Archeologist Shares Knowledge at Comanche Nation Fair
Comanche Nation held a luncheon for Mary Motah Weahkee to share her experiences and knowledge of Indian History.
She is an archeologist, anthropologist and crew chief with the Museum of New Mexico Office of Archeologist Studies Center for New Mexico of Archology.
As a field archeologist, Weahkee travels to every county in New Mexico and the world.
Weahkee plans to retire next year, but before doing so, she has a goal to help with education, at the Comanche Academy, and teach children as much as she can.
“Indigenize the Native American schools in the state of New Mexico, so NACA, Santa Fe Indian School, all the outlying Pueblo schools…Zuni, wherever I can find Native American schools,” she said. “What I mean by indigenize is take modern science and modern technologies of reading, writing, science, and arithmetic, and say, this is ‘How we did it back then without all these technical implements,’ you know, and it's the same technology, it's the same science, it's the same principle. They get their medicine from us, so why can't my kids learn where they got it from and how basic it is, and it's still in nature.”
Weahkee is also going to help with an excavation and study the bison, which were butchered on Monday, September 26.
“Since I've done excavation of bison antiquus, which is a prehistoric buffalo, and I've done historic buffaloes, I understand what soils, insects, what biodegradation can do to bones. So, this one's been in there since Wallace Coffey was in office, so that was a while back,” she said. “So, what I want to see, if it held its integrity, if those bones are still viable for me to make weapons with, so with this one-year bison wait time period, am I going to be too soon?”
Weahkee said the Comanches were a fascinating group of people to learn about.
“Being in the Sonoran Desert and spending that time in some of the harshest places known to that desert region, ‘How did they survive?’ ‘What were they eating?’ ‘What were they using as far as medicine and everything else?’ And knowing that the Comanche people came through there, and they were able to survive,” she said. “I think studying my own heritage, my own Comanche people, who are absolute survivors, and them coming through those deserts, and then finding sustainability, like I said, that thumbprint that says, ‘This is what's good to eat, this is what's not good to eat, this is good medicine.’ My people are the most interesting people to study.”
