NMSU anthropology graduate students Anastasia Walhovd and Keely Yanito received the Society for American Archaeology National Science Foundation Scholarship for Archaeological Training for 2022 and 2023. These scholarships support archaeological training or a research program for Native American students or employees of tribal cultural preservation programs.
For Walhovd, a master's degree in anthropology will help her learn more about her own history. Her research will take her back to a site on a reservation near the Great Lakes. She is a member of a federally recognized tribe, the Redcliffe Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, but she prefers to be known as Ojibwe. "I'm from Wisconsin. I grew about 20 minutes off the reservation in far northern Wisconsin, right on Lake Superior outside of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore or National Park Service Land," Walhovd said.
Yanito, who earned the 2023 NSF award, is Navajo and currently engaged in the archaeological field school at Cottonwood Spring Pueblo this summer. She is a graduate teaching assistant and loves assisting undergraduates with their first field experiences.
She was raised in the Four Corners region and grew up both on and off the reservation. Her master's degree research focuses on tattoo bundles within the southwest utilized among tribes and finding any resemblance of ceramic patterns along with rock art to the tattooed Native peoples. "I would like to travel around to the surrounding tribes of the southwest and speak with a specialist within the tribe to get factual information about tattooing relating to any resemblance of ceramic patterns and rock art," Yanito wrote in her application for the award.
"We have world-class archaeology right here," said Rani Alexander, anthropology professor and department head. "The archaeology of the American Southwest and northern Mexico is one of the most resilient cultural traditions on the planet." People come from all over the world to be trained, and conduct collaborative work with descendant communities on archeological heritage. Archaeological research in New Mexico offers different perspectives on the human past."
The NSF scholarship provides funding for various expenses such as tuition for a degree, field schools, archaeological digital or technical training, heritage management training and tribal language and/or culture training.
Two to four scholarships of up to $6,000 are awarded each year. The field schools and other training funded by the scholarships help students receive job offers post-graduation.
The scholarship funded Walhovd's first year in graduate school. She plans to go back to Wisconsin to conduct research on an historic site on the reservation that was once a prehistoric village.
"It was host to what was called the 'Apostle Islands Indian Pageant,' akin to one of those wild west shows. It had a hotel known as the Pageant Tavern, and when it was a hotel, the workers there were primarily Ojibwe," Waldhovd said. "I'm actually descended from two people who worked at that hotel and my great grandpa was a little boy who grew up there. I've got an oral history interview of him talking about it."
NMSU's track record of success is one reason Waldhovd chose to get her master's degree in the anthropology department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Undergraduates and graduate students receive various national awards every year.
"Once I learned more about what the department offered, I knew I wanted to go to NMSU," Waldhovd said. "They have long-standing archeology training program. Their cultural resource management and certificate programs are long-standing. I really see myself working in cultural resource management."
Yanito's scholarship covers the costs of Archaeological Field School and her second year of graduate study. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. degree and forge a career in archaeology and cultural resource management. Yanito envisions a professional development pathway to allow her to work with teams to implement plans to protect heritage resources, build working relationships for the mutual benefit of multiple agencies and help them complete long standing tasks to engage descendant communities to achieve their goals.
Alexander explains there are many opportunities open to graduates in the field of anthropology and archaeology.
"We have opportunities for students at all levels. Whether it's an undergraduate who finishes with a bachelor's in anthropology and a minor in archaeology or a graduate student pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) or Museum Studies on top of their master's degree, our programs are very skills-based. Our programs develop the knowledge and abilities needed for success in CRM and heritage careers," Alexander said.
"As long as students complete a field school, they can gain entry to archaeology technician positions," Alexander added. "We've seen our students achieve success in employment with the State of New Mexico and with museums. We've seen students develop careers through the federal pathways program with the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. Employment opportunities in archaeology are booming in New Mexico and across the western U.S.
The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/two-nmsu-students-receive-society-for-american-archaeology-awards/s/dc836ab6-8dc9-431b-81d8-a82d379d0dcf