Ethnographer

M.A., Applied Archaeology, University of Arizona, School of Anthropology, 2015
B.A., Anthropology, Minor in History and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon, 2008

Mario is a cultural anthropologist whose areas of expertise include ethnographic, archival, and cultural landscape research in collaboration with Native American Tribes and descendant communities. His research focuses on the dynamic and multidimensional use of place, often as part of a larger and interconnected traditional cultural landscape. He regularly works with Native American knowledge keepers and community elders to document the relationships Tribal communities have with their lands and cultural resources.

For nearly 15 years, Mario has worked in the Northwest, Southwest, and Plains where he has led both small and large-scale traditional land use studies for Tribes, federal and state agencies, and municipalities. His work and collaboration with Tribes and tribal organizations has included archaeological and ethnographic surveys, work in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, traditional cultural place/property (TCP) studies, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act projects, and various capacity building projects for Tribal cultural resource programs and language programs. He has also worked as a grant writer for multiple Tribes and tribal organizations, raising over $1,500,000 in grant funds for oral history projects, development of cultural curricula, and language preservation.

Mario has authored and co-authored several Tribal and federal agency publications about education, language, and curriculum development. He has also given multiple talks and papers on TCP projects and cultural landscape studies, development of cultural story maps, trail networks, place-based curriculum development, and public education within archaeology, among other topics.

Prior to joining Willamette, Mario worked as the Northwest Regional Manager of an American Indian-owned consulting firm for 6 years where he conducted a range of TCP and cultural landscape studies. Before that, he worked as an ethnographer helping to run the Ethnography Program for the Nez Perce Tribe Cultural Resource Program. Mario also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, where he helped to build community gardens and plant drought resistant crops of millet and sorghum.