Jennifer Byram

Jennifer Byram is a tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and a PhD Candidate in Archeology at the University of Arizona School of Anthropology. Under the advisership of Dr. Edward A. Jolie. Jennifer’s dissertation project, “Re-Weaving Their Stories Together: A Community-Based Approach to Documenting Indigenous Women Weavers’ Work from the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries” documents variability in eighteenth and nineteenth-century weaving practices by Indigenous women of the Southeastern United States. Indigenous perishable material culture in North America, including woven textiles and basketry, remains understudied due to its rarity in the archaeological record and dearth of early colonial-era examples in museums. Funding from Native Pathways award is supporting research activities to document textiles and basketry in museum collections and to facilitate Indigenous artist access to textiles in museum collections and native fiber plants of the Southeast. This dissertation addresses the following: 1) How did Indigenous weavers’ material choices change or remain the same?  2) What lessons can Indigenous communities today learn through these weavings about strategies for cultural survival? This project seeks to overcome knowledge loss due to land dispossession, land relocation, and environmental changes in Indigenous homelands and engages with Indigenous nations to support ongoing cultural reclamation efforts.