Across America, families are likely squirreling away turkeys into chest freezers for Thanksgiving. But earlier this month, Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain warned of a potential shortage of small birds during the holiday season. This threatens the long tradition of Thanksgiving turkey, which has nebulous origins in early colonial New England. Yet Indigenous people’s relationship with the ubiquitous bird goes back more than two thousand years.

“I can visualize the blanket-maker calming a familiar household-raised turkey so it could be held in that person’s lap while some of its mature body feathers were carefully and painlessly removed for use in the blanket,” William Lipe, a Southwestern archaeologist and professor emeritus at Washington State University, says.

After the great migration, the Pueblo people relied less on turkeys for sustenance. Their new territory once again offered plentiful big game to hunt. Still, some traditions lived on. Today, you can hear turkey gobbles in many New Mexican Pueblos.

Today it’s all about Cosmic Crisp apples, winter wheat and wine grapes, but 400 years ago Washington state’s food environment looked a lot different.

The mechanized system of food production has churned over recent centuries, but when the land was occupied only by Indigenous people whose ties to the land had deep roots, the Pacific Northwest served an abundance of helpful herbs, fragrant flowers, fat-rich fish and vital vegetables that could easily make a feast.

Other fish like sturgeon, lamprey eels, suckers and various species of traits also helped sustain these communities. Diets for people in the Northwest also included a fat-rich fish called eulachon, found in the rivers, Washington State University anthropology researcher Shannon Tushingham told WSU Insider earlier this year.

WSU archaeology researcher Molly Carney studied how often Indigenous tribes used camas root and found the onionlike bulbs were a critical part of the cuisine, according to a WSU News article this year.

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Seattle Times

When humans want to look into the past, they often dig into the ground. Under the soil, archeologists can find all kinds of things that help us learn about life long ago.

That’s what I found out from my friend Rachel Horowitz, an archaeologist at Washington State University who is very curious about the lives of our human ancestors.

Let’s say a human ancestor passed away and was buried at the edge of a lake. Layer after layer, the soil, pebbles, sand and other earth materials start piling up on top of the burial site.

Some of the fossils that have taught us about the past were bones belonging to a human ancestor that archeologists named Ardipithecus ramidu. Or Ardi, for short

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Ask Dr. Universe

Molly Carney is both a pioneering scientist and a bridge builder.

In her current research, the environmental archaeologist and postdoctoral researcher in the WSU Department of Anthropology reconstructs the cultural history and plant food uses by Northwest Native communities. Specifically, her projects focus on use and cultivation strategies of camas (Camassia quamash), a bulb plant. For thousands of years, camas has been a valuable plant food for tribal communities.

“Native people managed and harvested camas bulbs for more than 4,000 years,” said Carney, who earned her PhD in archaeology this spring. “When harvesting, Native Americans selected only mature camas bulbs. and considered the long term for the plant itself. This approach was calculated with enduring sustainability in mind.”

Respect for this cultural legacy has been frequently disregarded by scientists, Carney noted. Many initiate relationships with Native people to conduct research on their lands. But, once the work is complete, they depart and leave those connections in the dust.

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WSU Insider
NWPB

Washington State University anthropology doctoral candidate Daphne Weber is the institution’s first recipient of a Fulbright-Hays award, said April Seehafer, director of the Distinguished Scholarships Program.

With it, Weber will spend a year living with and interviewing Thai female monks, formally known as bhikkhuni. She will conduct extensive research for her Ph.D. dissertation on the healing effects of ordination. While female monks are recognized in East Asia, where people mostly practice Mahayana Buddhism, bhikkhuni are not officially recognized within the predominately Theravada tradition of Southeast Asia.

“Anthropology opened me up to the human condition and how variable it can be,” she said, hoping to one day host study abroad opportunities for others. “Everyone in the world brings something unique to the table. I’m thankful for the Fulbright-Hays so I can share the story of these incredible female monks. I’m honored to do that.”

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WSU Insider