RECONNECTING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE TO THE SUNLIGHT BASIN: INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Author

Liz Dolinar, University of Montana, MissoulaFollow

Year of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Cultural Heritage Option)

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Archaeology

Department or School/College

Anthropology

Committee Chair

Anna Prentiss

Commitee Members

Rosalyn LaPier, Kelly Dixon

Keywords

Indigenous Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, collaboration, Eastern Shoshone, paleoethnobotany, northwestern Wyoming

Subject Categories

Anthropology | Archaeological Anthropology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) specific to plants has been developed over long-term connections to the environment, diligent observations, and practical experience by Indigenous communities. The traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples is a vital source for the contextualization and further understanding of past human environmental relationships in the Sunlight Basin of northwestern Wyoming. The Eastern Shoshone people, among many other groups, traditionally occupied the Sunlight Basin of northwestern Wyoming, a region of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. There is a growing necessity for collaboration with Indigenous populations within archaeological and anthropological research. The aim of this project is to develop a synthesized body of work that incorporates traditional plant harvesting practices and the general plant knowledge of the Eastern Shoshone community, supported by historic ethnographic research, contemporary ethnographic interviews, plant surveys, and post excavation paleoethnobotanical analysis. These lines of investigation and support the traditional ecological knowledge of local and Indigenous communities. The collaboration of these three modes of investigation will reveal that TEK can contextualize cultural landscapes by providing highly specialized details about local ecosystems.

Recommended Citation

Dolinar, Liz, "RECONNECTING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE TO THE SUNLIGHT BASIN: INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY" (2019). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11473.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11473