Community Accountable Archaeological Partnership with Shingle Springs Band of Miwok and Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribes

Blodgett Station

Driving 20,000 miles this year, we visited multiple Ancestral Places together and developed research projects aligned with the priorities of our Tribal Mentors, including TEK officers, Tribal Vice Chairwomen, and the Flicker (InterTribal Ecological Restoration) Crew.

We also built a weekend-long event at Blodgett UC research forest to discover modes and policies for co-management of UC properties aligned with Tribal priorities, including our unique combination of archaeology and cultural fire.

Birds, Reciprocity and Knowledge Exchange in Northern NM : Zooarchaeology and Oral Histories at Picuris Pueblo

Informant describing knowledge

Based on oral historical interviews funded in part by the Stahl Fund conducted in August of 2024, this talk explores community and Indigenous values and memories about birds at Picuris Pueblo. This oral historical research is part of a larger investigation into avian-human relationships at Picuris Pueblo in tandem with a legacy collection of avifaunal remains from the 1960s excavations at the pueblo.

Melanie Cootsona

Graduate Student
Research Website: 
Teaching Website: 

My research concerns the role of animal-human relationships in human societies. I work with Picuris Pueblo in northern New Mexico, and my dissertation work centers on a legacy collection of primarily avian remains from the ancestral pueblo dating to 1200-1800 CE excavated in the 1960's. I am interested in decolonial theory and methodologies and community-based work and have been incorporating oral histories and modern-day community perspectives into my interpretations of this archaeological record. 

Region(s): 
American Southwest
Research Theme(s): 
Zooarchaeology, Oral History, animal-human relationships, Indigenous Archaeology, community-based archaeology, legacy collections, collections-based research, American Southwest

Peter Nelson

Peter A. Nelson
Affiliated Faculty
Research Website: 
Peter Nelson's ESPM profile

Peter Nelson (Coast Miwok and tribal citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria) received his PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and is Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and Ethnic Studies. Professor Nelson works at the intersection of anthropological archaeology, Indigenous environmental studies, and Native American Studies in collaboration with tribal nations and Indigenous peoples in California and abroad on issues of cultural heritage preservation, settler colonialism, climate change, and Indigenous landscape management.

Region(s): 
California
Research Theme(s): 
Indigenous Archaeology, Indigenous environmental studies, settler colonialism, community-based participatory research