By John van Willigen
[ant101@uky.edu]
SfAA Oral History Project, Chair
University of Kentucky
 
By Carla N. Littlefield
[cnlittlefield@q.com]
High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology
 
This transcript is based on a group interview of High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology (HPSfAA) leadership conducted by Pam Puntenney and John van Willigen, for the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) Oral History Project, on April 4 and 5, 2003 in Estes Park, Colorado. The composition of the group changes over the two sessions but includes Carla Littlefield, Art Campa, Peter Van Arsdale and Deward Walker as well as Puntenney and van Willigen. The text was edited by van Willigen. The introduction was prepared by Littlefield. The photos were provided by Emilia Gonzalez Clements.

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By John van Willigen
[John.vanWilligen@uky.edu]
Chair, SfAA Oral History Project
University of Kentucky

John van Willigen

William Y. Adams’ distinguished career includes doing archaeology in response to the construction of dams; Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona and the Aswan high  dam project in Egypt. This interview is focused on his work dealing with the impacts of the inundation which the dam caused in the Sudan. This work started in 1957 and lasting seven years. His wife, anthropologist Nettie K. Adams was a partner in these efforts and  has made important contributions to the study of textiles in an archaeological context in the Middle East. They are both anthropology graduates of the University of Arizona.  Their involvement in Nubia started as a four month consulting project for Bill but evolved in an important multi-year effort in which both were involved. Based on this work Bill published  the seminal Nubia: Corridor to Africa (1977). This volume received the 1978 Melville J. Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association as the best book on Africa published in English of that year.  Later his Nubian work was officially recognized in the Sudan by being awarded the Order of the Two Niles by the President.  Upon his return to the United States, Bill Adams became a faculty member at the University of Kentucky where he played a major role in the development of the Applied Anthropology PhD Program. Now retired,  Bill and Nettie  continue their writing and research programs. The interview and editing for transcription accuracy and continuity was done by John van Willigen.

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By Martha W. Rees
[mrees@agnesscott.edu]
Agnes Scott College

Introduction
Born in 1935 to an immigrant Arabic-speaking family from Aleppo, Syria, Salomón Nahmad-Sitton started as one of the few male students in social work, and that work led him to anthropology, where he was quickly scooped up by the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI), the Mexican federal Indian agency, that, at that time, administered indigenous groups, their health, education and other resources. In his time in the INI, Salomón made his career and had a reputation for getting in trouble—getting kicked out of Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacán and Yucatán, to name a few, culminating when he was jailed in 1983. After a Fulbright in the US in the mid 1980s, he and his wife, Ximena Avellaneda, moved to Oaxaca, where he is today a senior researcher and past director of the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS). I met Salomón and Ximena in the late 1970s when they built a home in Ajusco, where I was doing my dissertation fieldwork. Subsequently, I worked for Salomón in the INI (1983). We have continued our friendship for over three decades, through thick and thin. This interview is a small attempt to record many of the stories and experiences I had heard about and shared over the years.

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By John van Willigen
[john.vanwilligen@uky.edu]
SfAA Oral History Project
University of Kentucky

James M. Acheson has had a distinguished career as a natural resource anthropologist. He is well known for his pioneering work in fisheries management working both in federal agencies and as an academic researcher. He was one of the first anthropologists to work in the National Marine Fisheries Service. Acheson is currently Professor of Anthropology and Marine Sciences at the University of Maine. This interview was done in early 2005 by Susan Abbott-Jamieson. Abbott-Jamieson is a research anthropologist who works for the National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA. Further understanding of this history can be gained by reading “The Long Voyage to Including Sociocultural Analysis in NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service” Marine Fisheries Review 72(2):14-33. This comprehensive account was written by Abbott-Jamieson and Patricia M. Clay. The transcript starts with a question eliciting Acheson’s early academic life.

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By John van Willigen
[John.vanWilligen@uky.edu]
Chair, SfAA Oral History Committee
University of Kentucky

Noel Chrisman

This transcript is of an interview with Noel Chrisman done by Elizabeth Strober for the Society for Applied Anthropology Oral History Project. Noel is on the faculty of the University of Washington, School of Nursing where he is involved in cross-cultural nursing and cultural competence training. In his research and practice he has been a consistent practitioner of Community-Based Participatory Research in health. Noel Chrisman has served the Society as its President 2001-2003. The interview was conducted on January 4, 2002 in Seattle. Elizabeth Strober is on the faculty in the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work at Seattle University. This transcript has been edited for continuity by removing repetition, conversational restarts and hesitations and it is also abridged.

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