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In 2019, historian Lukas Rieppel published a book about the history of dinosaur fossils and their excavation in the late 1800s to create museum displays.

But an entire facet of the story didn't make it into the book, the Brown University associate professor of history said, because he couldn't do it justice at the time. Rieppel wondered about the ways that Native people in North America thought about fossils before non-Native scientists showed up on fact-finding and excavation missions.

Rieppel has devoted the last two-plus years addressing precisely that question. He has been studying the history of the White River Badlands in South Dakota and Nebraska in partnership with Craig Howe, a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who grew up in the Pine Ridge Reservation and founded the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies there.

"I wanted to focus on a specific place and a particular group of people," said Rieppel, who joined the Brown faculty in 2013. "And I knew that it was important to collaborate with Native people who live in the area, so working with Craig has been a wonderful opportunity."

Through a series of trips, Rieppel spent nearly a year at the Pine Ridge Reservation, which is one of the largest Native reservations in the U.S. In addition to working with Howe, his time there included getting to know the land by hiking with a knowledgeable guide in the White River Badlands and working with the Woksape Tipi Library and Archives at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota.

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