Great Plains Research
Located as UNL is on the Central Great Plains of North America, faculty and students here pursue research on a variety of anthropological topics in contemporary, ethnohistoric, historic and prehistoric contexts. Dr. Mark Awakuni-Swetland works with indigenous oral history, native language preservation, native language curriculum development and instruction, material culture technologies (contemporary and historic), kinship systems, storytelling, social and cultural protocols, culture change, and contemporary issues. Many of these efforts can be viewed at http://omahalanguage.unl.edu/index.html. His current focus is on the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa. He has long term collaborative projects with the Umonhon Language and Culture Center at Umonhon Nation Public School, Macy, NE.
Dr. Martha McCollough has worked with ethnohistoric accounts to explore resistance strategies implemented by indigenous populations facing increasingly complex colonial powers. She has also supervised students conducting research with contemporary rural ranchers, reservation members, and minority populations in Lincoln and Omaha.
In historic contexts, Dr. Paul Demers is mapping and excavating remains to learn about the dynamic patterns of frontier life along surviving portions of Nebraska's historic overland trail systems including the Oregon and California, Mormon, Fort Kearny, and Pony Express routes. These trails were the conduit for settlement, commercial, military, and religious interests that permanently altered the cultural and natural landscapes of the west.
Also, Dr. Peter Bleed has ongoing research on the industrial frontier in historic Lincoln. Dr. Bleed and Dr. Douglas Scott continue investigations of prehistoric and historic battlefields, most recently examining Mud Springs and Alkali Station, Civil War era battlegrounds where Cheyenne and Lakota and a volunteer US Calvary fought, in Nebraska.
Dr. LuAnn Wandsnider has focused on the Late Prehistoric period on the High Plains in a consideration of cooking technology and land use. She has also conducted research on the determination and interpretation of place histories for Archaic and Late Prehistoric deposits in Southwestern Wyoming.
Geographers Dr. Clark Archer, Dr. Steven Lavin, and Dr. David Wishart are also actively engaged in research on the Great Plains as are other University of Nebraska scholars, who contribute to the Center for Great Plains Studies. As well, archaeologist Dr. Alan Osborn, of the University of Nebraska State Museum is also actively involved in Plains research.
Since 2000, Anthropology (and other allied) students have completed theses (and dissertations) on a variety of topics:
Contemporary Studies
2007 Elizabeth A. Roetman (PhD Program, University Oklahoma); Straight from the Horses Mouth: Hopkins, Hidalgo, and Hollywood
2006 Wynne L. Summers; History PhD Dissertation: Women Elders' Life Stories of the Omaha Tribe
2005 Rory M. Larson; Acculturation Terms in Omaha
2004 Elaine M. Nelson; History MA Thesis: Eunice Woodhull Stabler, Omaha Indian Writer, 1885-1963
Ethnohistory
2006 Samuel H. Herley; History MA Thesis: ÉwithaiWóngithe: Omaha-Ponca Relations in the Nineteenth Century
2006 Kurt E. Kinbacher; History PhD Dissertation: Immigration, the American West, and the Twentieth Century: German from Russia, Omaha Indian, and Vietnamese-Urban Villagers in Lincoln, Nebraska
2006 Matthew R. Garrett; History MA Thesis: Kickapoo Foreign Policy, 1650-1830
Historic Archaeology
2006 Nolan Johnson (Nebraska State Historical Society); What Remains?: Historic Salvage at the Beaver Creek Trail Crossing Site (25SW49)
2003 Carl G. Drexler (Ph.D. program; William and Mary); Identifying Culturally-based Variability in Artillery Ammunition Fragments Recovered form the Battlefield of Pea Ridge, Arkansas
2004 Katherine Cleek; Transportation, Material Culture, and Archaeology: A Comparison between the Sarah Cook House (Springfield, Illinois) and the Hayhurst House (West Branch, Iowa)
2001 Tamie Sawaged (Law School, University of Nebraska-Omaha); Is Archaeology Enough? The Big Village Site Revisited: An Exploration of the Relationship between Material Culture and Gender Dynamics in a Historic Mortuary Context
Prehistoric Archaeology
2007 Brennan Dolan (The Louis Berger Group, Inc., Marion, IA); Exploring Okoboji Oneota: Analysis and Regional Comparison of Faunal Data from Gillett Grove (13CY2), Clay County, Iowa
2005 Matthew Douglass (PhD Program, Auckland University); Ungulate Trampling Experiments with Prescriptions for Archaeological Practice
2004 Nicholas Harken (Law School, Marquette University); Late Holocene Upland Exploitation in Eastern Nebraska
2003 Amy Bleier (Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. Bismarck, ND); Dating Woodcliff (25SD31): Insights into Pawnee Archaeology.
2003 Ryan Duddleson (The Mannick and Smith Group); Schultz Site Ceramic Use Wear Analysis
2003 Damita Hiemstra (Metcalfe Archaeological Consultants, Inc. Bismarck, ND); Pull of the Hills? An Evaluation of Settlement and Land Use in and around the Black Hills
2002 Nancy Carlson (self-employed); Modeling Disappearing Treasures: A Cultural Remains Probability Model for Sarpy County, Nebraska
2001 Trisha Nelson (Nebraska State Historical Society); Is that a Farmer in the Dell? A GIS Analysis of the Central Plains Tradition Maize Landscape
2001 John Swigert (NPS Valles Cladera):The Nebraska Cultural Resource GIS: Making Life Easier for Nebraska Archaeologists
2000 Ann Bauermeister (NPS Midwest Archeological Center); Chipped Stone at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, North Dakota
