Digital Commons Network^™

Ending The Doom Cycle: Redefining Historic Preservation And Reclaiming Total Heritage Through Community And Social Justice Advocacy, Nikki Marie Manning

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the wake of a global pandemic and escalating societal challenges, yet another attempt to examine familiar debates about what we preserve and why and the typical arguments for and against historic preservation, seem inconsequential and disconnected from addressing more urgent societal needs such as systemic racism, inequality, police brutality, LGBTQ+ rights, economic and healthy disparities, and environmental justice. The field of historic preservation has the potential, and even obligation, to emphasize and create meaningful impact on larger issues. It should be highlighting and celebrating the diverse stories of people and places that define our community, and the history embodied …

The Analysis Of Ancient Dna: From Mitochondria To Pathogens, Tre Joseph Marcus Blohm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ancient DNA (aDNA) is arguably one of the most difficult science fields to work in due to the constant battle against contamination and degradation; however, it is also one of the most rewarding. aDNA researchers have consistently garnered interest the world over with their findings and sparking the curiosity of many who wish to know more about who we are as Homo sapiens. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and pathogen DNA were used in this dissertation to understand more about where populations came from, how they moved, and what their environment was like through the identification of their maternally inherited mtDNA and …

Meta-Analysis Of Scent Detection Canines And Potential Factors Influencing Their Success Rates, Molly Marie Jaskinia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Objective: This is a meta-analysis focused on the success rates of scent detection canines and potential factors that could influence their accuracy. A series of statistical analyses were conducted to determine if certain demographic factors, such as the dog’s gender, age, and breed, have an effect on a scent dog’s accuracy during a search. Or if more circumstantial factors, like the dog’s level of experience in scent work, the type of target scent, and their handler’s awareness of the target’s location, affect the outcome of the search.

Materials and Methods: A dataset was created from 37 different articles consisting of …

The Cultivation Of Therapeutic Landscapes: A Medical Anthropological Approach To Understanding The Health And Wellbeing Qualities Of The Garden Of 1,000 Buddhas, Andrew Thomas Ranck

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Medical anthropology researchers have just begun exploring therapeutic landscapes as the benefits of location are just now being understood in the field as potentially promoting a sense of healing and wellbeing. Some cultural heritage sites are translocated sites that are important to disseminate traditional cultural knowledge. While some of these cultural heritage landscapes become formal cultural resources, others also add a level of therapeutic quality to their existence. The Garden of 1,000 Buddhas was such a location. Discerning how these sites develop and are mitigated through affective responses, messaging symbols and personal beliefs was an important part of the process. …

An Examination Of The Food System, Foodscape, Dietary Patterns, And Accolated Health Outcomes Of Salish People Within The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Nation, Joshua William Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Often an individualistic, consumerist strategy is promoted as the solution to decrease the growing prevalence of diet-related diseases. Unfortunately, this logic is ahistorical and apolitical while privileging pathological individualism, capitalistic consumerism, and prevalent diets within the United States. This reasoning fails to recognize diet construction across time by ideologies, policies, and practices. Such an outlook misses the reality that many people cannot escape the grip of the modern, pervasive, ultra-processed food system.

Several Native American populations find themselves plagued with high rates of diet-related diseases. Standard mantra shoulders these communities with their plight, often framing the discourse as personal responsibility …

Thipsinna Dakhod Wichohan Wakhan – ‘Turnip Dakhota Way Of Life Is Sacred’: A Dakhota Model For K-12 Pedagogy And Curriculum, Ramey Leigh Escarcega-Growing Thunder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The term “cultural place-based” is used to ground this research—a specific spiritual place linked to cultural and language-based education within the homelands of the Dakȟóta, Nakoda, and Lakota peoples who inhabit territories in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada: The Native people regard these as their homelands. In the Dakȟóta language, itȟáŋčhaŋ translates to “a leader, boss, person in charge, position of authority, office, management, and political power,” (Lakota Language Consortium, Llc., 2013). The author utilizes the word itȟáŋčhaŋ as the cultural–educational leadership view in creating a cultural place-based model. This research identifies the impact indicators of implementing a …

Traditional Ecological Philosophy, Michael J. Desrosier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A collection of creative essays that span a range of topics centered on Indigenous environmental wisdom.

Seeking A Common Theme: A Study Of Ceramic Effigy Artifacts In The Pre-Hispanic American Southwest And Northern Mexico Using Computer Image Pattern Recognition And Phylogenetic Analysis, Lee Roger Tallier Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Effigy artifacts are found throughout the Pre-Hispanic American Southwest and Northern Mexico (PHASNM), as well as in other cultures around the world, with many sharing the same forms and design features. The earliest figurines within the PHASNM were partial anthropomorphic figurines made from fired clay, dating to between A.D. 287 and A.D. 312 (Morss 1954:27). They were found in a pit house village of Bluff Ruin in the Forestdale Valley of eastern Arizona, and they appeared to be associated with the Mogollon culture. The temporal range of the samples examined in this study is from approximately 200 A.D. to 1650 …

Black Deathways: An African Methodist History, 1829-1916, Christina M. Varney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study will focus on the transformations of death practices and the shifting roles of death workers from 1829-1916. The Postbellum portion of this study will focus on African Methodist communities in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee as practices and people moved West to the states of Montana, Colorado, and California. These practices experienced changes as a result of rising literacy rates, the establishment of Black churches, and from the movement of Black people within the South. More changes occurred with the creation of mutual aid societies and Black-owned funeral homes. Black funeral directors …

Umfc #12: A Comprehensive Forensic Analysis Case Report, Kaylee M. Hinds

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The University of Montana Forensic Case 12 (UMFC) is a human skeleton with an MNI of one that was recovered in August 1983 from an old schoolyard in Helena, Montana, by construction workers who were building a highway. The individual was given to the University of Montana Anthropology Department following the authority’s investigation. At the time, the University of Montana aided in the analysis of the skeletal remains and both departments had deemed the case as forensically insignificant and historic. The initial recoverers believed that the individual was a descendant of the Last Chance Gulch era and reflected Chinese ancestry, …

Variation In Body Composition In Deer Mice: The Biogeography And Ecophysiology Of Energy Allocation, Cole Joseph Wolf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Body composition, the percent of lean and fat mass, is a snapshot of an individual’s energetic state at a moment in time. Wild organisms should allocate energy to optimize fitness, so tracking changes in body composition provides a window into how priorities may shift throughout the year or across environments. While seasonal variation in body composition is wellcharacterized in systems such migrating birds (Scott et al. 1994) and hibernating mammals (Hellgren 1998), much less is known about how this trait varies across species ranges and thus how organisms modify their body composition and to meet local environmental challenges. For my …

Chinese Material Culture Signatures In Native North America: A Preliminary Study Of National Museum Of The American Indian Online Collections And Plains, Erin Drin Rosenkrance, Erin D. Rosenkrance

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Rosenkrance, Erin, M.A. Autumn 2023, Department Anthropology

Chinese Material Culture Signatures in Native North America:

A Preliminary Study of National Museum of the American Indian Online Collections and Plains cultural heritage

Chairperson: Dr. Kelly Dixon, Anthropology. University of Montana

This research explores and identifies Chinese Material Culture (CMC) incorporated into Plains Tribal Culture Artifacts Collections (PTACs) within the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) online collection. The study seeks to establish the historical context and rationale for this investigation and aims to provide a visual analysis of the identified CMCs, laying the groundwork for future research. Through an exploratory …

Comedy, Camaraderie, And Conflict: Using Humor To Defuse Disputes Among Friends, Sheena A. Bringa

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study sought to examine the role humor plays in defusing conflict between friends from an evolutionary perspective. Although a vast amount of research exists on humor, friendship, and conflict, no single study connects all three of these concepts together. This study attempted to fill this gap by examining how different humor styles used between friends in times of conflict relate to friendship satisfaction and life satisfaction. Specifically, the hypotheses predicted that friends who use affiliative humor to deescalate conflict are more inclined to report higher relational satisfaction and improved individual well-being than friends who use maladaptive humor to deescalate …

Negotiating The Sacred: Understanding Impacts To Iks And Itek From Use Of Remote Sensing And Gis Technologies Within Tribal Landscapes, Renelda R. Freeman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

How we see the world and ourselves in relation to it is largely achieved by the lens we are looking through and associated experiences within this relationship. This is additionally true when considering the acknowledged fact that Indigenous Knowledges are derived from natural and cultural sources and these assist in constituting the cultural identities of those Peoples associated with these sources. Presently there is a hunger for access and use of Indigenous Knowledges (IK) as never before seen in public ways, through a national Call for collaborative means to apply these knowledges to such as the issues we globally face …

Understanding Identity, Power, And Use Of Space Over Time Within Housepit 54, Bridge River Site (K’Etxelkná’Z), British Columbia, Ashley Elizabeth Hampton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research examines cultural change and continuity as embodied within a singular multi-generational housepit (Housepit 54) located within the Bridge River site (K’etxelkná’z) in the Mid-Fraser Canyon, British Columbia, Canada. Previous research has highlighted the distinctive differences between Bridge River 2 and 3 time periods wherein the village was faced with dramatic population growth and climate change. These pressures crafted a Malthusian ceiling-type event which corresponded with the emergence of persistent institutionalized inequality. This research aims to illuminate issues of gender, kinship, social identity, and household social relationships in order to highlight how macro-scale cultural change is evinced in micro-scale …

Flicker Feather Films: Visual Anthropology, Indigenous Film, And Documentary Filmmaking, Martin I. Lopez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In order to contribute 21st-century tools to educational settings, this dissertation draws from the growing subfield, multimodal anthropology, which includes, but is not limited to visual anthropology and film. This dissertation is composed of a series of documentary films created by an Indigenous filmmaker. When combined with Indigenous filmmaking, tribal cultures can begin to share their points of view through self-representation. Indigenous methodologies helped to frame the documentary films I made for my dissertation by aiming to combat the perpetuation of stereotypes and misrepresentation by non-Native filmmakers. Documentary films within anthropology still have validity in academia if the goal is …

Site 48ye2550: Late Paleoindian Occupation At Grebe Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Travis Kern

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Wayfinding, Kalani N. Padilla

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Genetic Sex Estimation From Aztatlán Sites In West Mexico, Ava Carolyn Godhardt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

All Under One Roof: An Ethnographic Commons In The Missoula Public Library, Caitlin Ervin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2021 the Missoula Public Library opened in a new state-of-the-art building to include a science museum, a research facility, a family resource center, and a media resource center in addition to the library facilities, all providing free and low-cost programs to the public. This establishment, internally dubbed All Under One Roof (AUOR), offers a window into the culture of Missoula and provides the community myriad resources in one, co-located model that has never been seen in the United States. Using ethnographic methods, this study provides insight into AUOR and the significance of its culture house model as the future …

Activity Pattern Analysis From A Commingled And Fragmentary Necropolis: Entheseal Changes At Kourion Amathus Gate Cemetery (Kagc), Hannah Burgess Carson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Entheseal changes (EC) have been used to reconstruct past human activity patterns, but little research has been done in Cyprus or outside of complete, well-preserved remains. The Kourion Amathus Gate Cemetery (KAGC) is a necropolis located on the southern coast of Cyprus. The Late-Roman (1-7 c. CE) cist graves contained commingled and fragmentary remains. Due to the commingled and fragmentary nature of KAGC, the primary purpose of this study was to see if EC analyses could be conducted on this population. Following that, this study sought to observe possible patterns of preservation as well as trends in EC data between …

Venturing Into The Virtual: An Analysis Of Virtual Museums And Creation Of Umacf Southwestern Basketry Virtual Exhibit, Monica D. Lusnia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The prevalence of virtual museums has grown in recent years and this relatively new exhibition format has presented the museum field with opportunities for growth. In an effort to explore the virtual sphere as an effective avenue for museum growth and change, I conduct an analysis of what virtual museums are, the challenges they pose, and the benefits they can provide to museum education. Case studies of University of California Chico, University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, and University of Nevada Reno’s virtual exhibition of materials from each university’s anthropology collections serves to further the exploration of the efficacy …

Ancient Migrations In West Mexico: Mtdna Analyses, Patricio Gutiérrez Ruano

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite the mounting evidence that suggests The Aztatlán tradition in West Mexico was a major cosmopolitan region during the Postclassic period (AD 900-1521) with connections to the rest of what is now Mexico, archaeologists have characterized items in West Mexico as culturally distinct from the rest of Mesoamerica. Recently, endogenous, and exogenous material culture has been interpreted as movement and exchange of goods and ideas between subregions and surrounding areas, all of which mention physical contact and trade were involved between Aztatlán and elsewhere. This has included interacting with areas as far as the U.S. Southwest, as well as in …

Uncovering The Connection Between Mental Health Service Availability And Violent Crime: A Test Of Macrolevel Theory, Tatianna R. Pugmire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since the decline of mental health service funding and availability, the relationship between untreated (or improperly treated) serious mental illness and violent crime is increasingly critical to examine. Rooted in a social support and institutional anomie theory (IAT) perspective, the purpose of this quantitative study is to analyze the relationship between mental health service availability and violent crime rates across the United States for the year 2016. It was hypothesized that findings would suggest an inverse relationship between mental health service availability and rates of violent crime. Results revealed the opposite, however, indicating that the more psychiatric hospitals in an …

Umfc 140 A Comprehensive Case Report, Daniel D. Warila

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

UMFC 140 Is a teaching specimen from purchased from China assigned To Daniel Warila B.A. for the purpose of a Forensic case study. This case study covers a wide variety of forensic procedures that can be applied to these remains. The forensic procedures used consist of past as well as current procedures were applied to the remains with the resulting findings discussed and analyzed. This case study was focused on finding as many forensic answers as possible on the remains in their current condition.

Re-Curation And Recognition: Addressing The Curation Crisis Through The Garnet Ghost Town, Jocelyn A. Palombo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As universities, federal curation facilities, public museums, and private collections struggle to create space on their shelves curators and archaeologists continuously evaluate what must continue to be stored and what needs to be deaccessioned. Utilizing a collection housed at the University of Montana I explore strategies for combating this issue. The collection originates from the Garnet Ghost Town and has been in the university’s care since its excavation. The objectives of this project are to obtain new information and incorporate innovative techniques to learn more about the collection itself and provide an updated analysis to one of Montana’s most complete …

Looking To The Future Of Wildlife Conservation: Durable Wildlife Policy For The 21st Century, Charlie R. Booher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildlife conservation in the United States was built by the dollars of consumptive users. Monies from the sale of hunting licenses, as well as excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, and archery tackle through the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (PR), currently fuel a complex system of wildlife conservation via multiple levels of government. However, the number of hunters in this country is rapidly declining, the sale of firearms and ammunition is increasingly unrelated to hunting, and contemporary consumers tend to express different values than traditional hunters. These changes pose significant challenges of relevancy and funding to state and …

For The Love Of Language: Microrituel In The Socialization Of Language Teachers, Rebekah Morgan Skoog

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Language and social interaction have been determined to be intricately linked. Over the past century, studies surrounding how to learn languages have shifted the conversation on how to teach them. With the introduction of Hymes’ (1971) Communicative Competence into pedagogical literature, learning language within social context replaced the formally grammar based, traditional methods. During the early 1960’s the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Language led the charge on providing standards and learning objectives to shift language learning towards a more integrated and communicative approach. However, based on the research of Celce-Murcia (2007), Aguilar (2007), and Ishihara & Cohen …

The Effects Humidity & Temperature Has On Dna Contamination During Storage, Samantha Leigh Allison Ramey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies have been conducted on DNA cross-contamination throughout the criminal investigation process in order to evaluation the possibility that DNA from one sample could potentially influence the outcome of another. However, no published studies have examined the potential for contamination during the storage of genetic evidence after samples have been taken from crime scenes or suspects. This study is a continuation of a preliminary project, which examined storage drying time in relation to cross-contamination. The current study tested temperature and humidity for the potential of cross-contamination during storage prior to extraction. Prior to storage, 50 μl of male saliva was …

Linear Programming Analysis And Diet Breadth Modeling At Bridge River, British Columbia, Sean Patrick Boyd

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies in diet breadth modeling and patch choice have been and continue to be a hot topic of interest among practitioners of human behavioral ecology and the set of data available at Bridge River can certainly add to these debates and discussions that have been dominating anthropology in the past few decades. The faunal assemblage of Housepit 54’s 17 anthropogenic floors have provided researchers with a plethora of data that clearly indicates periods of resource depletion and partial to full site abandonment. Using Linear Programming and Diet Breadth Modelling I analyze the most represented species in the record and establish …