called the Digital Indigenous Storytelling Project.
00:05:45
Speaker
So I interviewed Native people who lived in St. Louis and throughout Missouri and really just got their story, you know, how they ended up in St. Louis or Missouri, their family background, their heritage, how they stay connected with their culture, because a lot of people are unaware that
00:06:03
Speaker
actually here in St. Louis and Missouri, like there's no reservations, there's no large native populations in these areas. So it was really diving into that side of the story. And I got to meet some folks that I really didn't know before. And so I built definitely some new relationships, you know, I still stay in touch with those people. And I think one of my highlights was actually interviewing Craig Brube of the, he's a Cree nation.
00:06:30
Speaker
And he's a head coach or when that former head coach of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. So, and I'm a diehard Blues fan. So that if for me, I was fanboying and I was just like, Oh my gosh, it's Craig Barube. Like this is amazing. This is awesome. Good to hear his story. So yeah, so that was like one of the first projects that we, when we worked on and.
00:06:52
Speaker
And that too, that whole project there was funded by the Missouri Humanities and they're one of our close partners and they do a lot of great work and creating programs and events throughout the state of Missouri that helps highlight like Missouri's like
00:07:09
Speaker
cultures and histories and all that great stuff. So very
Eric's Archaeology Interests and Native History
00:07:14
Speaker
fortunate to be partners with them on numerous projects and events. And then, yeah, and then from there, it kind of led into another project that really got me interested into like archaeology. And I'm still, I still love that area. And
00:07:33
Speaker
I did a lot of research since it was kind of during the lockdown time still, and really looking at the Native history here in St. Louis and Missouri, but also creating a document in the form of like a, you know, like a report or a brief that can educate the community because like I said, the community here,
00:07:54
Speaker
is primarily non-native and they're just unaware of what is the history of this land and the people that are tied to this land and have those connections. So I was really getting at that through an archaeological lens, which
00:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, as I mentioned, I'm not an archaeologist, so some things were definitely a challenge for me to understand, but I picked up on that through readings and videos and all sorts of things and networking with archaeologists here as well, too. And we're right next door to Cahokia Mountains, which is just an amazing site. I'll tell people, growing up,
00:08:30
Speaker
And it didn't really click until more recent that I had to actually make multiple trips out there when creating this report to fully understand, you know, that history and that one, you know, kind of like that unique period in time was going on at that site. But then, you know, kind of got me more interested in to, you know,
00:08:51
Speaker
those other timeframes that was kind of happening and their connections to the land here throughout Missouri. So it's been very interesting. And, you know, we have other state parks around the area. It's not just only Cahokia Mountains. It's like the closest site. It's, you know, we got like Macedon State Park. We got Washington State Park.
00:09:09
Speaker
And they all have their very unique history. So, Macedon State Park really shows that paleo-Indian period and connections with hunting Macedons back a long time ago. And Washington State Park has petroglyphs there that you can still see. And these are the types of places where I really try and tell people, you need to go visit there and connect the dots throughout time and show that, hey, our ancestors, native people have been here for thousands of years.
00:09:38
Speaker
And that's why this land is so important to us. That's why we have such an intimate connection with the land and the environment. Yeah. So what you were just talking about there, you have a brief that you sent me ahead of time. It's Indigenous Land, Peoples and History of Missouri. So we'll make that available for everybody in the show notes.
00:09:58
Speaker
And then, you know, I think after creating that brief and doing all that research and visiting different sites, you know, around St. Louis and, you know, Missouri,
Community Engagement and Building Networks
00:10:09
Speaker
it made me kind of feel like I want to be a protector of this land and these sites because St. Louis is definitely booming with development. So it's also kind of been a great opportunity to meet other folks in different areas around the city that are wanting to
00:10:27
Speaker
do good by incorporating policies or protocols that they need to follow in order to make sure that they're not destroying something significant to native people with those ancestral connections to the land.
00:10:42
Speaker
you know from there after you know kind of creating that brief the school started opening up went from more virtual back to kind of like a hybrid version and you know eventually I was actually promoted to another this current position here as assistant director and I'm doing more student affairs type of work and recruitment
00:11:03
Speaker
But, you know, as far as like relationships with the local organizations and other partners here, like such as I mentioned, like the St. Louis Zoo, we also work with the St. Louis Art Museum, the Historical Society, Yes, Missouri Humanities, and many other organizations and institutions.
00:11:21
Speaker
in the area to support one another who are wanting to do all kinds of like native related projects or events and so the booder centers kind of like become a hub of like providing a support or you know if someone needs a sense of direction because
00:11:37
Speaker
many of those folks in those other areas are non-native so they would they like some direction they like hearing our voice which has been great and then that's been also networking with the local native community here you know i mentioned it's it's not very large it's a smaller tight-knit community and one of my missions is to actually build that network up because it was always a challenge growing up here in st louis and
00:12:00
Speaker
I never really see too many other Native folks around where I lived at in my community. The only time I was, like, yeah, when WashU would host its powwow, or there might have been some other powwows at the time, you know, growing up. But outside of that, yeah, I was, you know, all through school, I was the only Native person. So I really stuck out, but at the same time, too, it poses a challenge in my own personal identity of who I'm Native, how I'm Native, and how do I learn more about my people, history, and culture.
00:12:30
Speaker
Buter Center has been kind of a great place to, you know, kind of network and build those connections up with people. And, you know, with these native projects and events, we definitely we bring the local native community members in so that way they could have a voice and some say into, you know, what are some things that we should do, you know, because a lot of times, you know, a lot of organizations and institutions, like they'll do different projects and events, but
00:12:55
Speaker
they're not building relationships with native people and communities. And that's a big major component. All right. Well, we are already at our first break point, but when we come back, I want to hear more about some of those specific initiatives that came out of working together with the local community. So we will be right back here in a second.
00:13:18
Speaker
Okay. So getting back from our break, I want to hear more about this, this community engagement efforts and, and the projects that came out of it that you just mentioned.
Trail Marker Trees Project
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah. So one of the first community based projects I worked on was focused on trail marker trees and the booter center was approached by our office of sustainability and the landscape company that maintains the grounds here at WashU.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, I wasn't unfamiliar with exactly what was happening and being proposed and what when it came to this project, because, you know, I kind of heard like kind of like, you know, locals kind of stories about like, you know, trail marker trees being been stuff. And so I actually had to do my own personal research on this and
00:14:04
Speaker
There's limited research, but there have been people who focus on it. And for folks that don't know, these trees were specific tree species were selected by native people long time ago. And they were intentionally bent to point towards directions, maybe to sacred sites, resources, maybe easier access ways through places such as like maybe rivers, creeks, you know, et cetera.
00:14:29
Speaker
And so I had to do that research first in order to understand exactly what chair marker trees were and what direction this, how this tree will be planted and be seen here at WashU. So with partnership with that, with the Office of Sustainability and the Landscape Company, we thought, hey, let's work with the local Native community members. We want to create focus groups.
00:14:57
Speaker
and let them know like, hey, we received a grafted tree from an arborist from Athens, Illinois. And he stewarded this mother tree, the mother tree and was an identified trail marker tree that dates back to 1730. And so that mother tree unfortunately fell down during a storm.
00:15:21
Speaker
And the arborist took clippings of that from the tree and saved that. And one of our landscape managers was actually able to bring some of those clippings to WashU. Our goal was to plant that grafted tree.
00:15:37
Speaker
with that tree clipping, network with the local NAVEQ members on how that should be done. Because we view plants and animals and the elements in our environment as our relatives. So we want to have a welcoming of that tree into the new place that will be planted at.
00:15:55
Speaker
And so we also thought about, hey, we just don't only want to leave the tree here. We got to make sure that we're taking care of it. How do we make this tree feel more comfortable? How do we also maybe bring this project as a more educational opportunity to highlight native connections to plants and how plants were viewed and utilized? So we've had focus groups on talking about, yes, let's plant the tree.
00:16:24
Speaker
like a planting ceremony you would want to say to welcome that tree. And then our next steps were then to incorporate native plants that, you know, have kind of some type of relationship and significance to native people. And those plants would also have display colors that would be representative of the medicine wheel, because we always touch back on
00:16:47
Speaker
you know, our health and well-being and connections to the teachings of like the four directions and the medicine wheel. So we thought, hey, let's incorporate plants that might display colors like that. We also thought about having conversations about, you know, is this tree going to be bent? You know, because that was kind of like the
00:17:07
Speaker
very iconic feature of trail marker trees is that they are intentionally bent. Now, some trees, like they would have like this double 90 degree bend, other trees that have this nice, great, you know, bend. And so we thought about, you know, should this tree be bent? So we're in this place where that's still, we have time to really consider that, you know, working with local native community, trying to reach out to tribes with ancestral connections to this area, get their thoughts and opinions on this. So
00:17:36
Speaker
You know, some community members here, though, like they've already kind of said, like, you know, if we were to bend the street, like what direction should we bend it? And we thought, you know, maybe this should be pointed towards the east. And so the justification was, is that because St. Louis has the arch, this was like the big one. So gateway to the west. So we said, like, you know,
00:17:56
Speaker
you know, maybe we point this towards the east, you know, to kind of, you know, decolonize that whole mindset. And then also too, we, you know, many tribes that have many teachings, you know, as far as like directions go, so the east is very significant to many tribes with
00:18:13
Speaker
You know, a new day, a new life, birth, you know, things like that. And then we also, pointing towards the east direction, we also point towards the great rivers, such as the Mississippi and where Missouri is at, where that confluence is. And we know there's so much history with that, you know, especially during that Mississippian period. And you saw so much trading going on at Cahokia.
00:18:36
Speaker
So there's that aspect and also to the East direction points towards from where the mother tree was at, you know, in Illinois. You know, those are still conversations that, you know, we're still having. And, you know, we're going to have a meeting here soon. Actually,
Social Work's Connection to Heritage
00:18:51
Speaker
in fact, I think next week and we're going to talk about informational panels and how to create like a website that create information for people to go to learn more about trail marker trees and this specific trail marker tree and its story and origins and everything. So
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, so that was like the first like community based projects that really worked on and really networking with the local native community and get them involved. And it's been building ever since.
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So I want to play a little bit of devil's, you know, devil's advocate here. Obviously I know how social work and you know, health and wellbeing and all of those things tie into heritage and archeology and history and all of those things. But let's say I don't, how, how is this all tied to social work? Like what you're talking about here? I mean, how, how is this part of a social work program?
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I think for us, it kind of goes back to what I was saying about educating the community, creating awareness, because Native people have been dealing with assimilation, genocide, erasure, and it still exists today, you know, in all different forms. So I think these are different ways that fight against that within our own community.
00:20:11
Speaker
as far as social work as a whole, you know, I'm trying to relate it to like archaeology, specifically, like I can kind of say like, you know, for us, it's, you know, reconnecting those people, those tribes that were pushed out from their ancestral homelands, you know, such as like the Osage nation. So they have very strong claims to hear. And so it's,
00:20:32
Speaker
connecting their people with areas here, you know, and it could be just notifying them in their Tippo office and saying, like, hey, there's this new development that's going on, but we're aware that, you know, there's sites here that might need to be, you know, checked out. And we kind of understand now the process and, you know, we're not archaeologists or social workers. So, actually,
00:20:53
Speaker
a great opportunity for us to learn of having to connect with the State Historic Preservation Office and local archaeologists and knowing what are these processes and protocols that are needed to do certain surveys or reporting and such. But it kind of goes back to just, I think,
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, reconnecting people and protecting a lot of these different sites and, you know, protecting like artifacts and, you know, that might be significant to people and even possibly, you know, burials, you know, remains and returning those remains or however the tribes may see fit.
00:21:28
Speaker
There's just so much history here in St. Louis that, you know, what it comes down to, it's really serving the people and making sure that we're looking after, you know, our people's health and well-being. And, you know, we're looking into the future as well, too. You know, we oftentimes, you know, look at, like, kind of like the teachings of the seven generations, you know, it's, you know, everything, you know, I think a modern society, like, we're looking at, like, what's happening, like, right now. And we look at the immediate problem and treat it.
00:21:55
Speaker
or fix it, but we're not looking ahead and, you know, looking at like, what are the like the root issues. And, you know, this is like having like one conversation we kind of get into when it comes to social work. And we have a very world renowned medical school for a lot of
00:22:10
Speaker
you know, people who want to become doctors or go into other health professions and stuff. You know, I just gave a presentation that kind of touched on those things on, you know, kind of like indigenous health and wellness and versus like kind of like Western medicine, those things kind of intertie and stuff. And, but as I mentioned, like, you know, everything is interconnected and we want to make sure that ultimately things are being taken care of appropriately and done the right way. So that way things aren't lost.
00:22:36
Speaker
Okay. So first, I didn't say hi specifically by name, but I do want to say hi to Dr. Seth Grooms for connecting us and for showing how, you know, social work, uh, can really tie into all of these different things that we were talking about in our episode. Can
Threats to Archaeological Sites
00:22:54
Speaker
you give like a specific example within St. Louis of, of how that works or a project?
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah, so I've had the fortunate opportunity to meet local archaeologists in the area. And, you know, one cool thing was is that I got to see some places and know about places and sites, you know, that aren't far from home that I didn't even know about. But really, when you think about it, you know, Native people have been all over the land for thousands of years, so it shouldn't be really surprising.
00:23:25
Speaker
But, you know, I got to meet a gentleman, Mark Leach. He has a few publications, and it's focused on a couple sites out in what we call West County. It's west of downtown St. Louis and the suburbs of St. Louis County.
00:23:41
Speaker
You know, one side is Blake Mount, the other is Dampier site. And, you know, those have relationships to Cahokia, you know, during that Mississippian period. But Chesterfield actually has been booming with, you know, people moving into the area, new developments with, you know, new malls, shops, restaurants, bars, you know, you name it, like that place is just, you know, booming all over.
00:24:10
Speaker
you know, with that boom, it's come, it's threatening, you know, some of those sites. And recently, a residential company called McBride Homes, they purchased an area near Blake Mound. And Blake Mound is, as you can kind of imagine, it's a mound.
00:24:29
Speaker
No surprise there. And that McBride Homes, they purchase area near Blake Mounds, so there's definitely some worry about what could happen to that site. Could there be potential damage or who knows? I've even received emails actually from a local resident saying that they're even concerned because they know that looters or people who are
00:24:55
Speaker
artifact collectors like they're going into you know the disturbed ground that you know the construction crew is going through and and rooting up and they're trying to find like artifacts and stuff and and I got to visit Blake Mount Mark took me out there and it was oh my gosh
00:25:13
Speaker
You would you wouldn't think like there's a lot there but there's so much that you know it's covered with you know there's there's woods around there and brush but really you can see like how significant this place was and there's even like a cave that's underneath the mountain he's kind of sharing you know some inside about you know that story there with the cave and how important that that place may be
00:25:35
Speaker
And unfortunately, they can't really get too far into the cave. I guess, you know, due to like soil erosion and water carrying dirt and other debris, it's kind of blocked up the cave entrance pretty good. So he's actually working with a local high school robotics team on creating like a spider robot to go deeper into the cave. I think even mentioned he's even blocked by he thinks there's a skunk or some or some type of critter back there as well.
00:26:02
Speaker
But yeah, so with that site and the new developments have been happening out there, you know, Mark reached out to me and he said, like, hey, we're going to go speak in front of the Chesterfield City Council. And it was him and myself and another local archaeologist, Joharl, who's done a lot of amazing work here in St. Louis. And so we each brought our own perspective on, you know, what's happening here in Chesterfield.
00:26:29
Speaker
And how can the city make sure to be careful with these new developments and be more aware of protecting Native American sites? So obviously for them, they're coming, for Mark and Joe, they're coming at it from a more archaeological perspective. As for myself, I bring that native voice. And I grew up here in the area. And I can really share how important that
00:26:58
Speaker
those types of things are to our people. And even though I'm not connected to, you know, let's say like the Osage, you know, I'm still gonna be an advocate to them because, you know, they're our relatives and stuff. And also too, I kind of look at it this way, you know, the Choctaw people, they were also, you could say like my own builders as well too. So, you know, who knows, like we're connecting that type of way that dates back to that Mississippian period.
00:27:23
Speaker
So, there's just like a lot of passion that goes behind, you know, protecting these sites here. And as I mentioned, you know, there's just so the non-native population is very high here and they're just not educated or informed about, you know, these types of things. And we're just trying to prevent, you know, those types of forms of erasure and, you know, the importance of artifacts and sites just disappearing and not being returned to our people or being protected. So, yeah.
00:27:53
Speaker
Right.
Urban Relocation Program's Impact
00:27:53
Speaker
And obviously all of the, the impacts that that has on, on a person's health and wellbeing, uh, it all, it all ties together. Right. Exactly. All right. Well, we are already at our second break point, but I'm excited to come back in a minute and dive right back in.
00:28:15
Speaker
So we're back from our break, and you were talking about the importance of the land, but then also this complicated history of tribes being removed from the area, that there's no reservations currently within Missouri, and then this large urban Indian population within St. Louis,
00:28:40
Speaker
If I remember from our last conversation, a lot of that community was specifically brought in in the 70s, if I remember correctly. Oh yeah, the 1950s. 50s. Okay. Two decades off.
00:28:57
Speaker
St. Louis was part of that urban relocation program and actually that's how my grandparents met. So all my native heritage is on my father's side and his parents, grandparents came up from their reservations. So my grandfather is Zuni, grandma is Choctaw from Mississippi. So they came up during that time, met in St. Louis, had a family, rest is history.
00:29:19
Speaker
but yeah St. Louis was like that one of those large cities during that time and it's brought in you know people from all different nations here in St. Louis and some still live here and then you know others moved back home or whatever it may be but many people don't realize that St. Louis was part of that and they don't know the understand the full
00:29:38
Speaker
also underlying message behind that program. So it was emphasized by the federal government to promote jobs, economic opportunities for Native people to move away from their tribes, their reservations, move into larger cities for those opportunities. But it was really meant as another assimilative effort to really remove people from their people and their communities. And so, as I mentioned before, I had a hard time, my own identity, learning the history and culture and stuff, because there was another
00:30:08
Speaker
talked and zooming people around, you know, other than my dad, a couple aunties, you know, cousins, my grandparents, they passed away when I was younger too. So it was always been a challenge, you know, learning that type of stuff. And so like, you know, I have to go back and do everything myself of learning like the language, the culture, the history. And so that's where I say that's where the government succeeded in that type of way. But yeah, St. Louis
Booter Center's Land Acknowledgment and Initiatives
00:30:32
Speaker
has that that history there too, as well.
00:30:35
Speaker
So with all of that in mind, you know, all those complicated layers of history tied to the land, how does the Booter Center frame, I don't know, indigenous connection to the land, I guess?
00:30:50
Speaker
Yeah, so that's where we started working on, you know, well, the Buddha Center had created a land acknowledgement. I don't know at which point in time it was created. But, you know, as I came into this position here as assistant director and worked with the new director, you know, we're really looking at like, hey, we need to update this and really look at
00:31:11
Speaker
what should be really included into a land acknowledgement and everything. Oftentimes, land acknowledgements are created and it becomes more of a performative piece for people to do before presentations and conferences and stuff, and we want to make sure that it's not that.
00:31:29
Speaker
Like, sure, we want to acknowledge the people who have ancestral connections to this land. And, you know, we just don't want to also leave it at highlighting the unjust history, you know, tied to that as well, too, within a statement. But really getting at like, hey, how do we
00:31:48
Speaker
develop relationships? How do we move forward? How do we keep learning ourselves? So, those types of pieces are incorporated into our statement, and it holds us accountable for those things on developing relationships with tribal nations and Native people, working with Native people,
00:32:09
Speaker
you know, educating the local native community or non-native community, you know, it's all kinds of things that really holds an organization or institution accountable and also can create a new set of responsibilities of how we can move forward and create better understanding awareness within a community.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah, and we'll put the link to the land acknowledgement in the show notes so people can check it out in full. And so you've talked about a lot of different areas of what the Booter Center does at Washington University in St. Louis. Are there any areas that we've missed that we haven't talked about yet?
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, I will actually touch back on going back to the land acknowledgement piece. So the students here at the Brown School, we all have to do, or they have to do now, I still think sometimes I'm, well, I'm always a student, right? And the students have to create practicums, or, you know, we might be more familiar with internships, we usually say practicums here.
00:33:13
Speaker
And so we've had practicum students work with the Buddha Center and not necessarily like native students all the time either. But those students have recently worked on, you know, learning more about land acknowledgments, the meaning behind it, what other universities and institutions have land acknowledgments.
00:33:30
Speaker
And how are they, I don't want to say how are they doing or what are they doing with the land acknowledgement? What's their relationship like with those tribal nations and such hasn't gotten to that, but I think it's more leaving that, you know, what is out there right now? So, you know, the Booter Center, you know, creates practical opportunities for students. And also too, like we also have our own like in-house, like, you know, kind of like events that we'll put on. So we host a powwow. So our next powwow is April 6 of this year.
00:34:00
Speaker
And, you know, we always make sure to make it as a point to, you know, have students like, you know, come check out, participate, volunteer and such, learn more about like, you know, a piece of native culture. I'm not saying like that's the only thing or the only place that, you know, you can learn that. But, you know, once again, it creates that exposure for many of the the Brown school students here at WashU.
00:34:21
Speaker
And even just the whole community, St. Louis community as a whole. And we get so many people that come outside from St. Louis, from different states as well. They check out our powwow. So there's those types of opportunities that happen. Another event that we host is Huntfish Gather. Usually hosts that in the fall time. That usually highlights native foods. So we usually bring in a native chef. They come in, get a little creative. And
00:34:46
Speaker
In 2022, we brought in Chef Nephi Craig to White Mountain Apache in Navajo. And we had a theme for that one, which was really cool. We looked at what foods would have been hunted, fish, and gathered in this area. And I had a practicum student that was working underneath me at that time who did research on really examining, like, yeah, what were those foods that were hunted, fish, and gathered over at Cahokia Mounds? And
Booter Center's Academic Programs
00:35:08
Speaker
what's other research that has revealed that?
00:35:12
Speaker
throughout time. So that was really great being able to highlight native foods in that type of way. And in this past year, 2023, we had Chef Brad Dry from, he's Cherokee from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he highlighted Cherokee foods. So that was really cool to have that. So yeah, so we host like, you know, different practicum opportunities for students here, and it may not even just be within the Booter Center. We network with, you know,
00:35:38
Speaker
Native-led organizations or tribes, and we send our Buddha scholars, the Native students who have a scholarship through the Buddha Center, we'll send them out to those places to do their practicums there, so that way they can gain more experience and help out those organizations or those communities in different ways.
00:35:58
Speaker
So that's kind of like the practicum side of things as far as like the program itself too. So we actually are the only program that has like a formal, like American Indian, Alaskan native concentration within a social work program. That's crazy.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah. So many social work programs around the nation, I mean, they might have like offer like, you know, kind of like courses, but they don't have like an actual like concentration or like a pathway for students to take courses. So yeah, so each, so students, so it's not having just for native students either, like any Brown school student, you know, whether they're in social work or public health, social policy, they could take those courses offered in that, in our concentration. So,
00:36:41
Speaker
There's one course per semester and those are taught by Native professors as well too. So it's really great and you know you get to see maybe different Native professors each year or you know just you know I think in general just having Native professors on campus as I mentioned you know you know there's just a smaller Native community here in general and so it's great just being able to bring those folks and gain perspective and knowledge from where they come from.
00:37:09
Speaker
Trying to think what else, like, yeah, uh, what else the booter center like does, like we do so many different things here and we offer, uh, all kinds of research resources. As mentioned before, we got the like indigenous land and history brief. And then we got like, you know, we mentioned about landing knowledge. And so we have resources for that. The trail marker tree, we have a resource for that as well too. And just kind of assumed that these will be all posted.
00:37:34
Speaker
all in the show notes. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. And then, um, you know, as far as my job goes to, you know, I'm part of recruitment. So I have a real big effort on trying to go out to native communities, you know, in all different places. And you know, I mean, maybe in person, it could be virtually, that's kind of nice thing can save some pennies here as they travel.
00:37:58
Speaker
And it's really just reaching out to native communities, tribal colleges, other universities that might have higher populations of native students and just really sharing the message like, hey, we have scholarships out there for native students who want to pursue a master's in social work. And we know that social workers can work in so many different areas, whether it's on a micro level, working with individuals, families, groups.
00:38:27
Speaker
to a mezzo level where they're working more at a community-based level, or even a macro level where we're working with numerous tribal nations, getting into policymaking type work and all those types of things. So social workers are needed in so many different areas.
00:38:43
Speaker
And so I just want to really make sure that we get that message out there that, hey, there's this opportunity for Native students to come here and get that education and get these opportunities to gain that experience and knowledge to better our people. And it doesn't even have to be their specific tribe. You know, it could be, you know, Native people all across or, you know, I mean, just in the United States, you know, people in Canada, down in Mexico, all the way down into South America, because there are Northern and Southern relatives as well, too.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah. And it looks like you have a pretty sweet job opportunities board on your website as well. So anyone that's, you know, obviously if you're interested in the program, it sounds like an incredible program, go there for that. But then also check out, yeah, this employment job opportunities board.
00:39:32
Speaker
which I can put in the show notes because it looks like a lot of it could apply, you know, in multiple ways. So it could definitely, even if you're in, you know, cultural resources or anthropology or something like that, some of these would, would apply to both. So check it out.
00:39:47
Speaker
All right. What do you think that the Booter Center offers that is the most impactful or like what have you heard from students that has been the most important aspect of having the Booter Center there for them?
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah, a couple of different things. Like one is obviously having this American Indian, Alaska Native concentration, having those courses because those types of things aren't always offered in other social work programs. So I think really getting to know other Native students that come from other parts of the United States, other places, and really learning where they're coming from, what their culture is about. And it's really connecting and bringing Native people together in that type of way.
00:40:35
Speaker
But also too, like the Brown School and this program, it's one of the top ranking social work programs, graduate degree programs in the nation. So when students are coming out of here and they're entering the workforce, they are ready to go. And the things that they're dealing with, they feel very prepared and they feel like they can handle a lot of that work that's being thrown at them.
00:41:02
Speaker
I kind of mentioned it as soon as I prepared it all on a frequent mile, but I'm like, you know, in a way it kind of almost it's, you know, you're going to have your work cut out for you. It's going to feel almost like a bootcamp, but this is going to be in a good way. Like it's going to challenge you. It's going to push you in a good way.
00:41:17
Speaker
And when you come out of here, you're going to become so much of a better person, ready to take on whatever's thrown at you.
Future Goals and Community Support
00:41:25
Speaker
And that's what we want as far as like, you know, especially creating more leaders out there in the world, indigenous leaders that can, you know, pave the way and, you know, bringing more prosperity to our people.
00:41:37
Speaker
Okay, so when you're thinking about the Booter Center or your research or just where you would like to take things in the future, what comes to mind on the things that you'd like to do? Yeah. I think it's just working with our team and falling back on the mission of the Booter Center.
00:41:56
Speaker
supporting Native students who want to receive their master's in social work, relaying that message, getting that message out there that, hey, there's scholarship opportunities for Native students. So really making sure that Native people are aware of this type of opportunity to get a top education and to enhance your knowledge and skills and becoming a leader out there and supporting our people.
00:42:20
Speaker
So there's that side of it. And also too, I think it's also creating more collaborations and partnerships with local organizations and institutions that keep on building that up. Because with that, I mean, we're just going to keep on building that awareness and those educational opportunities for our non-native community. And we need to do that here.
00:42:44
Speaker
and also to networking with the tribes with the ancestral connections here in St. Louis, making sure that hey we're going to support them and if they want to be involved in some type of you know project here or they need assistance with you know how do they you know protect the site you know here in the area and you know whatever type of support that
00:43:06
Speaker
Native people need to have like, you know, we're gonna be there and that kind of even touches on to how do we even support like the local Native community because there's no urban Indian center here.
Healthcare Challenges for Native Communities
00:43:16
Speaker
There's no other type of Native-led organization here that Native people can fall back on to build that community up and provide support.
00:43:25
Speaker
You know, that's one thing I know, like, you know, one of our community members has touched on was actually trying to create an urban Indian center. And we're going to have a meeting with a member of the director of the Kansas City Urban Indian Center and kind of really assess, like, what are things that we have to do on our part to get that role in here? Because I used to be here back in, you know, when my grandparents were here and it went away during, I think, the late 90s, early 2000s.
00:43:51
Speaker
And so there's those hardships there. And, you know, our community also has to face some other hardships. Like there's no Indian health services here. So like, you know, for my father, like he can't receive, you know, healthcare here in St. Louis, the closest facility would be, I think at Haskell University in Lawrence, Kansas. So that'd be like a four and a half hour drive for him to receive those types of healthcare services and like other native folk. Yeah. So that's definitely a challenge that, you know, so those are the types of things I think we're, we definitely want to try and
00:44:19
Speaker
move forward on and bettering our community and supporting native people. Yeah. All right. Well, we're at the end of our time, but any last burning thoughts? Oh, of course. Plenty of thoughts. We could keep going, going. But I understand everybody has lives and can't listen to our podcast episode forever. Awesome.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, so, you know, I would like to say, you know, especially to non-native community is to keep on learning, get out there, build relationships with native people, keep learning more about, yeah, obviously like our history, but we're not people of just the past, you know, we're still here. Find ways of how you can help our people out.
00:45:03
Speaker
simple thing it could be donating or maybe purchasing items through a native business or anything like that. Attend events such as like a powwow or something just to make you more aware and it gets you outside of just reading about us and books or research articles and besides the movies too like Dances with Wolves or something.
Identity and Enrollment Issues
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah, so make sure that you're engaging, you're updating yourself on what's kind of happening in our communities. You know, there's like a lot of issues that, you know, are still happening and, you know, that still contribute to like our erasure and, you know, that affect our prosperity moving forward.
00:45:43
Speaker
So and you know that's even like one thing like dealing here like in St. Louis like it was hard for me like as I mentioned like with identifying as being being native you know it's hard connecting with people that you know my people who are far away my relatives and I even had to do that work myself.
00:46:01
Speaker
But unfortunately too, you know, there's conversations within, you know, communities that might go on like, you know, well, who's native and stuff? Like, you know, kind of like you have like these gatekeepers out there. So I want people to kind of be aware too, like, you know, there's a ratio that's like kind of, you know, colonial ratio, but then there's also a ratio that, you know, kind of happens within our, with our own communities because of that.
00:46:25
Speaker
that whole mindset is being carried on into our people, such as things like tribal enrollment. I understand the purpose of tribal enrollment and all that. And I'm not enrolled in my tribes, but one thing that I've faced is, as I mentioned, if we go talk about blood quantum and things like that, I'm 50%, I'm 25%, Zuni 25%, Choctaw.
00:46:51
Speaker
And unfortunately, and due to these colonial structures and these types of rules, like I can't enroll into either tribe like Mississippi band of trucked Indians, you have to be 50% their, their tribe. I can't enroll into them. And my dad's enrolled into their tribe. I do, however, make the blood quantum for the Zuni, which requires 25%. But your parent has to be enrolled with their tribe.
00:47:13
Speaker
So there's these types of structures that are built there. And, you know, I understand like our people, you know, tribal governments create constitutions to, you know, have those rules in place and everything. And, but some people are out there, you know, saying that, you know, like, Hey, well, you don't have a tribal ID card. And, you know, how can you say you're, you're native or, you know, you're Choctaw or you're Zuni and you don't have a tribal ID card and stuff. And,
00:47:39
Speaker
you know, if we're just looking at blood quantum, like, is that really constituted as being native? Because, you know, tribes too, like, you know, tribes are in control of making these blood quantum rules and, you know, into their constitution. So, you know, how can someone who could be potentially less, have less blood quantum and enrolled into their tribe tell me that, and if I have more technically native blood than them, tell me I'm not native, like, you know,
00:48:04
Speaker
that's erasing our people over time. And I think the big picture that people don't realize is that ultimately a lot of these things happen because the federal government wants to take over our lands and resources. And so, you know, let's say over time that, you know, there's people that can't enroll into the truck because they don't make that blood quantum due to what's written into their constitutions. Well, then the government can
00:48:29
Speaker
you know, terminate that tribe and say like, hey, well, there's no longer a group, you know, people that can technically enroll to your tribe. There's no tribe there then. So now your lands are going to be susceptible for us to take over. So I think people are missing the big picture on some of these types of issues that are happening with native people and communities and such. And we have to kind of rethink that and really touch back on our indigenous
00:48:52
Speaker
you know, views and knowledges and beliefs as well, too, to take a step back because colonialism has really messed things up. So I just wanted to make sure that people are out there becoming more aware of like some of these different dynamics that do affect Native people.
Collaboration Opportunities in Cultural Resources
00:49:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I just want to say thank you so much for all of your work, you know, bringing students into social work, all of your work with archaeologists and the local indigenous community and tribes that are, you know, have been forced off of their land. So just thank you. And also, I think it's a really good example of areas where
00:49:30
Speaker
People in cultural resources or anthropology have a lot more potential partners out there in the community that they might not recognize because they're not seeing them as specifically anthropology or cultural resources or tribes or whatever, but that there are a lot of other organizations that are trying to do similar work that we could partner with and bring to the table.
00:49:53
Speaker
Thank you, and thank you for coming on today. Yeah, excited to see where you and all of your students go with all of this in the future. Yeah, thanks, Jessica. No, this has been great. And, you know, if anyone is interested into coming to St. Louis to WashU, the Brown School, and enter into the social work program here, yeah, please contact us and we're more than happy to help you out and guide you how to become a social worker.
00:50:20
Speaker
Awesome. Is there a specific like way for them to reach out to you? Yeah. So if you visit our website, you could probably just Google, you know, search Catherine and Buddha center for American Indian studies at WashU or Washington university in St. Louis, you know, it should automatically pop up. There's that. And yeah, could we share the link with everyone?
00:50:41
Speaker
Absolutely. It looks like there's a contact page. So we will share the link for that specifically within the show notes as well. Yeah. Well, thank you again. And, and also everyone for your reference. Booter B U D E R just so you know.
00:51:05
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
00:51:26
Speaker
amazing guests out there into the world. Don't 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.
00:51:47
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.
00:52:13
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Chris Webster and Rachel Rodin. 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.