Pachamama Alliance of Oregon

I'm an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas.  Since late 2007, I've been contracted by Cherokee Nation to head an applied ethnobotanical restoration program with Western Cherokee school districts across rural Northeast Oklahoma.  The program, called "Listening to our Elders," is designed to reconnect knowledgable Cherokee-speaking elders with area youth with interests in traditional Cheorkee plant uses.  My interests within ethnobiology include the maintenance of indigenous knowledge, health, landscapes, language, and lifeways.  I work primarily in North America (Western Cherokees and Ozarks) to promote biocultural diversity and heritage education using a combination of research methods from cognitive anthropology and folklife studies.