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Bio

Gwen Bakke is a graduate student in the department's Archaeology PhD program. Her primary interests lie in zooarchaeology and human-animal interactions, and her dissertation research focuses on how European colonization impacted traditional subsistence practices of Native Americans on the southern Plains. In particular, she interested in how traditional lifeways of the Wichita Indians were affected by aspects of European contact including the economy-based hunting of bison for European trade goods. Data for this research will be collected from the faunal analysis of four Wichita archaeological sites along the Red River of Oklahoma and Texas. These include the Upper Tucker, Coyote, Gas Plant, and Glass sites, all of which date from the Late Prehistoric through the mid to late 18th century. Her past research used faunal analysis to understand trade processes and the impacts of Christianization during the Viking age on the Swedish Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

Research Interests 

Zooarchaeology • Human-Animal Interactions • Subsistence Practices • Faunal Analysis •American Southern Plains