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First native faculty member joins archaeology
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March 7, 2002
As the first native faculty member to join SFU’s archaeology department, Eldon Yellowhorn provides a unique perspective to the native studies program in which he teaches.
Yellowhorn, recently hired as an assistant professor, is no stranger to SFU. In 1993, he became the first native in Canada to earn a master of arts degree in archaeology, a feat accomplished at SFU.
Yellowhorn’s graduate research focused on how global public policy on Indian lands has affected heritage protection. More recently, he has been following a new direction with his doctoral studies at McGill University and hopes — within the next few months — to defend his thesis on how native folklore fits into archaeology.
"I’m interested in the use of oral tradition or folklore, as well as archaeological records, because both tap into history through unwritten sources," says Yellowhorn who was born and raised on the Piikanii (Peigan) Reserve in southern Alberta.
After graduating with a B.A. in archaeology from the University of Calgary in 1986, he worked as a curator-intern at the Glenbow Museum. A few years later he earned a Smithsonian community scholar fellowship and worked on an archaeological dig in Colorado. Shortly after graduating from SFU, Yellowhorn directed the first all-Native archaeological crew at a dig at McLeod Lake, north of Prince George. "It was a turning point in our understanding of the past," says Yellowhorn,. "We can now use archaeological techniques to investigate our own history."
Since then he has also served as a heritage consultant for several bands, including those at McLeod Lake and Seabird Island in the Fraser Valley.
While he enjoys work in the field, Yellowhorn is captivated by museums. "I like the diversion that a trip to a new exhibition entails," he wrote for Muse magazine, in a review of an exhibit called Out of the Mist: Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs. "It is a chance to daydream and wonder about the life history of the artifacts."
Yellowhorn’s interest in artifact preservation and folklore has led to a pair of research projects he’ll begin this summer on his reserve in Alberta. The first is an archaeological dig around the abandoned residential schools on the reserve.
A second project involves finding clues in Blackfoot folklore that will lead to the origins of his peoples’ involvement in growing tobacco. "In mythology, the Blackfoot first obtained tobacco from the Beaver people," he explains. "There are clues within the story about where it might have come from." In addition, Yellowhorn will plant and harvest tobacco based on methods used in the mythology, and study the use of tobacco by his people over time
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CONTACT:
Eldon Yellowhorn, 604.291.6669
Marianne Meadahl/Julie Ovenell-Carter, Media & PR, 604.291.4323
Yellowhorn, recently hired as an assistant professor, is no stranger to SFU. In 1993, he became the first native in Canada to earn a master of arts degree in archaeology, a feat accomplished at SFU.
Yellowhorn’s graduate research focused on how global public policy on Indian lands has affected heritage protection. More recently, he has been following a new direction with his doctoral studies at McGill University and hopes — within the next few months — to defend his thesis on how native folklore fits into archaeology.
"I’m interested in the use of oral tradition or folklore, as well as archaeological records, because both tap into history through unwritten sources," says Yellowhorn who was born and raised on the Piikanii (Peigan) Reserve in southern Alberta.
After graduating with a B.A. in archaeology from the University of Calgary in 1986, he worked as a curator-intern at the Glenbow Museum. A few years later he earned a Smithsonian community scholar fellowship and worked on an archaeological dig in Colorado. Shortly after graduating from SFU, Yellowhorn directed the first all-Native archaeological crew at a dig at McLeod Lake, north of Prince George. "It was a turning point in our understanding of the past," says Yellowhorn,. "We can now use archaeological techniques to investigate our own history."
Since then he has also served as a heritage consultant for several bands, including those at McLeod Lake and Seabird Island in the Fraser Valley.
While he enjoys work in the field, Yellowhorn is captivated by museums. "I like the diversion that a trip to a new exhibition entails," he wrote for Muse magazine, in a review of an exhibit called Out of the Mist: Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs. "It is a chance to daydream and wonder about the life history of the artifacts."
Yellowhorn’s interest in artifact preservation and folklore has led to a pair of research projects he’ll begin this summer on his reserve in Alberta. The first is an archaeological dig around the abandoned residential schools on the reserve.
A second project involves finding clues in Blackfoot folklore that will lead to the origins of his peoples’ involvement in growing tobacco. "In mythology, the Blackfoot first obtained tobacco from the Beaver people," he explains. "There are clues within the story about where it might have come from." In addition, Yellowhorn will plant and harvest tobacco based on methods used in the mythology, and study the use of tobacco by his people over time
.
—30—
CONTACT:
Eldon Yellowhorn, 604.291.6669
Marianne Meadahl/Julie Ovenell-Carter, Media & PR, 604.291.4323