00:00.00 archpodnet All right? Okay, we're back and you're just telling me about getting the recommendation to start your own lllc and I was telling you off air that my story was kind of similar in some ways. Um. 00:15.11 Anastasia Walhovd Yeah, so. 00:19.16 archpodnet So you started this llc and then what. 00:22.28 Anastasia Walhovd so yeah so I started to sell Lc and I started doing work in the field and I was working with a number of archaeologists who were all contractors. We all had it. You know our own lllc. Um, and we were kind of this. 00:36.81 archpodnet And this was all for that guy that you met at the the event that you went to Okay, okay. 00:43.42 Anastasia Walhovd Yes, yes, um, and I you know I had like done some googling. It wasn't like I just you know? Um, yeah I had asked around about him a little bit. Anyways I I remember I actually specifically asked Pat Emerson about it. Oh no no, no you should definitely do it. 00:54.00 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 01:02.31 Anastasia Walhovd Think that was kind of where I was like oh okay, um, if Pat Emerson thinks this is a good idea then I will I will look into this. So um I got my lc I started up I started to go into the field with everybody and it was kind of a small group. Um I think there was like maybe 5 or 6 ah, us who were all archaeological contractors with our own llc working or subcontractors I should say underneath the larger contractor. Um, and it was it was was such a small sort of team and it was a very large project and we were doing a phase two for an. Enormous area on a very big historic site that had a prehistoric component in it as well. So there was a lot going on. Um and so it was kind of an all hands-on deck situation and I I have to give a lot of credit for my success to these people that I've worked with. Because they really showed me the ropes for a lot of things in in crm um, and you know I had you know you get experience in field school digging. But it's very different once you get into crm? Um, and to actually get out there and and try and get things done. You know on time and before it rains and before the thunders for the client and all these things and um, you know they were ah with all the things that come into completing what we call a phase 2 which is sort of ah, an evaluation and assessment of an archeological site. Minnesota. We call that phase 2 um, that was yeah we would do the field work and then we'd come back to the field and they'd say oh gosh we really need someone to to photograph all this because our normal photography guys got to go do this and so they'd say oh anastaia you want to like give it a shot and I was like all right? So then. I learned how to do archaeological photography that day and then you learned how to do cataloging in the getty art and architecture thesaurus and you know like I kind of got this really whirlwind training and and how to do a lot of different aspects of. Crm of cultural resource management archaeology that ah you wouldn't maybe normally get for a lot of texts in their first year or maybe even a couple of years a lot of people don't learn how to they only learn 1 aspect of it. They learn about the lab they learn about the field but not not the other. Um, so I was kind of thrown into this world and it was ah I like learned a little bit of everything right away and I think that's I attribute a lot of my success to those people who sort of guided me through that through that and encouraged me to to keep learning new skills keep learning the skills. So. 03:53.10 Anastasia Walhovd That's how that's how I got I guess to where I am now. So. 03:56.66 archpodnet Um, so um and then like you know when that ended did you work on projects for other people or how did that work. 04:07.74 Anastasia Walhovd Yeah, um I actually did a lot of projects for that same for that same company neoultural consultants for about 2 years Um, and I didn't have many other clients I didn't really have any other clients and um, but in 2020 um, excuse me excuse me whoo part of me but in 2020 as you know everything changed changes. Um, and I ended up ah needing to archeology had slowed down or c r m I should say really slow down in archeology or in minnesota excuse me and i. Realizing you know I'm having a tough time making ends meet right now just doing this consulting business I started kind of um, keeping my eyes out to see what could I be doing you know to to try and bring in more income essentially and at that same time my my home community. Red cliff redcli band of Lakesbu or ojibwe hyper prefer. Um, we're looking for tribal monitors and for those who aren't familiar on the show I'll just describe what a tribal monitor does. So um, tribal monitoring is the. Ah, monitoring of either construction or archaeological activities to see if you're monitoring and construction activities. It's often to see if there's any archeological material there present that needs to be cared for It's some of its construction or excavation. Really I should. Because it's mostly has to do with the digging. It's not like building a house. It's more like digging down for for you're gonna like put a trench or something like or a utility or a road or something um or often tribal monitors are monitoring archeologists themselves to ensure that they are working in a way that is. In compliance with or up to code with how the the tribal community the senate community. Um, these fit to make sure that that they they say that they're going to do what they said they do in their in their proposal often the time. So um. Got ah a position doing tribal monitoring back home during 2020 and I did that for a while and and that was a very um that was ah ah a great experience. I'm really really grateful for it and it was different in the work that I had I hadn't really done that. And monitoring before um and working for red cliff. This was the very first time that they had ever hired monitors. So ah myself and then another gentleman you were the first first 2 to do that for our communities so that was like. 06:59.39 Anastasia Walhovd Ah, very special thing to do I felt really? ah I was really happy and really honored to be part of that sort of endeavor. Um, yeah I got my start there as well as I did What is it I've done quite a bit of volunteering too in my my home community. 07:20.50 Anastasia Walhovd Put on by North Dakota state university and uwlacrosse and I I spent a little time volunteering there and and and talking to some folks. So ah I'm sorry I feel like I forgot the original question I feel like that's a frobble I have. So if you need to edit out this little moment here. Could you remind me what I'm supposed to be talking about. Okay, so. 07:43.68 archpodnet No, that was that was perfect. That was I was just asking like um, you were working for that 1 guy and then like um like you starting to have other clients. Yeah yeah, what you did next. 07:52.20 Anastasia Walhovd So oh like what I did next I yeah so that's kind of yeah that kind of led into that. Um, yeah, that that so yeah, it led into that and I think that's where. Um I got to see a little bit more I had been thinking about and reading about and listening about indigenous archeology and and I had done a little bit of what we call like a tribal communications point person. Um, because we had. Myself as a contractor with Mcoon's Consulting and working with these other archaeologists we had been monitored by tribal monitors in the past and so I had worked with monitors and I was always sort of you know when I was working with these archaeologists. Theyre like oh yes, you're the you're the indigenous one. Why don't you be the person that like make sure that. You know we call her and she knows where to go and that she knows how to find us when she gets on site and you know be the communications person I was like well sure. Yeah I could do that but it was I think that was a good moment in in speaking with some of those with that monitor and and some other monitors about like okay. What are they doing how are they doing it. why are they doing it what are they hoping to find or what are they hoping to not find or see and um and learning a little bit more about it directly from them and you know like I was really curious more about this monitoring aspect and I I still am. You know I think there is so much that monitoring could do um for tribal communities here in in the us s or well probably across the whole world. But I always kind of tend to think very much so about the us and Canada because that's where it is um, but um I think there's. There's a lot to it and um, that was sort of ah a big reason why I wanted to start the the tribal archeology network tan in that same summer that I was a ah tribal monitor for redcliffe I also started the tribal archeology network um, and it kind of. Got born out of this this thinking about being a tribal monitor and doing archeology and my home community and on top of that night I was getting to know more people in the archaeological community in Minnesota. Um, at home where I should mention that red cliffs it was. And so I was getting to know more people and just like in this area and um, kind of asked to to be doing different things for you know, maybe a professional association for an event et cetera involved with archaeology and. 10:44.90 Anastasia Walhovd Thinking you know I wish I wish I knew more indigenous archaeologists that was kind of the moment I was like god like I really wish I personally knew more indigenous archaeologists. Um, because at the time I really only knew um, that. Like the one I was in contact with was one of the other contract archeologists that I work with um and so we you know we won will teach chat about things and that you know she she herself. She's not ojibwe. Um, and there's certain like cultural things and that I was like man I I want like I want to talk to someone who not only has. Like a traditional knowledge background about this but like someone who also like really I think understands the nitty-gritty of archaeology too because it's such a unique I think space to inhabit as as a person who is both an indigenous person and an archeologist. So I was like gosh I want to talk to like my senior like a senior indigenous archaeologist I was like I must find one so I started the tribal archaeology network. Um, and I I reached out to to her and I did know a couple others. Ah, people kind of came out of the woodwork that I realized that I had met through the council of minnesota archaeologists 1 of them being Travis Arms Travis Armstrong excuse me. Um, who is an ojibwe archaeologist and ah I had met him. Um gosh maybe a couple of months. Prior through the minnesota archeology he had joined um and he he has he's from Minnesota. Um I believe he's enrolled in Leech Lake if I'm correct but he's done work in Minnesota you guys ph d here but he is based in California and. He was kind of my my go to ah right I need a senior and indigenous archaeologist I was talking to him and I was talking to the the tippo for my tribe Marvin Defoe um and I was kind of I kind of bouncing this idea I was like gosh I kind of want to like start an organization where people can ah we can connect. Indigenous archeologists and we can get these people to start having conversations because ah selfishly that's what I wanted you know I need that I was like I'm ah I'm a baby archaeologist you know I still be like a baby archaeologist and you know I like need more big minds. 13:06.43 archpodnet E. 13:15.68 Anastasia Walhovd Learn from people who know lots of things you know and you need some elders. Um, who who can I can talk to some elders of archaeology and elders of traditional knowledge as well. So that's where I started getting ahwe some people together and started. Having some Zoom meetings right? at the height of Zoom in the summer of 2020 in the pandemic and um, it worked out really well I think people were just sufficiently bored enough at home from the pandemic and trying to also distract themselves from the chaos. It was summer 2020 um, that we had a pretty good ah pretty good interest of people. Indigenous archaeologists we had tippos we had people in academia who all some I started sending out messages on like Facebook and. Having people send messages across like anthropology archaeology lists serves email list serves for different institutions et cetera and we got this mix of people in academia we had students we had tippos we had people in crm common and. Join some of these zoom meetings and essentially we were kind of meeting regularly now we're mostly we're mostly on our email listerv it's conversations going either on the email listerv's a lot of job postings or there's a little more conversation that happens on Discord we've actually moved into doing the discord sort of stuff and. Um, I think that was kind of the big, the big brain child at the time I was like um, we need a space for this where people can sort of ask for guidance or ask for resources or talk about you know what? they're doing or what they've done if there's an interesting seminar is there. Um. Going on and having a space to share that where it felt like a safe space to do that because it was directed towards archaeologists crm tribal monitors. Um people who wanted to do indigenous archaeology or were doing archaeology that um, they're working with indigenous. These directly. So yeah I think that's kind of that was kind of the big, the big brain big brain child of the big effort of 2020 was trying to connect some of these people because I didn't want to feel alone i. 15:42.38 archpodnet Yeah, so if somebody's interested in in being part of this listserv or the Discord group. How do they? How do they find out about it or how do they get on it. 15:56.80 Anastasia Walhovd so yeah so I would recommend so our email listserb is hosted by um, the by oregon state and if I would actually recommend going to my business's website. Which is maoonsconsulting dot com maoons is makoons and then consulting dot com and then there's ah, a link at the top where ah if you click on the tribal archeology network. It will describe a little bit about what what we do? What is our mission. Our goals and if you scroll down towards the bottom. There'll be a little sign up button and that will bring you to that oron state email listserv subscription page and they'll have directions on there putting your email address and hittting the subscribe button and we'll we'll just put you right on there. Okay. And the Discord information is a little bit more complicated to get to but I will probably send that I think I need to start sending that a little more regularly over the email excuse me over the email listserv so people can get access to it. But there's a way to. It through a Google drive essentially and. 17:16.20 archpodnet Nice, okay and we can. We'll put both your website for Mcoon's Consulting and the the tribal archeology network page within your website in the show notes. So if anyone's interested in that obviously you can. Search for yourself as well. Just from listening you know or you can go into the show notes and and find the direct link if that's easier. So okay, um, you in 2020 you were tribal monitor. 17:45.67 Anastasia Walhovd Yeah. 17:51.11 archpodnet Started the tribal archeology network and where have you where have you been in the last two years 17:59.81 Anastasia Walhovd So yeah, um, actually I took a total left turn here. So doing all of this and realizing you know I'm doing archeology and and really didnt I really see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Um I realized. Really need a master's degree. So um I ended up moving to the southwest actually for a number of personal reasons. My my partner is is from yeah my my partner is from Al Paso Partners and his we moved to El Paso in November of Twenty Twenty for some some health reasons and for about him and also his mother who was having some struggles but as well I had been searching for um, a master's program and I was looking in Minnesota and the. Something necessarily wrong with the programs in Minnesota. But I really wanted something that felt very focused on cultural resource management because I personally think that there's a lot of indigenous archeology I think has made a fair amount of headway and in academia and academic circles. But I think that next. Hurdle is to really bring it to the forefront in crm um, and so I you know I kind of see myself trying to help bridge some of that. Um, so I was looking around at programs and I you know as I crash you know and in the southwest this is where you know this is sort of. Archaeology headquarters of the United States I think a lot of archaeologists think of to southwest for that because there's just such excellent preservation as well as a wonderful ongoing service. But so I started looking around and just. You know 35 minutes north of El Paso was Las cruises and New Mexico state university had or has a master's program that really appealed to me particularly because you could get a certificate specifically in cultureive management and then. Track or certificate. Um, for I think since the 70 s it's a very longstanding program. Um, and so on I said you know if I want to be the queen of crm. Um, I might as well go to the place that's been doing this crm um degree for a long time. Um, so I moved I moved to El Paso and then shortly thereafter about six months after that I moved to Las Cruces Mexico um, and I've kind of been bouncing around on on different projects there I've been doing a little bit of work as an employee for a couple of different companies and then but I have still been doing work from the queens consulting remotely. 20:44.72 Anastasia Walhovd So I served again as like a tribal communications ah point person for a couple of different projects that were minnesota based where I was essentially I was spammying all the tippos in Minnesota to see if they were interested in sharing some information with us and and occasionally you know. 20:55.58 archpodnet So. 21:01.92 Anastasia Walhovd Someone says yeah you know I'll share some stuff with you. Oh I got to have some nice conversations that way. Um on a couple of different projects that I unfortunately can't really elaborate on too much just for privacy reasons. But and that I found that really rewarding and and very informbative and interesting to do some of that thing. Yeah I can't say that I'm a tribal liaison because technically liaison between tribes is something that happens from federal agency to or like you know agency to agency tribe government to government and we're working on ah a project that was you know I don't represent. Any government or agency private. So um, but I've been kind of bouncing arounduing a little work extendford in Minnesota as well as in Texas and New Mexico so I've gotten some some experience now in the desert and it is a wild time. In in the southwest. Let me tell you it's very different. 22:02.80 archpodnet Well okay I want to I want to hear more when we get back about the difference. Um, but right now we're already at our second break. 22:08.37 Anastasia Walhovd So. 22:15.44 archpodnet Um, so we'll just have to wait until we come back and hear more about the differences between the southwest and Minnesota and Wisconsin. So with that we'll be right back. 22:15.73 Anastasia Walhovd Oh. 22:26.62 Anastasia Walhovd Yeah, so yeah.