Expertise
I received my B.A. in anthropology from the University of Washington (UW) and my M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at Washington State University (WSU), staying in-State for economy. I did my Ph.D. dissertation research on basketry and cordage artifacts from the Ozette Village wet site, a Makah Indian site that was covered by a massive mudslide 300 years ago and preserved through waterlogging--often referred to as the Pompeii of North America (my updated Ozette Basketry dissertation is now published, with beautiful pen & ink basketry illustrations, in Amazon (2019) and updated and illustrated Cordage and Knots on the Northwest Coast in Amazon (2021). I conducted post-doctoral research with the Makah Tribal Nation at the 3,000-year-old Hoko River wet site, preserving hundreds of baskets, fishhooks, and other perishables (1995), and the Hoko Rockshelter shell midden, the largest such habitation rockshelter on the Northwest Coast (2005). I directed the first-ever archaeological excavations at the National Historic Landmark wet site of Sunken Village, Portland, OR, with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indians (2009). And I co-directed excavations of the Mud Bay/Qwu?gwes wet and dry site with the Squaxin Island Tribe near Olympia Washington (2013).
I completed a summary of all this work, 50 years of working on waterlogged/wet archaeological sites and ancient basketry, with Ed Carriere, Suquamish Elder and Master Basketmaker, summarizing, in first person, his 50 years of cultural training in Salishan basketry and canoe carving (2018). This complete history, a synergy of science and culture, is in our new Memoir 15 of the Journal for Northwest Anthropology (JONA). In this memoir we highlight our work together analyzing and replicating the 2,000 year old Biderbost wet site basketry housed at the UW Burke Museum. We call our new approach Generationally-Linked Archaeology (GLA) and it is explained in articles in Research Exchange.
Ed and I recently wrote a book titled: “Living-Off-The-Land” for 4,000 Years on the Salish Sea, Memoir 25 (Carriere and Croes 2025; see link). In this book we tested our GLA approach by comparing how Ed used 44 natural resources in the first half of his life to support his Great Grandmother Julia Jacobs and I compare Ed’s 44 natural resources to the fauna/flora remains in 9 archaeological sites within 20 miles of Ed’s home allotment and for 4,000 years. They do see continuity and sustainability for 4,000 years and add to their approach, calling it Generationally-linked Ecological Knowledge.
In large part from Ed Carriere’s work in replicating archaeological baskets from northwest museums, he recently was awarded one of four national Community Spirit Awards (2022) from the Native American-based First Peoples Fund program. Ed also was given a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 2023 National Heritage Fellowship (see Ed receiving the award and his speech at the National Archives in Washington DC 16 minutes into the program). On the science side, Ed and I received the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) 2023 Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis. These national awards demonstrate that the synergy of Culture and Science produces much more than either one separately.
Of added note here, I had military training in the 1970s as a Public Information Specialist. There I trained in journalism and photography, including, key here, producing newsletters. My focus was on historic events of the U.S. Army Washington National Guard, see examples in this link. I mention this since the training led into an emphasis on producing newsletters throughout my archaeological career, including production of 3 years of Hoko River Wet Site and Rockshelter and Hoko News. Also, see eight years of The Thunderbird News, and 40 years of PNWAS News Bulletins (currently over 170; all available with lists of authors, speakers and events by year in Research Exchange). Since finishing my WSU PhD, I have been involved in producing ~250 newsletters for archaeological professionals and the public, stemming from being a Public Information Specialist in the service.