Please join MIT Anthropology Professor Sonya Atalay (NSF CBIKS founder & director) for the first Indigenous Sciences Speaker Series speaker of 2025. The U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (NSF CBIKS) in partnership with our co-sponsors, is excited to welcome Dr. Gabriel Sanchez to the Indigenous Sciences Speaker Series on February 21st @ 4:00 pm EST presenting Collaborative Archaeology Field Schools: Perspectives from the Central California Coast. 

This talk shares insights from a collaborative field school bringing together students and Tribal members from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and their Land Trust. Informed by cultural perspectives and priorities, participants learned archaeological field methods developed by the Tribe and archaeologists over the last decade to study and preserve Indigenous cultural heritage.

    
Register for the webinar here.
    
Gabriel Sanchez is an Indigenous Anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Oregon (UO). Gabriel currently participates in collaborative and community-based participatory research projects with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, and California State Parks, to investigate the native range of California’s endangered salmon species, which are vulnerable to extinction or extirpation.

Abstract: Collaborative research is a relatively niche but growing component of archaeological practice. While academic institutions and professional societies highlight the importance of Indigenous, collaborative, and decolonizing research strategies, opportunities to train students in these techniques are still generally lacking. This talk shares insights from a collaborative field school bringing together students and Tribal members from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and their Land Trust. Informed by cultural perspectives and priorities, participants learned archaeological field methods developed by the Tribe and archaeologists over the last decade to study and preserve Indigenous cultural heritage. In this talk, Gabe considers how Indigenous-led efforts in central coastal California archaeology, focusing on site stewardship, access, research, and education, can broadly benefit field schools.

View this talk's flyer Here and the Full 24-25 Speaker Series Flyer Here
 

Please contact Kay Mattena (kmattena@umass.edu) or Marcie Gallo (marcie.gallo@umass.edu) with any questions.