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Disasters are prevalent phenomena in the human experience and have played a formative role in shaping world cultures. Contemporary and popular conceptions of disasters as events, such as hurricanes, droughts, or earthquakes, fail to fully capture the social dimensions of these complex processes. Building on theoretical models and research in sociology, geography, and anthropology, this research explores one community's experience with and reaction to disaster over the longer-term--primarily through the lens of archaeology. The anthropology of disaster recognizes that these processes have the potential to affect every facet of human life, including biological, technological, ritual, political, social, and economic aspects of a society. How groups react to and cope with these processes dramatically shapes their cultural histories and in some instances their cultural identities. Using theoretical assumptions from the anthropology of technology, my research explores the social impacts of disaster at community and sub-community levels by drawing on method, theory, and information from across subdisciplinary boundaries to incorporate archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic datasets to better understand the entire disaster process or cycle. Specifically, I investigate how Hidatsa potters located near the Knife River of North Dakota responded to the smallpox epidemics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and how these women maintained or modified their daily practice in light of these catastrophes. In addition, I examine oral tradition and contemporary discourse on these subjects to explore the lasting legacies and impacts of catastrophe. The objective of my research is to contribute new theory to the anthropology of disaster by examining disasters over the long-term, investigating the relationship between disaster and motivations for the production or reproduction of material culture--the focus of most archaeological studies--and by exploring the role of materiality and traditional technology in coping strategies.

A HISTORICAL CASE STUDY OF THE ARIKARA, HIDATSA, AND MANDAN INDIANS AT HAMPTON NORMAL AND AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE, VIRGINIA, 1878-1911 By Nancy E. Jones-Oltjenbruns, Ph.D. A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Director: Maike I. Philipsen, PhD Professor, School of Education Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute played a role in the education of American Indians. This facet of American Indians education was examined through the lives of Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan students from the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. The Three Affiliated Tribes’ students attended Hampton between 1878 and 1911. The federal government generally viewed American Indians as a problem so efforts were made to assimilate them into the majority culture. Education was a component of that process. The lack of knowledge about the Plains Indians contributed to their selection for this study. Lesser known tribes do not have a prominent place in the scholarship on 19th century Indian education. This study contributes to the literature by providing historical evidence related to the Fort Berthold Reservation students. The majority of teachers who instructed Indian students were non-Indian, but it was important for them to understand the specifics of Indian culture. Early staff at Hampton thought of themselves as civilizers, missionaries, and teachers. When the doors of Hampton opened, it was the role of staff to instruct the African American students in those skills that would allow them to advance in the White world. This was the same mandate regarding American Indians. The staff was instrumental in every aspect of American Indian education. Although Indian students including the Fort Berthold students never gained equal standing with African Americans or Whites on campus, they acquired a level of acceptance by staff and students. Views of Indian students toward staff, their education, school, and fellow students varied. There were members of the Fort Berthold Reservation who appreciated their education at Hampton, while some students did not complete their educational endeavors. Generally, Fort Berthold students learned skills that would be useful upon their return home. The Indian students felt they had an obligation to their people and that education was more than groundwork for their own prosperity. While education could provide a respectable living, the Fort Berthold Reservation students had a responsibility to teach those back on the reservation.

In response to the recent delisting of the bald eagle as an endangered species, the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, the University of Arizona, and the National Park Service undertook this collaborative study to identify continuities and discontinuities in eagle knowledge and acquisition and use of eagle parts by members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA), and to document cultural resources associated with eagles in three North Dakota national parks. Interviews with tribal consultants who possess eagle rights were integrated with ethnographic, archaeological, and archival data. This research finds that although there have been major changes in how MHA people acquire eagles for personal and religious use since the early 20`" century, beliefs and practices associated with eagle demonstrate cultural continuity. There remains a strict adherence to protocols regarding the handling of eagles and the possession and transfer of eagle knowledge, and there is a persistent belief in the eagle's ability to animate people, objects, and places. The eagle feather remains an indicator of social status, spiritual power, and identity, and eagle parts continue to be crucial elements in the performance of major religious ceremonies. Several site types associated with eagles and eagle trapping were identified, and all three parks either contain eagle resources, or are associated with parts of the eagle landscape. While trapping pits and trapping lodges are no longer used for taking eagles, they retain significance as sources of supernatural power and spiritual knowledge. These sites are spiritually active, and are important places for conducting fasts, seeking visions, and making religious offerings. Tribal consultants believe that the power imbued in these sites is attributed to their past role in the establishment and perpetuation of relationships between their ancestors and the spiritual world during annual trapping expeditions. Both site types are culturally significant in their familial and clan associations, their reflection of traditional land uses unique to the Missouri River environs, and their role in the transformative religious experiences of ancestors. There is a desire within the tribal community to preserve eagle trapping pit sites and, even more so, trapping lodge sites. In order to maintain the sites' spiritual integrity, consultants prefer that they not be accessible to the general public.

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