00:01.54 archpodnet So we are back and let's go straight into painting that picture of what a day in the life of Ashley Thompson looks like. 00:18.19 ASHLEIGH Yeah, so as I said I do a lot of different things. Um, and so I'm going to talk about a month in the life of Ashley instead of a day because one day might. 00:25.79 archpodnet I like it. So. 00:31.51 ASHLEIGH It might yeah one day might look completely different than the next. Um, and so for example in and November I was doing a few different things. So um, one was planning and executing a training. Um, and so part of the. The save history campaign um is also training archaeologists in the archaeological resources protection act. Um as well as law enforcement. Um. And arpa and so when um, there's a violation of the act. Um, and I guess maybe I should just do ah a quick summary of arpa. Um, it's basically federal legislation meant to protect archeological resources on federal. And tribal lands and so it criminalizes um like looting of sites and vandalizing of archeological sites and so um, archeologists are often called to do a damage assessment. Um. In which they record all of the damage at the site and that that damage assessment is used um by the judiciary to see the the value of the damage done and help inform them on on the next steps. 02:07.56 ASHLEIGH For someone who is found violating Arpa and so um, it's kind of like a niche thing that um, some archeologists have experience in doing a damage assessment others don't I really didn't have much experience at all in arpa. Prior to this job and so we host trainings on how to do damage assessments for both um archaeologists and law enforcement and in our trainings we've been um, combining them because it's a really unique task. When archaeologists and scientists have to come together with law enforcement. Um to do a damage assessment because um, the law enforcement you know is going to be collecting evidence and um. Moving forward with the the arpa violation aspect of the case and the archeologist is the expert who's going to write the damage assessment and might be called to be an expert witness. Um, if it goes goes to trial. Um, and so like in November we. We were invited out to a ah community in California where we got to train um some tribal monitors some federal federally employed archeologists that worked for the some different national forests in California as well as we had 1. 03:35.11 ASHLEIGH Ah, law enforcement person from um from a national park from Joshua Tree so ah that that took up like ah, a whole week of training out in California where we went and the classroom training as well as a field exercise to try to. Recreate um an arpa crime scene and yeah archeologists familiar with what what we do when we come across. Um, an arpa violation and so that's a pretty significant part of my work. Um I'm also recently been working on writing a report that's like more of the boring. Aspects. But um, it's actually a report that comes out of something pretty neat. Um is we were able to do one of these trainings while also restoring a site that had been damaged um decades ago and so there was a bunch of looters holes. Um. At this archeological site in Tucson and um, we we were able to take a few different groups of people out there. Um some were employed by um, a tribe in Arizona. Um, some of them were archeologists for the federal or for the forest service and um, we were able to train them on how to do damage assessment and then also basically backfilled these looter looters holes and um, I'm also so so we are writing the report for that. 05:08.43 ASHLEIGH Um, and then I'm kind of involved in a few different projects. Um at archeology southwest so like um last month I was helping organize. Um these meetings we have between um, our tribal working group. Which we we started that um a few months into my job like so earlier this year twenty twenty two um and it's basically a group of indigenous archeologists who advise our research team. Um on how to make. 1 of their projects more relevant and better. Um for indigenous people and so um I do a little bit of that and then I'm also working on like a national ah campaign where we're trying to. Get a national conservation area established um the campaign is called respect. Great bend and so great bend of the gila is um, this river that that runs um, well it actually doesn't run completely anymore unfortunately, but. Um, this area known as great bend of the gila is west of the phoenix area and um, along in this area. There's thousands of petroglyphs. Um archeological sites trails that indigenous people have walked for hundreds of years. 06:44.36 ASHLEIGH And um, we're We're basically trying to get a national conservation area established there while also ah working with the affiliated tribal nations and so and those are just like some of the things I do and you can find me doing. Any given time. Um, and so it's It's actually really nice to have such varied work. Um, get to do a little bit of traveling some fieldwork some training um writing and and networking with tribes and so ah. So yeah, that's a little bit about what I do. 07:26.68 archpodnet Yeah, and anyone that is interested in learning more about the great bend of the gila project. Um, we already did um sorry I should say I already did I already did an interview with um. Archeology southwest with Aaron Wright Zion white and Charles Arow about sorry did I say Aaron White I mean Aaron Wright let me let me start this part over. Okay, so and anyone wanting to learn more about the great bend of the gila projects. We. 07:49.43 ASHLEIGH Yeah. 08:00.60 archpodnet T it I can't stop saying we ok anyone and anyone wanting to learn more about the the great bend of the Gila project I did a podcast with a couple of your archeology southwest colleagues. Ah, episode 54 kwatzan voices k quotzan views. Um, so definitely go check that out if you're interested in learning more It's it's a really interesting interview. Um, it's really fun. Um. On on another note I should also probably mention that archeology southwest at least in the past I'm not sure if they are today has been a sponsor of this show. Um, but I also just think that they're neat and ah you know, really appreciate the work that they do. But I do want to to throw in that caveat so people are aware. Um, and and and Chris if you want to like edit that so it's further further up in the beginning. You know you can do that too. Um of the the show either way. 09:08.34 archpodnet And then the other thing that I want to say about archeology southwest is that they also have a really awesome newsletter. Um that that goes out I think every week and there's just a ton of of links to ah different podcasts and. Projects that are happening and especially if you're in the southwest. It's really there's a lot of really interesting stuff in there. But I think even if you're not in the southwest there would probably be stuff you would find in there that would be really interesting. So i. Definitely highly recommend signing up for the the archaeology southwest newsletter if ah, you're. If you like this show. There's a lot of of similar things in the newsletter. Okay, so going back to the topic at hand though. Let's um, you mentioned that the the training that you did was 1 aspect of of save history is there other portions. Of that project. Ah, what do you What else are you doing with that. 10:09.76 ASHLEIGH Right? Um, and so save history. Um, had we do a lot of things and so another important aspect of save history is um. 10:24.64 ASHLEIGH Our outreach with it and so we have a website savehistory.org as well as a Facebook and an Instagram um, where we do 2 things. Um, there's a detection aspect of our website where we're trying to. Um, have a place for people who witness or see eluded or vandalized site a place where they can submit a tip and so we have an online reporting form and a phone number where people can call. And so that's the detection part. Um, and I I should say like if you see someone actively looting or vandalizing a site. Please don't approach them go to a safe location and um, call the the law enforcement. Um, or the land managing agency of whose land you're on and so like if you're in the forests and the national and in the national forest you'd want to call maybe that national forest. Um, and let them know because our priority is first. People's safety. Um, and so but yeah. Part of save history is this detection part where we're trying to um, make sure we're catching vandalized and looted sites and then the other aspect is the education part and so um, we also have a blog on our website and we try to. 11:40.17 archpodnet So deep. 11:57.36 ASHLEIGH Um, shorten blog pieces and make them into um social media posts. But these blog posts are supposed to share with the public. How and why it's harmful to indigenous people when they're suit. When when their sites are looted or when their sites are vandalized and so it's our hope that by sharing stories from native people that it will develop um a respect for and an understanding of why cultural sites. Are not just important to indigenous ancestors but are really significant to tribes today and future indigenous people who you know will continue to interact and um, be connected to to these. Archeological sites. So um, if you want to learn more from different tribal members about how um, stealing of artifacts has impacted them um make sure to visit our website or check out our social media. 13:11.73 archpodnet Sorry one second taking notes. 13:14.98 ASHLEIGH Um, yeah. 13:21.71 archpodnet Want to make sure I get all of that in the show notes all right? Okay, the little. Yeah so that that sounds like a really important project Um, thinking about sorry that came out weird. 13:24.81 ASHLEIGH Yeah, yeah. 13:39.80 archpodnet Um, to to. This is thank God for editors. Okay, Also okay. 13:46.76 ASHLEIGH Yeah, yeah. 13:53.35 archpodnet Yeah, so that that sounds really important. Um, sounds like really important work really important project and and thank you for sharing all those places that people can go to learn more and and learn more about the the impact.. It's also. Really kind of interesting timing I guess to be talking about this because was it last week that that congress passed the the stop act. Um, so that's that's another exciting big moment in in terms of of protecting. Ah, material, indigenous material culture. Um from from leaving the us. So It's kind of I don't know I was thinking about that while you were while you were talking to. But sorry I That's the weirdest segue. 14:30.88 ASHLEIGH People prison. 14:37.99 ASHLEIGH Yeah. 14:45.54 archpodnet Um. 14:51.80 archpodnet So So yeah, so I just wanted to I was just thinking about that wanted to to mention the interesting parallel in timing but moving on I'm curious about what you know in this position and obviously you're working with. A lot of of different archaeologists and also a lot of indigenous people. What are some some pieces of advice that you would give um to people that that want to do tribal collaboration work. 15:28.36 ASHLEIGH You're right? Um, so 1 thing that my coworker skyba gay and I came up with was a model for tribal collaboration for our organization and basically a. Philosophical understanding of what does it mean to work collaboratively with tribes and one of the first and I think more important pieces of advice for people, companies organizations wanting to work with descendant communities. Is that um I think a lot of indigenous people you know, especially in our realm of archeology they get consulted a lot. Um, and if you want to like do meaningful work and collaborative work with tribes. Um. 16:23.92 ASHLEIGH It's important to move beyond consultation and build relationships first and maintain those relationships and so um, you know there's a lot of ah consulting that goes on with tribal historic preservation offices. For example. Where um, they're notified of a construction project and they're asked if they want to be involved or you know comment and um I would say that that's like not true collaboration and so um, you I think you it's really helpful for researchers or. Whoever um to instead of you know, focusing on like the project focus on how you can be a good good relative um to indigenous communities and um involve tribes. Um, in the entire process from beginning like conceptual stages of a project to the to the very end. Um because you know I don't think like that it's. Super black and white in terms of like this project is collaborative and it's not I feel like there's um, there's a a scale where it's like kind of collaborative to like very collaborative and um projects fall and in between and so. 17:54.44 ASHLEIGH Um, I think that building relationships maintaining them and involving um descendant communities and the entire process is is really important and then the other piece of advice was I think for a lot of indigenous people. Um. Especially like in light of a lot of justice and equity and diversity um conversations that I think came out of like the 2020 um black lives matter discussions. 18:31.82 ASHLEIGH Is that um, it's important that your actions speak louder than your words and so I think that it's important like to do things like indigenous land acknowledgements or to like make a proclamation of. You know Native American Heritage month, Etc, etc. But um I think what speaks even more loudly is is actions that um, give back to indigenous communities that that help them that build capacity for them and that actually like. Rather than coming into community and like trying to say that you're going to do this for them. Um I think it's important that people listen to native people and hear out what they need and um I think that you know. Through the relationship-builing process with with different communities that those types of conversations those um opportunities to listen to community needs and values and desires ah can help structure projects in a good way and. And make sure that um that it can be beneficial to more than just the researcher or just the company that I think that it's important to like if you're going to be um in a relationship with. 20:02.58 ASHLEIGH Someone that you you also are asking yourself. What can I get back in this relationship and how can I be a good relative. 20:12.74 archpodnet Um, yeah, yeah, um, well and on on that note, we're already. We're already at our second breakpoint. Um, but yeah, everybody go rewind and relisten to that again and then. 20:27.67 ASHLEIGH I. 20:28.75 archpodnet And then come back after the break.