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Madonna Moss, Mentor
Anthropology

Rosie Clayburn, McNair Scholar

Professor Madonna Moss received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1989, and joined the faculty of the UO Department of Anthropology in 1990. She is an archaeologist studying the long term history of the First Nations of the Northwest Coast of North America, particularly Tlingit and Haida. She incorporates ethnographic, ethnohistorical, oral historical, and ecological data and perspectives into her work. Currently she is analyzing faunal assemblages from two sites at Coffman Cove, a 4000 year old Tlingit village on one of the inner islands in southeast Alaska. Over the last few years, her publications have focused on indigenous uses of marine mammals and seabirds. During this next year or so, she will be turning her attention to fish (particularly Pacific cod, salmon, and herring) and shellfish. While these animals are important as “resources” to Native people, they also help define cultural identity and heritage. She also studies how gender plays out in resource use and symbolic associations with animals and the food and materials they supply. Among her recent publications are “Haida and Tlingit Use of Seabirds from the Forrester Islands, Southeast Alaska,” Journal of Ethnobiology (2007); “The Killisnoo Picnicground Midden (49-SIT-124) Revisited: Assessing Archaeological Recovery of Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Northwest Coast Shell Middens,” Journal of Northwest Anthropology (2007); “Migratory Bird Harvest in Northwestern Alaska: a Zooarchaeological Analysis of Ipiutak and Thule Occupations from the Deering Archaeological District” Arctic Anthropology (2007), and “Historical Ecology and Biogeography of North Pacific Pinnipeds: Isotopes and Ancient DNA from Three Archaeological Assemblages” Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (2006).