Heritage Voices · The Archaeology Podcast Network

Lumbee Perspectives on Environment, Culture, and Community - Ep 80

·54 min·3 clips

Ryan Emanuel says tribal recognition status is not a measure of indigeneity.

1. Heritage Voices Episode 80 centers on Lumbee perspectives on environment, culture, and community. 2. Jessica Uquinto hosts Dr. Ryan Emanuel, a Duke hydrologist and enrolled Lumbee member, and Dr. Seth Grooms, an anthropological archaeologist at Appalachian State and an enrolled Lumbee member. 3. The episode asks how hydrology and archaeology can support Lumbee and other Native communities through community-engaged research. 4. Ryan says he studied geology as an undergraduate and pursued hydrology through an interdisciplinary environmental sciences program at the University of Virginia. 5. He explains that his early work focused on the movement of water in natural environments before shifting toward environmental justice and cultural resources. 6. Seth says he was a history-focused kid, enlisted in the Marine Corps, deployed to Iraq in 2008, and later used the GI Bill for undergraduate study at UNC Charlotte. 7. He says that experience helped him decide to become an archaeologist and to work with his tribe on heritage and cultural heritage initiatives. 8. Ryan describes how Lumbee elders told young people to get as much education as possible and come back to help their people. 9. He says he did not know any Indigenous natural scientists early in his career and had to find other Native environmental scientists later. 10. He describes STEM outreach, college fairs, and environmental field days in the Lumbee community as his first forms of community contribution. 11. Ryan says those field activities brought direct reports from students, teachers, and parents about environmental problems that affected daily life. 12. He says those concerns pushed him to broaden his lens toward human and cultural dimensions of water and to work with the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs environmental justice committee. 13. Ryan says a late-2016 draft EIS for a large interstate gas transmission pipeline revealed severe demographic disparities in North Carolina and Virginia. 14. He says American Indians were about 13% of the directly impacted population in North Carolina while making up about 1% of the state's population. 15. He says that disparity analysis helped tribal leaders submit comments, draft resolutions, and build a regional record against the project. 16. Ryan says the effort became a success because tribal governments articulated expectations for state and federal consultation and left a paper trail for future policy. 17. Seth says his recent work at Appalachian State includes non-invasive and minimally invasive survey work at a Lumbee cultural center in Robeson County. 18. He says that work includes walking the property, surface artifact inspection, magnetic susceptibility survey, and limited shovel testing to ground-truth geophysical results. 19. The tone is reflective, collaborative, and methodical, with long answers and repeated emphasis on humility, patience, and listening. 20. People interested in Native community engagement, environmental justice, or archaeology will get the most from this episode; listeners wanting fast, topic-light conversation may skip it.

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