JoAllyn Archambault facts for kids

Quick facts for kids JoAllyn Archambault
Born	1942 (age 82–83) Oklahoma
Alma mater	UC Berkeley
Occupation	Anthropologist

JoAllyn Archambault was born in 1942. She is a special kind of scientist called a cultural anthropologist. This means she studies different cultures, especially Native American people. She used to be in charge of the American Indian Program at the famous Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

JoAllyn has a Sioux father and a Creek mother. She grew up learning about Sioux traditions. She is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is located in North and South Dakota. JoAllyn has helped anthropology a lot by sharing her unique view as someone from within Native American cultures.

Learning and Teaching

JoAllyn Archambault went to the University of California, Berkeley for all her college studies. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts, in 1970. Then she got her Master of Arts in 1974. Finally, she earned her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1984. A Ph.D. is the highest degree you can get in a subject.

For her Ph.D. research, she studied an event called the Gallup ceremonial. This is an annual event in Gallup, New Mexico. It's a big tourist event that shows off the amazing Native American arts from that area.

Her Career

JoAllyn Archambault has spent her life teaching, researching, and managing programs about North American studies. She taught classes about Native American studies at many colleges. These included Pine Ridge Tribal College, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of New Mexico, and Johns Hopkins University.

Her research looked at different Native American communities, both in cities and on reservations. She studied things like how land is used on reservations and how people express themselves through art. She also studied modern Native American culture and the Sun Dance ceremony of different Plains groups.

From 1983 to 1986, Archambault was a Professor at the University of Wisconsin. Before that, she was the Director of Ethnic Studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, from 1978 to 1983.

JoAllyn Archambault is now retired. She worked for the Smithsonian Institution as the Director of the American Indian program. This program is part of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. She started working there in 1986. Her jobs at the museum included protecting and sharing Native American art, culture, and political history. She also helped connect different ethnic groups and managed a budget for the program.

Museum Exhibits

JoAllyn Archambault helped redesign the North American Indian Ethnology Halls. This was for an exhibit called “Changing Culture in a Changing World.” She also helped create four big exhibits herself. These were:

• “Plains Indian Arts: Change and Continuity” (1987)
• “100 Years of Plains Indian Painting” (1989)
• “Indian Basketry and Their Makers” (1990)
• “Seminole!” (1990)

She also helped with an exhibit at the Los Angeles Southwest Museum in 1992. It was called “Grand-father, Heart our voices.”