Welcome to the annual awards
presentation for the Society for
American Archaeology's 85th Annual
Meeting. Because we were forced to cancel
our physical meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are utilizing
this virtual method in order to
recognize and congratulate the winners
of our society's awards. First, we
will hear from Paul Welch for the
reading of the ceremonial resolutions. We
offer a resolution of sympathy to the
families and friends of the following
departed colleagues: Kim Ames, Dennis
Stanford, Barry Kent, Francis A. "Cal"
Calabrese,
Anthony Lutonsky, Robert Connolly,
Mark Raab, James Stolltman, Robert Neuman
Michael Coe, Reca Jones, Robert Shaw
Damian Garcia, Mark Dingeldein, John
Mahoney, John Janusek, William Y. Adams,
John Walker, Raymond H. Thompson, George
McDonald, Dwight Wallace, Raymond Fogelson,
Mark Hungerford, Linda Donley-Reid, James
James Sackett, Theodore Frisbie,
Patrick Carmichael, Richard Gould, Robert
Salzer, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Frederick F. York,
Richard Fuller
Terrence Winemiller,
Joseph T Joaquin, Alexandru Szentmiklosi,
Lanny Bell, Kim Carpenter, Adella B.
Schroth,
Martin Biskowski, Robert Dyson, Steven
Weber, Li Xueqin, Colin McEwan, John Combier, Zhang Changshou,
Brian D. Jones, and Saul Hedquist. Thank
you, Paul.
Next are the presidential awards. The
first award goes to Paul Reed in
recognition for his work in helping
protect the greater Chaco area from
the effects of oil and gas exploration
associated with fracking. The next award
is to Jeff Altschul and Keith Kintigh
in recognition of their continued work
in calling attention to the use of
archeological data to help answer
contemporary questions.
Final presidential award is given to
Kelley Hays-Gilpin and Meagan Thies-Sauder
for their work in assembling and guiding
a group of hard-working members as the
Task Force on sexual and anti-harassment
policies and procedures.
Next are the state archaeology
celebration poster awards. The third
place winner is Wyoming for this poster.
The second place winner is California
for this poster. And the first place
winner this year is Alaska for this
poster. Next are the scholarships,
fellowships, and student award winners.
The Arthur C. Parker scholarship
winner this year is Patrick Burtt. The
Native American graduate scholarship is
awarded to Natalie
Dana Lolar.
The National Science Foundation
scholarships go to Vikki Preston, Emily
Van Alst, and Dominic Bush. The SAA/
Institute for Field Research
undergraduate student travel awards
go to Iris Jacobs Kathryn Kuennen and
Laura Pott. The student paper award goes
to Lori Barkwill Love for her paper
titled Modeling the Early History of
Maize in the North American Southwest.
The Dienje Kenyon fellowship goes to
Christine A. Mikeska for her research
project Feeding the People, Feeding the
Gods: Animal Provisioning at the Bronze
Age Hittite Capital of Hattusa.
One Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship goes
to Emily Kate for her work using
isotope analysis in Epiclassic
settlements in Hidalgo. The second
fellowship goes to Christopher Schwartz
for his work using isotope analysis to
address the origins of macaws in the
American Southwest.
The Paul Goldberg award goes to
Denay Grund for her project on
Painters Flat California for
elucidating the Great Basin paleo
Indian record. The Douglas C. Kellogg award for
geoarchaeological research goes to AJ
White for his project integrating fecal
stanol analysis with the traditional geo
archaeological paleoenvironmental
analysis in the Epipaleolithic of
Eastern Jordan. One dissertation award
goes to Sarah Oas for her
investigation of transformations in the
late Puebloan and American Southwest
during a period of dramatic settlement
shift toward aggregation. Another
dissertation award is given to Saul Hedquist for his comprehensive analysis of
turquoise to bring to light the social
identities of makers and users of the
sacred substance in the American
Southwest. Next we go to travel awards
and grants. The Charles Stanish SAA
Annual Meeting travel award goes to Carlos
Osores Mendives.
The first of six H. and T. King grants for
pre-columbian archaeology goes to Tamara
Bray. A second goes to Jennifer Grant. A
third grant goes to Solomon Hocsman. A
fourth grant goes to Angela Huster. A
fifth grant is shared by Jessica Munson
and Jill Onken. And the final grant is
awarded to Alexandre Tokovinine.
Next are the Gene S. Stuart and book awards.
The Gene S. Stuart award is presented to
Lizzie Wade for her Excellence in
Journalism and her outstanding efforts
to enhance public understanding of
archaeology in her article on the Virgin
Islands in sciencemag.org published in
November 2019 entitled
Unearthing the Reality of Slavery. The
scholarly book award goes to Christine A.
Hastorf for her volume titled the
Social Archaeology of Food: Thinking
about Eating from Prehistory to the
Present, which presents a
thought-provoking approach to an
archaeology of food and social life
centered around five themes: materiality
social agency, the senses, economics, and
taste.
The popular book award goes to Carl M.
Davis for his book 600 Generations: An
Archaeological History of Montana, which
describes how Native Americans lived,
evolved, and flourished in Montana for
thousands of years.
Next are the awards for excellence. The
award for excellence in archaeological
analysis goes to Alejandro
Pastrano Cruz for his pioneering and
enduring contributions to lithic studies
in Mesoamerica at the Sierra de Las Navajas
or Pachuca obsidian source. The award
for excellence and cultural resource
management goes to J. Steven Athens as
the founder and general manager of
International Archaeological Research
Institute, a nonprofit corporation. He has
conducted research historic preservation
and compliances services to Pacific
Islands for over 30 years. The Award for
Excellence in Latin American and
Caribbean archaeology goes to Elizabeth
Liz Graham for her work to advance the
field of Mesoamerican archaeology as a
researcher a mentor to scores of
individuals and through a variety of
public outreach approaches.
The award for excellence in public
education goes to the Heiltsuk First
Nation for their work as illustrated
here within this video.
The Crabtree award for excellence is
given to Marilyn Markel in recognition
of her contribution to archaeology in
the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, especially
her volunteer assistance with field
schools, site stewardship, and
preservation as well as educational
programs for schoolchildren.
the Fryxell award for interdisciplinary
research goes to Debra Martin for her
work in bioarchaeology and especially
the archaeology of violence and for
using bioarcheology from
interdisciplinary and theoretical
perspectives. Our final three slides are
barely enough to honor the winner of our
final award. The SAA Lifetime
Achievement Award. For his scholarship,
prolific publications, teaching service
to the profession, leadership and
advocacy for inclusivity, diversity, and
equity in the field and especially for
his groundbreaking breaking leadership
and furthering the cause of indigenous
archaeology, we proudly present this
award to Larry J. Zimmerman. Over a nearly
four decade-long career
Larry Zimmerman has been one of the most
articulate, thoughtful, and influential
advocates for indigenous archeologists
throughout the world championing a
radically new relationship between
archaeologists and the peoples they
studied. That position embraces
indigenous peoples as research
partners and places their interests at
the heart of archeological scholarship.
He has also been a pioneer in the
archaeology of homelessness.
he has been an active leader in the
world archaeological Congress and the
Society for American Archaeology making
his service on the ethics committee and
the committee on public policy as well
as playing a key role in establishing
the Native American scholarship fund. I
owe a great deal of my professional
development to Larry's writing but I
appreciate so much more his personal
support and insights throughout my life.
I now present the SAA Lifetime
Achievement Award winner Dr. Larry J. Zimmerman.
Receiving the SAA Lifetime
Achievement Award is something I never
imagined might be possible and I'm
profoundly grateful to my colleagues at
IUPUI Liz Kryder-Reid, Paul Mullins, and
Jeremy Wilson for nominating me. I have
had many amazing colleagues and
collaborators over the years several who
wrote letters in support of the
nomination and I truly thank them all.
Any career in archaeology is created
from the contribution of others
colleagues who preceded us and our
contemporaries our teachers and our
students have occasional archaeologists
we've worked with stakeholders and
descendant communities interested
public's and especially our supportive
and very tolerant family members and for
me that's my spouse Karen our son Dieter
and our daughter Ali. Sometimes all of
these people inspire sometimes they
criticize laugh at you or even shout you
sometimes they give advice even when we
might not want it but almost always
there share something of themselves and
their experience whatever they provide
you assemble into what you are or what
you hope to become. At times the process
seems like a random walk and might even
be one but usually there is some level
of decision making along the way which
is guided by what you learned about
yourself. The process demands reflection
and self-assessment and the contribution
of others no matter the nature of them
always deserve deserve your attention
and respect. Sometimes things work out
sometimes they don't. I would point out
that the same is true for organizations.
I realized that I have now been a member
of the SAA since my second year in grad
school. That's 50 years. The changes in the
SAA during that half century have been
profound. I hope I have been a positive
contributor in some ways major and minor
committee service work editorial work
peer reviewing writing, but a couple of times
I've been a real pain.
Dr. Steve Dasovich, one of my former
undergrads at the U South Dakota
where I taught for many years who knows
my academic history pretty well once
commented you sure do like to rock the
boat don't you. When he found out that I
was to receive this SAA Lifetime
Achievement Award he sent me a message
saying a title for an acceptance speech
and warned me if you give some contrite
speech I will be sorely disappointed.
I will only rock the boat gently. This
requires a bit of history. About a decade
before NAGPRA
the SAA decided to consider a
resolution against repatriation and
reburial. American Indians Against
Desecration, a group I worked with, asked
that I come with them to the 1982 annual
meeting to ask the Executive Committee
not to pass that resolution. I was
apparently enough of a pain that an
SAA president yelled at me in the
middle of the street in Minneapolis. It
was disheartening and radicalized me to
support repatriation. A couple of years
later the SAA used the principle of
academic freedom to ask SAA members
not to attend the planned 1986 meeting of the
International Union of prehistoric and
protohistoric Sciences. To resist
apartheid the African National Congress
had asked the meeting organizers not to
allow South African scholar
archaeologists to participate. When the
IUPPS withdrew its support, the British
organizers held the meeting as the world
archaeological Congress. They invited and
supported travel for archaeologists from
underrepresented countries and
indigenous people to attend and present
their research and their concerns about
archaeology. I attended and presented at
that meeting among only a handful of
American archaeologists who did. I have
served many roles for the organization
WAC is now 34 years old and has made a
real difference in how indigenous people
and non-euro and American archeologists
see the discipline.
Was I sharply criticized? Absolutely. Did
my career suffer for it? Yes in some ways
but in others it helped define
important directions for my future
especially the need to recognize that
archeology was political and that I must
become an activist. I almost quit the
SAA both times but supportive
colleagues and several of the indigenous
people with whom I worked said that
quitting would do very little. It might
be a good symbolic gesture. Only trying
to bring change though from within would
accomplish much. They were absolutely
right which this citation for the
Lifetime Achievement Award reflects. For
those who got angry at the SAA as many
did last year in Albuquerque the only
real way to bring change is to work toward
it. You will have far less impact from
outside the SAA than you will if you
stick with it. Make your views known and
work toward the changes you hope to see.
All that said, I would say thanks for
listening to me preach. Seeing all the
awards that are given to many of our
colleagues at various stages of their
career I think the future of the SAA and
archaeology will be notable. To all of
you thank you so very much for this
award. Thank You, Larry. This concludes the
awards ceremony for the Society for
American Archaeology 2020 meeting. We
thank everyone for participating and
congratulations to all of our 2020
winners. Thank you.
