I am a cultural anthropologist with a B.A. in biology and anthropology from the University of Oklahoma (1963), and a Ph.D. in social/cultural anthropology from the University of Oregon (1974). I have taught both physical and cultural an
thropology at the university level. In addition, I have over thirty years experience in the areas of social impact assessment, cultural resources management, applied anthropology, and the effective policy utilization of social knowledge, working primarily with, and for, U.S. Indian nations of the Northern Plains.
The move from academic to more “applied” anthropology began when I lived and worked for four years (1976–1980) on an Indian Reservation in Montana. I was with a ground-breaking tribally-based research institute and “think-tank”—something that, as far as I know, hasn’t been duplicated then or since. Established in response to legal and social problems arising from an explosive energy development “boom” in the area, it brought geologists, hydrologists, journalists, anthropologists, economists, and other young professionals away from their urban universities and into a remote, highly-rural region to work for an Indian nation on its reserve. I think that our work did some good, but probably not as much as most of us hoped—which was something of a lesson in itself. What it did do also, though, is to give us perspectives on the world, and on the country, that a relatively privileged view from the dynamic urban centers we all left for that period in our lives simply could not provide.
My work then, and subsequent work for other U.S. Indian nations in the Northern Plains and Midwest regions, included designing and implementing baseline social, economic, and cultural research, preparing reports for policy and legal initiatives, and serving as expert witness. Among other things I spearheaded the participation of Indian nations working alongside state and federal agencies to prepare impact analyses and other documents mandated under a variety of federal and state laws and regulations. It’s a complicated question, but in general I thought that Indian nations themselves should have their own “experts,” and that tribal members should be recognized as experts—indeed, as the preeminent experts regarding their own cultures—in policy-related research about them that will materially affect them.
In 2009 I moved to Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. Though now “retired” (in the sense of no longer seeking contracts or employment), I have continued to write, and have several papers as well as the book ms. for Human Nature and Human Beings in Nature in process.
Throughout my career I have maintained a primary interest in the theory and philosophy of anthropology, and of science more broadly. My Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Oregon (1974), titled Sense System, and Theory: A Reevaluation of Anthropology as Science, focused on these latter topics, as have many of my published articles in professional journals. The conceptual framework of this book that I’m writing now developed in the interaction, throughout my career, between my interest in social theory and the philosophy of science on the one hand, and my experience “in the trenches,” working as an applied anthropologist on gritty, real-world problems on the other. My interest in applied social science, in the evolution of scientific understanding generally, and my personal interest in our own cultural, environmental and social well-being, come together in this blog, in the book project it features, and in other projects.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Publications
2004 The Culture Concept as Theory, in Context. Current Anthropology 45(2):187-209.
2002 Anthropological Knowledge and Native American Cultural Practice in the Liberal Polity. American Anthropologist 104(2), June 2002.
1995 Anthropological Practice as a Legally Mandated Activity: Bringing Native American Knowledge into Public Decision Making. PoLAR (Political and Legal Anthropology Review) 18(2): 17-34.
1994 Planning and the Law of Social Impact Assessment. Human Organization 53: 167-174
1993 Procedural vs. Substantive in NEPA Law: Cutting the Gordian Knot. The Environmental Professional 15: 25-34. Reprinted in The National Environmental Policy Act: Readings from the Environmental Professional. John Lemons, ed. Pp. 13-23 (1995). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Science.
1992 Implicit Models of Social Knowledge Utilization. Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization 14(1):29-62.
1991a EIA within Democratic Politics: Contradiction in Terms or Emerging Paradigm? Impact Assessment Bulletin 9(3):1-11.
1991b NEPA in the Domain of Federal Indian Policy: Social Knowledge and the Negotiation of Meaning. Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 19(1):31-72.
1990 The Use of Anthropological Knowledge under NEPA. Human Organization 49(3):217-226.
1988 SIA in Legal Theory and Practice: The Northern Cheyenne Tribe v. Hodel. Social Impact Assessment 12(1-2):3-11.
1984 The Challenge of Reservation Resource Development: A Northern Cheyenne Instance. In Native Americans and Energy Development II, Joseph G. Jorgensen, ed. Cambridge: Anthropology Resource Center and the Seventh Generation Fund.
1982a Adversarial Politics and Indian Tribal Involvement in NEPA: A Case Study. In Indian SIA: The Social Impact Assessment of Rapid Resource Development on Native Peoples, pp. 57-79. Charles C. Geisler, Rayna Green, Daniel Usner, and Patrick West, eds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Natural Resources Sociology Research Lab Monograph # 3.
1978a. The Northern Cheyenne Coal Sales, 1966‑1973. In Energy Resource Development, pp. 175-183. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
1978b. Relationships Between Indian Tribes, Science and Government in Preparing Environmental Impact Statements. Social Impact Assessment 36:3‑14.
1977(a). Comment: Bridging Levels of Systemic Organization, by R.A. Rubinstein and C.D. Laughlin, Jr. Current Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 463‑4.
Reports and Presentations
2010 With Halcyon La Point, Gail Small, Alonzo T. Spang, Sr. Northern Cheyenne Ethnogeography of the Tongue River / Powder River Plateau. A Cooperative Project of Native Action Institute, Chief Dull Knife College, the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Historical Preservation Office, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Custer National Forest’s Ashland Ranger District. Lame Deer, MT: Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Billings, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Custer National Forest. (May 2010).
2003 Medicine Mountain & the Bighorn Medicine Wheel Between Two Worlds: A Native American Cultural Landscape in Twenty First Century North America. Final Technical Report for the National Register Nomination for the Medicine Mountain Traditional Cultural Property National Landmark.
1996 With Gregory R. Campbell. Medicine Mountain Cultural Resources Report and Draft National Register Nomination for the Medicine Mountain Traditional Cultural Property National Landmark. Prepared under contracts from the Wyoming State Historical Preservation Office, the U.S. National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service, administered by the Association on American Indian Affairs. Sealed copies on file, Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) and Bighorn National Forest, Medicine Wheel Division, Lovell, Wyoming.
1991 NEPA in the Domain of Federal Indian Policy: Social Knowledge and the Negotiation of Meaning. Presented at the Symposium on the Scientific Challenges of NEPA, The 9th Oak Ridge National Laboratory Life Sciences Symposium. Knoxville, Tennessee, October 24-27, 1989. Later version published in the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 19(1):31-72.
1989a Anthropology and Implementation: Implementing the Social Review Mandates of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 5-9.
1989b Assessing the Impacts of Social Science on the NEPA Process: A Framework for Analysis. Presented at the Western Social Science Association, 31st Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 26-29.
1988b The Federal Trust Responsibility to Tribes and the National Environmental Policy Act. Presented at the Panel on Indians and the System, 30th Annual Conference of the Western Social Science Association. Denver, April 27-30, 1988.
1988c The Social Sciences in Environmental Law: Considerations Relating to Indian Tribes. Presented at the Second Symposium on Social Science in Resource Management. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 6-9, 1988.
1986 Testimony: Reservation Socio-Cultural Impacts and Possible Mitigation. Crandon, Wisconsin: Prepared for Forest Co. Potawatomi Tribe (December).
1982 Implementing Social Impact Assessment: Some Problems. Invited paper, First International Conference on Social Impact Assessment: Advancing the State of the Art. October 24‑27, 1982.
1980 Perspectives in Northern Cheyenne History. With Grace Bearquiver and Harry Littlebird, Sr. Prepared for the Northern Cheyenne Research Project under contract from Montco, as a technical report for the proposed Montco mine permit application and State EIS. 206 pages.
1977a With Jean Nordstrom, Nancy J. Owens and JoAnn Sooktis. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Energy Development in Southeastern Montana, Vol. 1: Social, Cultural, and Economic investigations. Jean Maxwell Nordstrom, Project Director. Lame Deer, Montana: Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Northern Cheyenne Research Project. Billings, Montana: Old West Regional Commission.
1977b With Bruce Nordstrom. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Energy Resource Development. A report prepared for the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California, Charles Kolstad, Project Director. Reference # NP7-4776-C. Lame Deer, MT: Northern Cheyenne Research Project.
1976 With Others. The Northern Cheyenne Air Quality Redesignation Report and Request. Lame Deer: Northern Cheyenne Tribe. 208 pp. (This is the report on which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency based its approval of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s Redesignation to Class I Air Quality status.)
1974 Sense, System, and Theory: A Re-Evaluation of Anthropology as Science. Eugene, Oregon. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon.