DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Megan Baker is a sociocultural anthropologist and tribal historian who specializes in Oklahoma Choctaw law, history, and material culture. Her research and teaching consider the intersections of Indigenous sovereignty, race, economy, and history of anthropology in North America with particular attention to the relationship between tribal/US property laws, economic development, and settler colonialism. Baker’s book project treats historical and anthropological knowledge production on Oklahoma Choctaws as ethnographic objects to reveal how those works have informed and worked in tandem with US property laws to facilitate land dispossession and challenges to Choctaw sovereignty in today’s era of resurgent American Indian political-economic power. Her current community-based projects include archiving Choctaw collections with a county historical society and collaborating with fellow artists to study and revitalize traditional textiles and rivercane basketry.

From 2019-2023, Baker worked as a Cultural Research Associate for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s Historic Preservation department where she developed and collaborated on numerous public history and community-engaged projects. She served as the editor and frequent author of “Iti Fabvssa”, the Historic Preservation column in Choctaw Nation’s Biskinik newspaper, the host of “Chahta Tosholi,” a virtual speaker series on Choctaw history and culture, and a researcher-consultant on government projects and collaborations with archives, museums, and other institutions. A specialist in 19th and 20th-century Choctaw legal history, Baker authored a series titled “A New Chahta Homeland: A History by the Decade,” which covers Oklahoma Choctaw history from 1830-2000s. She has consulted on exhibits with the Choctaw Cultural Center, Gilcrease Museum, musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Bibliothèque municipal de Versailles and others. She continues to collaborate with the department, consulting on her areas of expertise and assisting with community-based projects and educational programming.

Baker received her PhD in Anthropology and MA in American Indian Studies from UCLA and BA in Ethnicity and Race Studies from Columbia University. She is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.