Sylvester L. Lahren, Jr.
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.
M.A., Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.
B.S. Anthropology, Oregon State University.
Dr. Lahren has been involved with applied cultural anthropology research projects since 1969. He has considerable experience conducting projects that fall under National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and is familiar with Federal requirements for ethnographic studies. He has been the Research Director on over 60 projects which involved ethnography, ethnohistorical research, ethnoarchaeology, ethnographic assessment, survey research design and analysis, project formulation and development, and implementation of specific programs. He taught in the college and university systems, attaining the rank of Full-Professor of Anthropology, and receiving tenure. Dr. Lahren taught both ethnographic and archeological field methods classes and is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology.
He meets the National Park Service, March 2000, “Essential Competencies –Ethnographer” requirements at the Full Performance Level (GS-109) and all the qualifications set forth in the National Park Service’s National Register Bulletin 38: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties, Section IX. Appendix II, Professional Qualifications: Ethnography.
Dr. Lahren meets the professional standards and qualifications set forth in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation (36 CFR Part 61). He has been involved with over 100 archaeological projects and was the Principal Investigator on most Section 106 projects. These projects consisted of cultural resource inventory, monitoring, and archaeological testing. He was the Forest Archaeologist at Beaverhead National Forest, Montana from 1984 to 1985 and was responsible for all Section 106 projects. Recent archaeological permits include Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Washington.
Area specializations include North American Indians, economic development, cultural change, Traditional Cultural Properties, Indian Religious Freedom, natural resource damage and subsistence. As an applied cultural anthropologist, he produced a variety of written documents, published a number of articles and reports, and presented professional papers in these fields of study.
Dr. Lahren’s early ethnographic work was primarily focused on the Plateau area of the northwest. His first ethnographic field work was conducted on the Warm Springs and Yakima Reservations from 1969-1971 as an undergraduate at Oregon State University. Since that time he has conducted ethnographic research on the following Plateau cultural groups: Kutenai, Flathead, Palus, Kalispel, Nez Perce and Coeur d’ Alene. His research led to two publications in the 1998 Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 12: Plateau, titled Kalispel and Reservations and Reserves.
On the Plains he has worked with the Rosebud Sioux, South Dakota, and Fort Peck Assiniboine Sioux Tribes of Montana. In the Southwest he was selected as the sole ethnographer to conduct a confidential U. S. Census research project (with permission of the Tribal Council) on an undisclosed Indian reservation.
In the Great Basin he has conducted ethnographic research among the Ute of Utah/Colorado and in Nevada he has worked with the Western Shoshone groups known as Yomba Shoshone, Te-Moak Shoshone (4 Bands, Wells, Elko, South Fork and Battle Mountain).
Currently, in the Great Basin he is conducting ethnographic and archaeological research among the Northern Shoshone-Bannock of Idaho, and the Nevada/Utah Western Shoshone groups known as the Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone and Goshute.
He conducted ethnographic research in Guatemala, Central America in 1973 on demographic trends and population problems. During the summer of 2007, Mr. Lahren was the ethnographic consultant for a research project on sustainable development and use of new stove types in Peru, South America.
