Dr. Brice Obermeyer

Assistant Professor

Office: 115D Butcher Education Center
Phone: 620-341-5724
Email: bobermey@emporia.edu
Fax: 620-341-5785
Education: Ph.D., University of Oklahoma,
Anthropology, 2003

Dr. Obermeyer is a cultural anthropologist that works closely with the Delaware Tribe of Indians in northeastern Oklahoma.  His research is focused on Delaware ethnography and the politics of federal recognition.  The principal courses that he offers include Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; Human Evolution and Civilization; Magic, Witchcraft and Religion; Native Peoples of North America, Forensic Anthropology and Race and Identity. Dr. Obermeyer offers a summer ethnographic field school that introduces students to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma (see below for more information on the Ethnographic Field School). He has an additional area of interest sponsoring the Anthropology Club that allows him to interact with students outside the classroom http://www.emporia.edu/socanth/anthclub/index.htm.

Beyond his responsibilities at Emporia State, Dr. Obermeyer also serves as the NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Representative for the Delaware Tribe http://www.delawaretribe.org/index.htm.  Such work involves documenting and repatriating Delaware human remains and funerary objects held by museums throughout North America as well as serving as the point of contact for cultural preservation issues. 

Field School Experience

Students with Mike and Ella Pace at the Delaware Powwow.

Cherokee interpreter, David Fowler, describing frontier life for the 19th century Cherokee at Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma.	Fighting for the ball during Indian Football, Delaware Powwow 2006.
Jesse Colson and Jerry Cook screening for artifacts at the 17th century Wichita Village in North Central, Oklahoma.	Brad Anderson, Melissa Bruce, Anthony Westby and Jesse Colson take in the view atop Mt. Scott in the Wichita Mountains of Southwestern Oklahoma.

Publications:

2007      Salvaging the Delaware Big House Ceremony:  The History and Legacy of Frank Speck's Collaboration with the Oklahoma Delaware.  In Histories of Anthropology Annual F. Gleach and R. Darnell, eds., Pp. 184-198, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln.

2005      Lessons from Salt Creek:  Maintaining Tribal Identity Among the Black Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes.  Pp. 54-62, Terry Straus, ed.,  In Race, Roots & Relations: Native and African Americans.  Albatross Press: Chicago

2004     From Coronado to Cattlemen: Assessing the Legacy of 19th-Century Cattle Trails on the Southern High Plains. Kansas Preservation 26(2):14-17. Co-authored with Scott Sundermeyer

Works accepted for publication:

n.d.  Delaware Tribe in a Cherokee Nation:  An Ethnography of a Misacknowledged Tribe.  Book length manuscript accepted for publication with the University of Nebraska Press.

n.d.  Delaware Country:  Landscape, Identity and Politics in an Oklahoma Indian Tribe.  Article length manuscript accepted for publication in Plains Anthropologist.