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Fort Owen: The History And Archaeology Of A Contact Period Site In Western Montana, Donald Merritt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fort Owen was part of recent historical western expansion into Montana, influencing both the cultural and environmental landscape of the state and the fort’s own existence. The Fort Owen collection provided the opportunity to research the history and archaeology of Fort Owen as a contact period site and as the first historic-period agricultural center in Montana. Fort Owen provided goods and services to a variety of individuals and was the nexus of settlement for the region for several years during the latter portion of the 19th century. Six goals of this thesis were to: 1) inventory the Fort Owen artifacts …

Geographilia In Children's Urban Spaces: Investigating How Children Explore Outdoor Places And Connect With Natural Objects., Jeanine Sandra Garella

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT Garella, Jeanine Sandra, M.A., Autumn 2010 Geography Geographilia in Children’s Urban Spaces: Investigating How Children Explore Outdoor Places and Connect With Natural Objects Chairperson: Jeffrey A. Gritzner The benefits children receive from outdoor play time are well documented by scholars across many disciplines. Interacting within an unstructured natural setting can foster physical, social, emotional, and spiritual growth. The lessons learned in such an environment not only help children reach developmental milestones; they also play an important role in the formation of beliefs and attitudes used in decision-making processes later in life. This is a significant point to make when …

Uncertainty Monitoring In Sprague-Dawley Rats (Rattus Norvegicus), Leslie Anne Angel

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Comparative psychologists have explored the metacognitive capabilities of rhesus monkeys, a capuchin monkey, an orangutan, a dolphin, pigeons, and rats. Previous research with rats has demonstrated inconsistent results (Foote & Crystal, 2007; Smith & Schull, 1989). In the current study, two Sprague-Dawley rats were tested in a tone-length discrimination task in which they were prompted to press one of two levers indicating "short" or "long" depending on the duration of a tone. They also had the option to opt out of some trials. If the subjects knew when they did not know the answer to the task, they were expected …

Post-Course Environmental Behavior Change Of Wild Rockies Field Institute Participants, Theodore Rosenberger Morrison

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In light of the environmental crisis facing the world, the need for citizens to behave in an environmentally responsible manner is critical to finding lasting solutions. After conducting and analyzing 20 in-depth interviews with alumni of the Wild Rockies Field Institute (WRFI), this study found that despite elevated pre-course levels of environmentally responsible behavior most participants reported an increased level of post course environmental behavior change. Post-course impacts ranged from a change of, or further investment in academic and career goals, lifestyle choices, empowerment, ethical development and political activity. Participants reported these outcomes were influenced by a variety of course …

The Biogeography Of Ageratina Adenophora: A Mexican Trans-Global Invader, Heather Marie Evans

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Evans, Heather, Master of Science, May 2010 The Biogeography of Ageratina adenophora: A Mexican Trans-Global Invader Co-Chairman: Dr. Jeffrey Gritzner Co-Chairman: Dr. Ragan Callaway Invasive plants are a global problem often resulting in negative impacts upon populations of native plants and the environments in which they grow. Invasive plants inhibit native species and take over areas where they have been introduced. These invasive species create ecological problems for wildlife foraging, as they often transform the vegetation of native habitats resulting in conditions unsuitable for grazing. In addition, invasive plant species pose problems for humans in the areas of health, economics, …

"The Lawmen Faced The Outlaws, No Badge Upon A Breast:" Historical Memory And The Legacy Of Henry Plummer And The Montana Vigilantes, Melissa Poindexter Thomasma

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the winter of 1863-1864, the Montana vigilantes hanged over twenty men in and around Bannack and Virginia City, including the region's elected sheriff, Henry Plummer. The mob claimed that these men were members of a highly-organized Road Agent Gang. While no evidence of this organization of highwaymen exists, the episode endures in the popular history of Montana; this thesis explores four elements of the legacy of this episode. First, it presents a biography of Henry Plummer and brief summary of the organization and actions of the Vigilance Committee. Second, it establishes an historiography of the episode; it couches the …

Analysis Of The University Of Montana Forensic Case 29, Daniel James Haak

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The application of non-metric forensic anthropological techniques produces results that are sometimes not always scientifically valid. Using the commonly accepted techniques to produce a biological profile (age, sex, ancestry, height, pathology and trauma), an application of the methods is utilized and critiqued in the analysis of The University of Montana forensic case 29 (UMFC 29). Using the accepted techniques in forensic anthropology, UMFC 29 was identified as a Black Male with an age range of 35-65 years and a height of 5’3’’-5’6’’. Possible skeletal trauma is found on the vertebral bodies, left 4th rib, and on the left scapula and …

Home Swede Home: The Archaeology Of Swedish Cultural Identity At A Western Homestead, Amanda Clare Haught

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the summer of 2003, the University of Idaho conducted an archaeological field school at the Nora Creek site under the direction of Dr. Mark Warner at a Swedish homestead just east of Troy, Idaho. The field school unearthed a plethora of historical artifacts including metal, glass, ceramic, and faunal items left behind by the inhabitants of the Johanson homestead in Nora, Idaho. Historical documentation indicates that the Johansons immigrated to America from Sweden in 1882 and they arrived in Nora in 1891. The research goal of this thesis is to determine whether and how a signature of Swedish identity …

Masculine Domesticity In The Mining West: An Archaeological Investigation At Coloma Ghost Town, Margaret Anne Thurlo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The recovery of a scorifier, or roasting dish, at Feature 131 in Coloma, Montana led to the theory that the feature represented an assayer’s household. Historical documentation, in the form of a personal diary, revealed that the assayer at Coloma, Chester Pray, shared a cabin with another man. This revelation led to a particular question: what would the material record of an all-male household look like? The majority of previous engendered investigations into 19th century households focused on the role of women. Gender is often equated with women in historical and archaeological studies, and it became necessary to integrate literature …

Airport Rings: Stone Circle Archaeology In Yellowstone National Park, Michael Livers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This report contains the results of the archaeological investigations performed at the Airport Rings Site in the Montana portion of Yellowstone National Park. During the 2007-2008 Montana Yellowstone Archaeology Project (MYAP) Field school, University of Montana Students excavated three stone circles or tipi rings. The crew uncovered three hearths and collected several hundred lithic artifacts, including stone tools, and faunal remains. The Airport Rings Site was the first stone circle site to be excavated inside Yellowstone National Park.

The Postmortem Interval: A Systematic Study Of Pig Decomposition In West Central Montana, Hillary Renee' Parsons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The postmortem interval (PMI) is an important piece of information used by forensic and criminal investigators to help investigate crimes and other unattended deaths. Time since death estimations assist law enforcement in providing a reference with which to compare a suspects alibi, identify victims of crime, and solve cases. Studies of decomposition have been conducted at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility in Knoxville, TN; however, decomposition at high altitude climates characterized by colder temperatures and arid conditions is poorly understood. Further, the lack of postmortem interval studies in west central Montana has hindered the investigation and identification of …

A Social Marketing Intervention To Improve Asbestos Inspection Compliance For Missoula Public Buildings And The Role Of Upstream Approaches, Holly N. Truitt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality Asbestos Control Program reported in a 2002 study that it had determined that 99 percent of public building demolitions and renovations in Missoula were noncompliant with asbestos inspection regulations required by both Montana and federal law. The Program characterized noncompliance as an occupational and public health threat with multiple causations including willful noncompliance and ignorance of the law. Missoula is not alone in its noncompliance; Great Falls, MT, Boston, MA, Austin, TX and Livingston MT, and other cities have struggled to address noncompliance with asbestos inspections. My action based research project explores the role …

Age Estimation Of Fetal Skeletal Remains From The Forensic Context, Jennifer Ellen Sanders

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study tested the efficacy of the traditional method (Fazekas and Kosa, 1978) of aging fetal remains from the forensic context against ultrasound (Chevernak et al., 1998)and radiographic (Sherwood et al., 2000) methods to determine which was most accurate. Two data sets were used in this study. The first consisted of measurements from historic (1902-1917) fetal remains of known age. The second consisted of measurements from modern fetal remains of known age from the forensic context. Using these samples in the different prediction models for aging fetal remains, the accuracy of each was determined.

On The Road: Struggling, Searching And Opportunities Young Asians In Missoula Seek Their Cultural Identities, Suhan Chen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Where are you from? When do you use ¡°we?¡± The answers to these two questions are easy for people from a single cultural background, but may not be so simple for those young Asians who have grown up and lived in the U.S. but aren¡¯t sure where they belong. This project includes two stories of two young women from Missoula. They have been searching for their cultural identities and have found that the searching will never end. They will probably always be on the road back and forth between the U.S. and their ancestry countries.

A Spatial Analysis Of 24hl1085: A Prehistoric Site In The Bear's Paw Mountains, Jessica Jo Bush

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is a spatial analysis of 24HL1085 and attempts to discern the use areas of two prehistoric components, Late Archaic and Late Prehistoric, through the identification of spatial patterns created by the excavated lithics, faunal remains, and fire cracked rock (FCR). I also wanted to show that understanding the spatial layout of FCR is just as important as understanding the spatial layout of lithics and faunal remains. In order to complete this analysis the three ring model developed by Stevenson (1985) was adapted and combined with the trend surface analysis created by Hodder and Orton (1976). Theory behind this …

Assessing Ethnobotanical Knowledge And Resources To Develop A Sustainable Management Plan For The Lokaro Reserve In Southeast, Madagascar, Ashley Davis Lehman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research assessed ethnobotanical knowledge in two villages and locally important plant resources in an adjacent private, littoral forest, the Lokaro Reserve in southeastern Madagascar. Two hundred and five plant species were identified through “walk-in-the-woods” interviews with three local experts (an ombiasa, a traditional healer) and two material healers who identified four distinct vegetation communities within the Reserve (lowland forest, higher forest, grassland, and rocky coast). I collected herbarium specimens and identified all plant species found in the four vegetation types through use of random sample plots. I gathered information about local plant uses through a village map-making exercise in …

An Examination Of Error In The Application Of Pubic Aging Techniques, Ellery Kate Lungmus

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined six methods of skeletal age-at-death estimation from the pubic symphysis in order to determine the significance of sex as a contributing source of error to the inaccuracy of each method. These six methods included Todd (1920), McKern-Stewart (1957), Gilbert-McKern (1973), Hanihara-Suzuki (1978), Suchey-Brooks female-specific (Brooks and Suchey 1990), Suchey-Brooks male-specific (Brooks and Suchey 1990), and the Berg female-specific Suchey-Brooks 7th phase addition (2008). Three hundred and ninety-six individuals were randomly selected from the William M. Bass (WMB) Donated Skeletal Collection housed at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and were evaluated without knowledge of actual age for age-at-death …

Worlds Apart: Social Mechanisms Of Contrasting Fertility In European American And Native American Populations On The Northern Plains, Janet Mary Bush

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between fertility and household economy on Montana's Northern Plains. Low fertility and outmigration in European American communities have led to dramatic depopulation of the region. At the same time, isolated Indian reservations in the area have grown in population due to high fertility and return migration.

A mixed methods research approach was used to explore the relationship between fertility and social acceptance of communal household economic strategies. Census data and birth records described differences in fertility and household economy between European American and Native American populations in six Plains Indian …

Youth Harvest: Exploring An Employment-Based, Service-Oriented, Therapeutic Program For “At-Risk Youth”, Rachel Christine O'Brien

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the mid-1990s, juvenile courts began establishing youth drug courts that blended the principles of restorative justice and the philosophy of therapeutic jurisprudence in an attempt to process juvenile drug offenders in a way that emphasizes rehabilitation of the offenders and restoration to the community. Over recent decades, wilderness therapy programs and horticultural therapy programs have become popular as alternative approaches for treating adjudicated and/or “at-risk” youth. The Youth Harvest program, which operates in conjunction with the Missoula Youth Drug Court, is a unique, therapeutic program that blends the goals of National Drug Courts and the principles of restorative justice …

Rural Subdivision Planning In Missoula County, Montana: A Planner's Perspective, John Michael Newman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Missoula County, Montana, located in the western portion of the state along its border with Idaho, consists of the City of Missoula and a number of unincorporated population centers extending outward from the urban area. The former benefits from typical urban services and faces land use planning issues typical of city locales, including public transportation, brownfields and infill development, and enhancement of the urban core. The latter areas, by virtue of their rural nature, are the subject of an entirely different series of land use planning conversations. The unincorporated areas of the county, in towns such as Seeley Lake, Florence, …

Heritage Learners Of Mexican Descent In Higher Education: A Qualitative Study Of Past And Present Experiences, Alicia Gignoux

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a qualitative interpretive study that explores the past and present experiences of heritage learners (HLs) of Mexican descent who were studying or had recently studied advanced Spanish in institutions of higher education. All of the participants had been exposed to Spanish in the home and began their studies in elementary or middle school in the United States. The population of HLs continues to grow and a need to understand this population exists. The statistics have shown that not all HLs of Mexican descent complete their studies in institutions of higher education and the reasons for this are not …

Perception & Role Of 3-D Visualizations In Planning: A Case Study Of The Northwest Passage Scenic Byway's Viewshed Protection & Visualization Project, Kyle Balke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The use of sophisticated visualization tools and methods, in particular 3-D modeling, has seen a considerable rise in planning throughout the last decade due to continued advancements in 3-D technology, computer hardware, and the internet. The rapid increase in the use of 3-D visualization is supported by the belief that visualizations which imitate human experience help relieve many of the communication problems that exist between experts and lay persons during the planning process and help engage a broader cross-section of the public. However, little understanding exists to support these claims. This research provides a comprehensive investigation of stakeholder perceptions concerning …

Reinvention In The Line Of Death: A Reconsideration Of Geoffrey Hill's Commemorative Verse, Michael Christopher Bartch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper considers the embodied ethics of Geoffrey Hill’s poetic practice. Hill stages his engagement with poetry through the idioms, images, tropes, and diction of the literary tradition. Through this pragmatic rehearsal of the language of the dead, Hill’s poetry projects the tradition into the present. Hill resists the ethical entrapments of appropriative poetry through his insistence upon the brute physicality of atrocity and through a rigorous (for both poet and reader) formal difficulty. Hill’s practice refuses to console after the models of Peter Sacks, Jahan Ramazani, or John Vickery. Instead, concerned with modernity’s disconnectedness, Hill’s poetry returns us to …

The House That Smokey Built: The Forest Service Management Of Historic Structures In Wilderness, Molly Michelle Ryan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ryan, Molly M., M.S., 2009 Recreation Management The House That Smokey Built: The Forest Service Management of Historic Structures in Wilderness Committee Chair: Dr. Perry J. Brown Debates about the appropriateness of historic structures being present and preserved in wilderness are not new issues. In some form or another, this topic has surfaced, been debated, then simmered, but never properly addressed or resolved. The purposes of this paper are to identify management gaps within the Forest Service administration regarding the management of historic structures within wilderness areas and to recommend how these gaps can be filled. Data were collected from …

Social Values For Attributes At Risk From Wildfire In Northwest Montana, Derek Timothy O'Donnell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Annual fire management and suppression expenditures by the USDA Forest Service have dramatically increased in recent years, and exceeded $1 billion in the fire seasons of 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. These escalating management costs can largely be attributed to the Forest Services’ efforts to protect private property in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) at the expense of other market and non-market attributes. Due to increasing development within the WUI, climate change, and excessive fuel loading from decades of successful fire suppression, it is likely that fire suppression costs will continue to rise if current wildfire management priorities …

Sentimental Journey?: The Immigrant Experience Of World War Ii-Era War Brides In Montana, Anna Claire Amundson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

During and after World War II, over one hundred thousand American servicemen married women they met in the course of their deployment overseas. In early 1946, these women, commonly known as “war brides,” began to immigrate to the United States to join their husbands. Over one hundred of the women settled in Montana, in both urban and rural areas of the state. This thesis examines the women’s lives in Europe, Australia, and Asia before their immigration, and the unprecedented nature of their immigration to the United States, which the United States Army both arranged and paid for. Additionally, the thesis …

A Taxonomy Of Rules: Authority, Dangers, And Possibilities, Muriel Rebecca Friedman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rules, originally a means toward group solidarity, are the alternative to the need for ongoing physical dominance. Seemingly omnipresent in modern life, rules can be overt or subtle, explicit or tacit, rigidly enforced or overlooked. They may clash with our autonomy. This thesis names and explores different functional types of rules: safety, personal, socio-cultural, legal-religious, and technical. Rules in general are discussed from social and ethical theoretical viewpoints and using ideal type methodology. Understanding that there are different types of rules and the authority behind them makes it easier to determine one’s obligations to follow them, especially with the notion …

Beyond Wilderness: Wildness As A Guiding Ideal, Christopher James Dunn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is largely a response to William Cronon’s essay “The Trouble with Wilderness or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” found in The Great New Wilderness Debate. Cronon is himself responding to many things, in large part to Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature and also to the wilderness vision typified by Dave Foreman; thus this thesis is also a response to McKibben and in many respects a defense of Foreman-like thought. Besides Cronon, I consider a wide variety of sources, taking from them in order to build a case for, and to explicate, wildness as a guiding ideal. …

American Indian Artist Angel Decora: Aesthetics, Power, And Transcultural Pedagogy In The Progressive Era, Suzanne Alene Shope

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study looks at Angel DeCora, Winnebago artist and teacher (1871-1918) with regard to her visionary influence as an Indian school art teacher. By exploring interactions among DeCora, policy makers, and American Indians, this chronological study addresses: how DeCora's Indian arts curriculum and aesthetics influenced her American Indian students at Carlisle; how DeCora used elements of her Winnebago culture, the Pan-Indian culture, and the Euro-American viewpoints to serve her purposes as an arts educator and activist; and what her aesthetic motivations were as embodied by her art, curriculum design, and students' work. Educated on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska until …

Multivariate Statistical Analysis Of Three Crania Housed At The University Of Montana Physical Anthropology Lab, Bonny Marie Christy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this research was to attempt to identify the population affinity of three crania (UMFC 103, 104, and 120), housed at the University of Montana Physical Anthropology Lab, using multivariate statistical analyses. A database collected by Dr. Hanihara and another collected by researchers at the University of Michigan were used for comparative purposes. Multiple populations from both databases were chosen so as to be representative of various Asian, African, Indian, and Native American populations. Two variations of each of the databases were used in the following statistical analyses: principal components analysis and discriminant function analysis. It was shown …