The Council for Minnesota Archaeology incorporated on May 13, 1971 by founding board members Timothy Fiske (Curator at the St. Paul Science Museum), Vernon Helmen (Professor at Hamline University), Elden Johnson (State Archaeologist and Professor at the University of Minnesota), and Alan R. Woolworth (Chief of Archaeology Department at the Minnesota Historical Society).
From the beginning, the Council has been dedicated to promoting archaeological research and interpretation within the State of Minnesota by:
Stimulating, encouraging and supporting scientific archaeological field research
Initiating responsible action to conserve and preserve archaeological resources
Engaging and supporting others in interpreting and disseminating the results of scientific archaeological research
Providing a corporate entity representing the community of scholars who conduct archaeological research within the State of Minnesota.
Check out our By-laws, which recently changed on February 22, 2025.
Contact Us:
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Lucy Harrington
PRESIDENT
Lucy's interest in Minnesota archaeology began when she first started working here in 2018. She is particularly interested in Paleoindian and Archaic occupations and using post-processual archaeology theory to develop "thick descriptions" of the past. Contact Lucy @ luharrington@gmail.com
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Jammi Ladwig
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Jammi began her archaeological career in 2007 and has worked in both private and public sectors doing cultural resources management. She has worked in field, office, and laboratory settings. Her geographical area of archaeological focus has always been the North American Midwest, and specifically Minnesota.
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Travis Armstrong
VICE PRESIDENT
Travis Armstrong is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Reservation Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. He also has immediate family on White Earth, his grandfather’s reservation.
Travis is a fire-line trained archaeologist. He was a Senior Environmental Scientist for CAL FIRE after serving twice as a regional archaeologist responsible for San Diego, Orange County and the Eastern Sierras. He was the Curator of Native American Cultures at UCLA, in charge of UCLA’s archaeological collections and also serving as the campus NAGPRA Coordinator. Travis has extensive experience working for four California tribal governments including serving as Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), Tribal Archaeologist and Native American Cultural Monitor.
He has a JD from the UCLA School of Law, MA in anthropology from Temple University and MA in applied archaeology from Cal State San Bernardino. His thesis at Cal State focused on a wild rice camp at Big Rice Lake in northern Minnesota.
He is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Register of Professional Archaeologists.
Travis is chair of the Curation Interest Group and serves on the Committee for Native American Relations, Museum, Collections and Curation Committee, and Native American Scholarship Committee of the Society for American Archaeology.
Travis is past president of the San Diego County Archaeological Society where he heads the Native American Engagement and Collaboration Committee. He also is on the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Archaeological Center, a federal repository and museum. He is the Legislative Committee Chair of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology.
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Laura Meier
SECRETARY/TREASURER
Laura values a community engaged, interdisciplinary approach to historical research. She holds a bachelor’s in anthropology and a master’s of heritage studies & public history from the University of Minnesota. She is currently Tribal Archivist of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community while studying tribal sovereignty & federal Indian law at UMD.
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Ivy Faulkner
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Ivy Faulkner was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology, History, and Classics at Arizona State University and her master's and doctorate degrees in Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She currently works in the field of cultural resources management at Bolton & Menk, Inc., primarily on projects in the State of Minnesota.