00:00.00 archpodnet Welcome to episode one twenty five of life ruins podcast reinvestige the careers of those living in life ruins I'm your host carlton shield chief go and today I am joined by Mr. Chance Ward Chance is a master student at the university of Colorado Boulder. And tribal citizen of ah cheyen River Lakota nation Lakodo Yate descendants of what is it dinosaur yate that ah that that rez dogs joke did you see that episode chance. 00:30.60 Chance Yeah yep, got give thanks to the dinosaur nation that we before us and then hundredthal. 00:34.90 archpodnet In the Ne editorals you kid You can't forget about giving face of the editorals that were before us do that episode was crazy so chance. Dude Thank you so much for coming coming on the show. How are you doing man. 00:48.74 Chance I'm doing good I'm doing good getting my semester started. Um I think we're three weeks in now about to start the fourth and it's a nice day in Denver Colorado. 00:57.97 archpodnet This I just realized this is the first episode that I'm recording from Bloomington Indiana so this is the first time I'm out out here in in Indiana in indianaan country. Um, so what is the weather like in Colorado kind of kind of it's been humid here man like I'm just sweaty all the time. 01:19.87 Chance It's been a roller coaster here on Friday it was no Thursday Thursday was like a ° no clouds in the sky and then Friday and Saturday it was a cloudy gloomy like. ° and chizzing ring so is a complete difference in one day. 01:36.95 archpodnet Oh man as it as it goes in Colorado so chance we first met I think online when you were looking at master's programs. So I think we had a Zoom call and then we met in person. And Durango when I was working for Fort Lewis for that summer and we we hit it off and we ended up able to get you for the master's program in museum and field studies at see boulder in the museum of natural history. You're you're one of the anthropology students and you're. Track is in collections management. 02:17.58 Chance That's right when I was a prospective student I wanted to get a few different perspectives on see you boulder in general so reaching out to you was advised to me by a few people that I've already. Known you and worked with you. So I you know reached out to you and we met on Zoom and yeah, you I think you came to the Fort Lewis field school right to be the assist the the ta the to teaching assistant copi. 02:48.94 archpodnet No, the copi so Kagan was the ah yeah Kagan was the was the field director teaching assistant or something like that I was a cool pizza joint. Very cool. 02:52.74 Chance Yeah. Um, yeah, we met up to have pizza for lunch or something it was home slice Home Slice pizza. 03:05.69 archpodnet Home sliced pizza man on the deck. Yeah, it was fun. It was like the right it was the same day. The basque quarter got lifted too. Yeah, it was weird. Everyone was running around maskless and yeah, it's just a different time different time Twenty Summer 2021 um 03:12.30 Chance All That's right, That's right I forgot about that. 03:22.15 archpodnet But me and you share like what what I've really enjoyed getting to know you in your research is me and you share a lot of the same interests and like so we have the same very similar drives and what we want to do in the field. Um, and it's been cool to work with another planes indian in this field in Boulder. And of course like right after I left now all the museum students in anthro are all are all indigenous. It's you Katie and I forget the new student's name who's also lakota. 03:48.97 Chance Yeah Elena so we have all indigenous cohort this year in the anthropology section of the museum. So. 03:57.30 archpodnet I man just I was replaced so quickly. Um, but I do want to talk about before we get more into your masters is that um you you got your bachelor's of arts in anthropology from Fort Lewis college down in down in drango. And Fort Lewis is special for a number reasons and could you um, please you know, kind of talk about why Fort Lewis is is special and also you know why did you end up choosing Fort Lewis because you weren't in Colorado at the time right. 04:28.75 Chance That's right I wasn't in Colorado um, so the way I ended up you know, growing up on the reservation when college opportunities aren't really the ah major emphasis people push on you. Ah, so you kind of gotta do your own research your own you kind of do your own recruiting. So I've always heard about Fort Lewis but I never knew anybody that went there so when I did my so when I completed my associate degree in Albuquerque. 05:03.64 Chance You know I was looking for a place that would be affordable. You know, never really knew anything about it. So I kind of looked it up on their website of course the landscape with the you know la plata mountains and the national forest and all the mountain lakes and fishing and. You know that's kind of what they put in your face on the website and that's of course what attracted me to it but you know my father and stepmother and family also reside in Arizona so Fort Lewis is about two or three hours from them too and that's kind of what helped me choose to go to Fort Lewis and Fort Lewis itself is a indigenous native student serving institution so there so when I got there they had like a 30% native student enrollment and by the time I left it was closing in on 50% students. 05:55.63 archpodnet I yeah and it's it's an absolutely gorgeous campus I enjoyed my limited time being there for the summer and it's also like indirango and one of the coolest places in Colorado. Also one of the most expensive but like it is this really fantastic facility because like a lot of the. Ah, you know buildings I went into um that were associated with anthropology or american indian or indigenous studies. You know those were like modernized like those those were pretty recently like renovated and up to date and so it was like really not only a gorgeous campus in a gorgeous place. But also yeah, it offers like in-state tuition to federally recognized tribes. So it doesn't matter where you live. So I know there was a couple like Alaskan natives there and like people from all over like you could go around the dorms and look at the license plates and you see like Oklahoma on a bunch of them. Um. 06:43.53 Chance Yeah. 06:49.93 archpodnet And basically start guessing Oh who's who belongs to which which nation so that was that was really interesting. Um, but. 06:57.77 Chance Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's surrounded by a couple reservations too. So you know Navajo nation is just across the border in Arizona New Mexico ah you got the southern yote tribe which is like twenty miles away you have you mountain u to the west. Patchy to the East. So yeah, there's definitely a lot of native students there I think they're mostly southwest is probably the higher percentage. But yeah, you got your Alaska natives your plane and some planes. 07:33.18 archpodnet So what ended up like driving you to go to anthropology to begin with because as like we're both aware at this point anthropology is not one of those um degrees that most indigenous folks think of getting into. In fact, they like kind of actively. Ah. Avoid it. So like what what was that first. What drew you into that degree program down there at Fort Louis 07:55.10 Chance Um, I actually had no idea what I was going to major in you know night when I did my associates degree in Albuquerque at sipppi shout out topppe I got to Fort Lewis and my advisor who was also from South Dakota he said what do you want to major him I said you know I have no idea and he we know we had a conversation about what I wanted to eventually end up doing and you know he suggested. Native american and indigenous studies but I didn't want to go that route I think that felt a little more It felt a little cliche and stereotypical to me and I didn't want to so I didn't want to do that I said well I would prefer maybe something I could work outside. A little bit work outside all summer inside all winter would be pretty great so he recommended well why don't you look at anthropology so I looked up anthropology and what they had to offer there on campus and and I actually. Went into cultural anthropology first. So I started taking classes on ethnography and research methods on how to do interviews with current contemporary communities and then I ended up taking a museum studies class with. 09:24.23 Chance Dr. Kathy Finder and I you know we did a topic on nagra and we got to tour the museum that was on campus. We kind of got to hear the problems that come with nagpra and museum studies in general. Done mostly by non-native people so I ended up switching my major to archeology are my concentration to archeology. 09:52.59 archpodnet Right? And who did you? um where it was Jesse tuned Dr Jesse tune teaching at the time that you started and answer there. 10:00.29 Chance Yeah, yeah, he just got I think he just got there right before I did and I ended up taking intro to archeology with him and I took a ah few more southwest concentrated archeology classes with. 10:05.45 archpodnet Yeah. 10:15.61 Chance Dr. Charles rigs and he was kind of my the main archeology professor I to classes from there. 10:15.84 archpodnet Right? and. And for the audience. Yeah, and for the audience like we've heard of Doc Jesse jesse tune's been on this at Bob Podcast a couple times so like the chance got his degree from the same institution that Dr Tune teaches at so that's. 10:29.60 Chance Yeah. 10:34.73 archpodnet And I also like I always forget like you met my nephew when you were at at Theipppy Powow right will go. 10:41.24 Chance Yeah, that's right? So when I was going to school Asippi I you know I didn't know him very well. But I I knew will go I knew he was there I knew he was pawine I knew he was a singer for the the student driven kind of drum group. 10:56.40 archpodnet E. 10:59.40 Chance That was there they would they would practice in the gym fo year and get the real good acoustics in there. 11:05.21 archpodnet Always and sippy stands stands for southwest indian polytechnical institute in Upbuquerque New Mexico so shout out shoutout sippy and how small indian country is um, small small place man. 11:10.69 Chance Yeah, yeah. 11:19.31 archpodnet So awesome. So how long did it end up taking you get your degree from ah Fort Lewis college 11:24.73 Chance Um, it took me exactly 2 years I went full time the whole time while I was doing a walls employed full time at Elm Depot which kind of amazes me still to this day. But. 11:39.47 Chance Also took a field school over the summer in a summer class to kind of stay on track and I ended up graduating a full sester early. 11:49.68 archpodnet Sweet. That's awesome. Yeah, and what was your favorite course. Do you think? um that you you took an undergrad. 11:57.28 Chance My favorite course. Um, there was a few that I really enjoyed um of course contemporary issues in native nations was helpful. Federal indian policy kind of gave me the background overview of. Things like nagpra and American Indian Religious freedoms act and national historic preservation act all these background laws that would kind of come into play in my employment post graduation. 12:29.67 archpodnet Solid, Um, then after you've finished your degree you started working for um Woods Canyon right. 12:38.10 Chance Yeah, so funny. Story is I was working at Home Depot beginning of spring and summer and I had a classmate and friend that worked for another cerm company in the state. And they and he suggested to apply so I can work with them on the excavation. So I applied with them and I thought I'm going to apply to this little company called Woods Canyon that I keep hearing about so I applied to them too. And Woods Canyon actually called me the very next day so they were jumping right on top of my application and they pretty much said hey can you come in tomorrow for interview and I said yeah and they hired me and I ended up working for them for. The next few years 13:33.11 archpodnet You All right? and then also like during your time but you're also doing likenac for consultation work. So like you're You're really busy in general like everything I know about you is that like you are not only usually a full-time student you're you're working on top of that and then you're also involved in a bunch of. Service work. Um, so could you like kind of not not only just expand like you know the academic side during this time but like also how you were working with um tribes down in the southwest on like some pretty serious capacities and. 14:07.99 Chance Yeah I'm I'm trying to be I'm trying to remain modest and humble. But I also you know worked with Southern Ute tribe at the same time I'm doing home depot and the crm company. So for southern u. Ah, they hired me to be a nacpa assistant to kind of help their nacpa coordinators who often just get dumped on with mail and email and you know consultation work and and their department is in the same building with their. Tribal museum which was pretty cool I got to see a lot of their collections and archives and things while I was there. But as the nag process I went through a lot of mail I kind of got to learn the whole notification process and read some of the federal registry. Notifications that were there and a lot of ah section one zero six came up a lot of which is part of the national Historic Preservation Act so the tribe got to got thirty days to submit a comment if they had any type of questions on any. 15:22.43 Chance Land development or Fcc construction that was going to go on that which was usually through like cell phone towers and things like that. Ah we I did ah I got to be in our repatriation with the tribe that was through some local. Institutions um, rebual got to be in a rebuial that was my first experience with the reburials through the tribe in Fort Lewis 15:55.61 archpodnet All right man that's pretty like how was that experience like I mean what I mean by that is how did that experience affect how you saw anthropology or so or or changed the way that you um. Thought about your education What you want to do. 16:16.88 Chance Yeah, it gave me the you know I feel like I got a lot of experience from representing the tribal side of repatriation and thatbra. Um, and it's difficult so coming to see you Boulder. Ah, kind of want to emphasize getting more experience from the the non-native side from the museum from the bigger institution side of it and see what they do or don't do to kind of or what they should do in terms of meeting. 16:51.93 Chance Tribes in the middle rather than putting all the work on the tribes to do. 16:53.90 archpodnet Right? And with that we're gonna go ahead and take our first break. We'll be right back here on a life froms podcast episode one twenty five with chance ward stay tuned.