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

Don Wilson (middle), his granddaughter Fawn Wilson (left) and Dr. Obermeyer (right) on Liberty Island following a reburial of Delaware Human Remains in May, 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.

Professional Service:
2007 Present Editorial Board, University of Kansas Press
2005-2007 Editorial Board, University of Kansas Press (Alternate)

Field School Experience: (Summer 2009)
The course offered an introduction to the ethnographic research method through first-hand experiences with American Indian Tribes in Oklahoma.

Publications:
2009 Delaware Tribe in a Cherokee Nation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Delaware Tribe in a Cherokee Nation- University of Nebraska Press

2009 Delaware Country: Landscape, Identity and Politics in an Oklahoma Indian Tribe. Plains Anthropologist 54 (211):181-199.

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

External Research Grants Awarded:

2009 National Park Service: NAGPRA Repatriation Grant ($5,000): Funding awarded by the National Park Service for the reburial of Delaware remains excavated from Delaware Water Gap.

2008 American Philosophical Society: Phillips Fund for Native American Research Grant ($2,500): Funding to support research on the impacts of acknowledgment on the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe.

2004 NAGPRA Documentation Grant ($75,000): Funding awarded by the National Park Service to create a digital database of human remains ancestral to the Delaware held in museums nationwide and to begin consultation with the State Museums of New York and New Jersey.

2004 NAGPRA Repatriation Grant ($15,000: Funding awarded by the National Park Service for the reburial of Delaware remains held at the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

2004 Basic Library Services Grant ($4,000): Funding awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to enhance the information technology at the Delaware Tribal Library.

2004 National Park Service: NAGPRA Repatriation Grant ($14, 426): Funding awarded by the National Park Service for the reburial of Delaware remains discovered on Ellis Island.

2004 Professional Assistance Grant ($2,000): Funding awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to provide Library Services to provide technical training for the staff at the Delaware Tribal Library.

2000 Phillips Fund for Native American Research Grant ($1,400): Funding provided by the American Philosophical Society for Archival Research on the reorganization of Pojoaque Pueblo.

Internal Research Grants Awarded:

2009 Emporia State University: Faculty Research and Creativity Grant ($3,000): Funding to support research on the impacts of acknowledgment on the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe.

2009 ESU Foundation: Faculty Incentive Grant ($750): Funding awarded to purchase the updated DVD series, Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World.

2008 Emporia State University: Faculty Research and Creativity Grant ($3,000): Funding to support preliminary research on the federal acknowledgement of the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe.

2006 Emporia State University: Faculty Research and Creativity Grant ($7,643): Funding to support the transcription, coding and analysis of 40 recorded interviews with Delaware tribal members.

Courses he is offering Fall 2009:

AN110 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (2 sections MC, ME)
AN320A Human Evolution & Civilization
AN325A Native Peoples of North America

Courses he will offer Spring 2010:

AN210 Contemporary Cultures (sections MB & MC)
AN334 Forensic Anthropology (sections A & B)
AN336A Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion

Sociology, Anthropology and Crime and Delinquency Studies

Dr. Brice Obermeyer

Assistant Professor