Researchers

I am currently employed as an Ethnobotanist for the Hualapai Tribe’s Department of Cultural Resources. I administer a number of department projects and programs which promote the intergenerational teaching of Hualapai ethnobotanical knowledge. I work towards both preservation as well as revitalization, focusing on ensuring tribal ethnobotanical knowledge persists as a living practice and tradition. Through our active Hualapai Ethnobotany Youth Project we have published a traditional foods recipe book, conducted traditional mescal agave pit roasts, and reinvigorated traditional harvesting practices on the reservation and ancestral lands encompassing Mojave and Sonoran desert types.I am also involved in Hualapai language preservation and revitalization programming. I am interested in environmental conservation, and a wide range of Native American issues such as preservation of tribal languages, health care issues such as diabetes prevention through reintroduction of traditional Native foods into diet. I have focused much of my effort on maintaining a Hualapai Ethnobotany Youth project in the community where tribal elders share their traditional plant knowledge with tribal youth. I have also worked on contributing to the Hualapai Tribe’s Cultural Atlas GIS geodatabase project which compiles significant tribal cultural information in a geographic based program by creating and incorporating a comprehensive Hualapai ethnobotanical database.