Research
Research Programs
Peabody Museum
The Peabody Museum, in conjunction with HUNAP, offers several joint research and course opportunities for faculty and students. In November 2007, Anthropology 1130: "The Archaeology of Harvard Yard," was lead by Peabody Museum Director and Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology William L. Fash, in conjunction with the Anthropology Department and (HUNAP) in a search for Harvard Indian College roots. A follow-up exhibit of the archaeology of Harvard Yard will open on November 10th, 2008 at the Peabody.
Peabody Museum Internship
The Peabody Museum, in co-sponsorship with HUNAP, offers a summer internship that enable students to gain experience in museum activities such as curatorial research, collections management, conservation, archives, public programming, and/or publications, with a preference for North American projects. Interns will be matched with available projects based on their interests as expressed in the application. Interns work under the supervision of a mentor from the museum staff. The internships run for 8 weeks (20 hours/week) beginning on Tuesday, May 31. A stipend is provided.
Nation Building II
Nation Building II is a field research course through the Harvard Kennedy School and the Graduate School of Education. Nation Building II projects are designed and requested by a Native community or organization which then focuses on some of the major issues Native American tribes and nations face. These projects are based on the "sovereign" choice of a community to partner with a university to study native issues, including sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. The projects are completed by graduate and undergraduate students under the guidance of faculty members with relevant expertise. Click on the links below to view past year's projects.
- Options for a Constitution: Heiltsuk First Nation, Bella Bella, BC
- Strengthing Families for the Future - Exploring Historical Trauma at Mashantucket Pequot: Mashantucket, CT
- Tribal Regulations of Genetic Research: One Sky Center, Portland, OR
- NIEA National Cultural Standards For Education: Phase I
Native Health Program
HUNAP’s Native Health Program, entitled "Saving Lives on the Frontline: Partnership with Native Communities", is run by Dr. Mark A. Davis, Dr. Dennis Norman, and Dr. James Zuckerman of Harvard Medical School. This program partners with Native communities to save lives through local capacity development. Focus areas in the program include training in emergency medical skills, suicide prevention, substance abuse intervention, and domestic violence mitigation. These partnerships are fostered through video technology, which facilitates collaboration between Harvard faculty in multiple locations with distant Native communities. Current partners include Hopi Health Center, the Indian Health Service, and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck.
Four Directions Summer Research Program
The Four Directions Summer Research Program (FDSRP) began as an idea among Native American students attending Harvard Medical School (HMS). With the help of a few devoted medical school faculty, the program was launched in 1994 with the successful enrollment of six students for the first summer. We are now in our 15th year and have brought nearly 150 students to HMS during this time. Students who complete this program gain new skills, experiences, and knowledge that can be used to help themselves, their communities, and future generations of Native peoples from all of the Four Directions.
The Harvard Indigenous Law Clinical Program
The Harvard Indigenous Law Clinical Program (HILC) is committed to advancing the rights of American Indian tribes, Indian people, and the needs of Indian Country at large. The program provides students the opportunity to become involved in the most pressing issues in tribal law and federal Indian law through both clinical placements and classroom studies. Harvard joins a growing list of law schools offering extensive academic and practice-based opportunities in the field of Indian law, which has increased in complexity and relevance as Indian nations have taken on a more public role—sometimes wielding significant political and financial influence. This is particularly true today on the East Coast, where tribes are making headlines in their efforts to reclaim traditional land within which they seek to exercise tribal governmental powers.
Native American Statistics Project
As a project within the Harvard University Native American Program, the Harvard University Native American Statistics Project shares its mission of bringing together Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students and interested individuals from the Harvard community for the purpose of advancing the well-being of indigenous peoples through self-determination, academic achievement, and community service. We understand that good research is essential to reaching these goals and are dedicated to supporting research using statistical and demographic data about the Indigenous people of the United States.
For more information about this projec contact Nathaniel (Tanner) Amdur-Clark, Project Coordinator at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit the Native American Statistics Project website.
2012 Spring Workshop in Research Methods
"The Museum as Archive in American Indian Studies "
Castle McLaughlin, PhD, Curator of North American Ethnography at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography
Scott Manning Stevens, PhD, Director, D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies
The spring workshop will highlight museums as research sites and examine the value of historic objects for scholars working in American Indian Studies and related disciplines. The workshop will be hosted by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, which stewards one of the largest and oldest collections in North America. The collections, which are global but focus on the Americas, include not only material culture but also 2,500 paintings and works of art, extensive archival records, and some 300,000 photographic images. Adjacent to the museum is the Tozzer Library of Anthropology. During the workshop, students will learn how the museum is organized, how it functions, and, through guided activities, how to identify and access related resources. Readings and discussions will consider fundamental questions about the development and changing role of museums and will explore current theoretical and methodological approaches to engaging with objects. Co-Director Scott Stevens of the Newberry Library will discuss means of integrating material culture research into various approaches to American Indian and Indigenous studies. Co-director Castle McLaughlin will provide a tour of Wiyohpiyata: Lakota Images of the Contested West, an exhibit that she co-curated with Lakota artist Butch Thunder Hawk, and will discuss her research on the museum's Lewis and Clark collection. More information can be found on their website.
Faculty Research
Gary Alpert, Environmental Biologist, Environmental Affairs Office, Harvard University
Collaboration between the Diné Environmental Institute of Diné College, Navajo Nation, HUNAP and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
Navajo Ants Project. The goal of this project is to conduct the first comprehensive scientific field study of the distribution and abundance of ants on Navajo Nation land. The collaborators have combined expertise in teaching, ant identification, field work, insect photography and web design. They will assist Navajo students and staff to conduct and publish research on the biodiversity on their lands and in their efforts to protect and to cherish those resources for future generations.
Harvard Faculty
Lisa Brooks, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities
Lisa Brooks (Abenaki) received her PhD from Cornell University in English literature, with a minor in American Indian Studies. Her research interests include early American Indian writing, contemporary American Indian literature, oral traditions, American Indian history, indigenous intellectual traditions, ecology/environmentalism and Native communities, Native northeastern culture and diplomacy, gender in American Indian studies, language and indigenous epistemology.
The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast [October, 2008] "The Common Pot," a metaphor that appears in Native writings during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, embodies land, community, and the shared space of sustenance among relations. Far from being corrupted by forms of writing introduced by European colonizers, Brooks contends, Native people frequently rejected the roles intended for them by their missionary teachers and used the skills they acquired to compose petitions, political tracts, and speeches; to record community councils and histories; and most important, to imagine collectively the routes through which the Common Pot could survive.
Mark A. Davis, Director, Center for International Emergency Medicine (IEMH), Harvard Medical School
Mark Davis is the founding director for the Institute for International Emergency Medicine and Health (IEMH). In his capacity as Director, Dr. Davis focuses on international medical training, curriculum development, mass casualty preparations, research, and medical capacities improvement in diverse environments. Dr. Davis is also the PI on a new tele-education telemedicine initiative funded by the Department of Agriculture that promotes partnership between IEMH and Native Americans. Dr. Davis received his MD and MS from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990.
Thomas Sequist, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Thomas D. Sequist (Acoma Pueblo), is an assistant professor of medicine and of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He currently practices general internal medicine at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. Dr. Sequist's research focuses on three areas: ambulatory quality improvement, racial disparities, and Native American health care. Dr. Sequist is committed to the advancement of Native Americans in the medical field and has served for over 10 years as a director of the Four Directions Summer Research Program (FDSRP) at Harvard Medical School. The FDSRP provides American Indian undergraduate students a summer research experience, career advice, and long-term mentoring. Dr. Sequist graduated from Cornell University with a BS in chemical engineering. He received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School, and his MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Joseph Singer, Bussey Professor of Law
Joseph William Singer received a BA from Williams College in 1976, an AM in political science from Harvard in 1978, and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1981. He has been teaching at Harvard since 1992. His research interests include property law, conflict of laws, and federal Indian law, and he has published more than 40 law review articles. He was one of the executive editors of the 2005 edition of Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law and a sponsor of the Harvard Indigenous Law Clinical Program.
