HOMELAND RETURNS Historic Preservation: A Living Connection with the Choctaw Homeland.

Dr. Ian Thompson, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s Historic Preservation Department presents about his multi-faceted work and teaching for the Choctaw Nation.

Ian Thompson began learning how to chip stone tools from his uncle at the age of 7. As a youth, Ian also learned traditional hide-work, bow-making, pottery, and shell-work. Balancing this cultural education with western education, Ian completed his PhD in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. Ian is a Registered Professional Archaeologist and a Tribal Council-certified Choctaw Community Language and Culture Instructor. He currently serves as Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He works with a dedicated team to protect Choctaw sacred and historic sites, and to help the community support Indigenous Choctaw culture. His most recent book, Choctaw Food: Remembering the Land, Rekindling Ancient Knowledge, was donated to the Choctaw Nation and published by Choctaw Press. Ian currently serves as Chair of the Smithsonian NMNH Repatriation Review Committee and president of the Oklahoma Bison Association. In spare time, Ian and his wife, Amy, manage Nan Awaya Farm, a small bison farm dedicated to healthy traditional food, landscape restoration, and supporting Choctaw culture. 

 https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2eUETYbRSSqLNsgubItn6w

Homeland Returns UGA, Fall 2021 

The agenda of the Homeland Returns research project at UGA is to engage the programs and people of sovereign Native nations, including many who were removed to Indian Territory/Oklahoma. It also seeks to counter the national removal narrative and to grow diversity at UGA through research that attracts Native American students, scholars, and artists. By encouraging active scholarly exchange between people and departments at UGA and the cultural and service programs of sovereign tribes, Homeland Returns will foster awareness among the students, faculty, and community of UGA. It will also introduce Native American students, scholars, artists, and tribal administrators from Oklahoma to the considerable resources of Georgia’s largest research-1 university. Set in southeastern “Indian” homelands, Georgia remains of vitalinterest to Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs) and other cultural programs of today’s federally-recognized tribes, including the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, from whom we've already had presentations this fall.