Doctoral Dissertation Research: Native American Lifeways on the Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon, USA

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Historical and anthropological scholarship on Native American reservations has provided insight into Native experiences in numerous spatial, environmental, and temporal contexts. Largely absent from this research, however, is an understanding of reservation materiality, that is, how federal policies and Native activities were made manifest in reservation homes, tools, foods, and other objects associated with daily life. Archaeology is well-suited to fill this gap. Unlike written and ethnographic sources, which on reservations were composed primarily by non-Native outsiders with clear political agendas, the archaeological record preserves evidence of Native practices in multiple settings, including those that existed out of sight of federal officials. This project combines archaeological and archival research to document the experiences of Native communities living on the Grand Ronde Reservation in northwestern Oregon. Conducted as part of two community-based research initiatives, this project will provide archaeological field and laboratory training to undergraduate and graduate students. It will also extend opportunities to Grand Ronde tribal members to participate in all aspects of the research, accomplishing the dual goals of increasing the participation of Native people in archaeology and enhancing the capacity of the community to identify and protect tribal heritage. Results will be made available through university data repositories and public presentations at local museums, academic conferences, and Grand Ronde events. Situated at the intersections of archaeology, history, and Native American studies, this work will lend new insight into American colonialism, Native American history, and the value of community-based research in the social sciences. In collaboration with the Grand Ronde Historic Preservation Office, the project's Principal Investigators will examine the interplay between federal policies aimed at terminating Native lifeways and Grand Ronde survivance, a process of preserving, adapting, and creating cultural traditions. The project focuses on a reservation habitation area used by tribal members from the 1850s through at least the 1920s. Cartographic evidence suggests that this site was part of a larger settlement strategy through which the Grand Ronde community reiterated historic relationships between different Native groups. Archaeological survey and excavation will be used to assess whether similar attempts to maintain pre-reservation practices influenced interior house organization, especially the construction of hearth boxes and sub-floor storage areas, and diet composition. Comparing recovered artifacts to pre-reservation archaeological sites and archival material will reveal the strategies employed by the Grand Ronde community to remake a foreign and often hostile landscape into a culturally familiar home. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.