Research Expertise and Interest

decolonization, indigenization, indigenous methodologies, tribal sovereignty-driven research, Indigenous Archaeologies, Southwest U.S.

Research Description

Nicholas Laluk is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe located in east-central Arizona and is an Indigenous archaeologist interested in the continued decolonization and Indigenization of the archaeological discipline. Currently, his research focuses on sovereignty-driven research and utilizing tribal best management practices and cultural tenets to better address the wants and needs of Tribal nations engaged in collaborative archaeological research. His research attempts to highlight not only the powerful ways Indigenous communities rationalize and understand themselves, but how these intricate rationalizations for personal and social identities can be used to co-manage ancestral lands, enhance community-based research, and to expand upon colonial models of Indigenous peoples and Euromerican interactions through an Indigenous and decolonial lens.