Megan Baker (she/her) is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. A sociocultural anthropologist and tribal historian, her research focuses on Choctaw law, material culture, and historical production in Oklahoma, with broader interests in Indigenous sovereignty, racial capitalism, and the legal anthropology of settler colonialism in North America.
Baker received her Ph.D. in Anthropology and M.A. in American Indian Studies from UCLA, and her B.A. in Ethnicity and Race Studies from Columbia University. Her dissertation, “Building More Than an Economy,” examines the entanglement of US and tribal property law with anthropological and historical narratives, illustrating how these knowledge systems have simultaneously facilitated land dispossession and challenged Choctaw sovereignty in the era of contemporary Indigenous resurgence.
Baker’s archival research focuses on 19th and 20th century Oklahoma Choctaw law and politics. Her work pays particular attention to the unique legal features of the Five Tribes’ removal treaties and how they have shaped present-day Oklahoma and wider Indian Country. She is also currently working on a history of Choctaw economic development beginning with its engagement with the 1870s mining industry to contemporary tribal gaming. Baker’s current book project treats anthropological and historical texts on the Oklahoma Choctaws as ethnographic objects to reveal how these works have supported US legal and economic frameworks while shaping the development of tribal governance, economic development, and Indigenous political authority in the post-McGirt v. Oklahoma era. Her community-based projects include collaborative archival work with a county historical society and art-based revitalization of rivercane basketry and traditional textiles.
From 2019 to 2023, Baker served as a Cultural Research Associate for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s Historic Preservation department, where she developed and led public history and community-engaged initiatives. These included serving as editor of the “Iti Fabvssa” column in the Biskinik newspaper, authoring the “A New Chahta Homeland: A History by the Decade” series (as well as others), and hosting the “Chahta Tosholi” virtual speaker series. She has collaborated with institutions such as the Choctaw Cultural Center, Gilcrease Museum, Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Bibliothèque municipale de Versailles and others.
Baker’s research has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, ACLS/Mellon Foundation, American Anthropological Association, American Philosophical Society, among others. She continues to work in collaboration with the Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation Department and other cultural institutions, contributing to ongoing efforts in public history, cultural revitalization, and community research.
Contact
Email: megan.baker@northwestern.edu
Website: https://www.megan-baker.com/
Select Recent Work
“Coal in Choctaw Nation”
Part I: https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/coal-in-choctaw-nation-part-i/
Part II: https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/coal-in-choctaw-nation-part-ii/
Part III: https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/coal-in-choctaw-nation-part-iii/
“S4, E7: ‘Another Fascinating Look at Our Choctaw History by the Decade: Megan Baker (Choctaw).’” Native Choctalk.YouTube. April 12, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxkriRTWhA.
“Behind the Scenes of the Choctaw Video for the Exhibit ‘An Inquisitive Prince.’” The Royal Collections from North America Project Blog, Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, January 25, 2023. https://croyan.quaibranly.fr/en/behind-the-scenes-of-the-choctaw-video-for-the-exhibit-an-inquisitive-prince
Co-authored with Byram, Jennifer. “Museums and Renewed Relations: Choctaw-French Nations of the Eighteenth Century and Present.” Collections 18, no. 1(2022): 59-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211073096
“I Do What I Do for the Language: Land and Choctaw Language and Cultural Revitalization.” In Allotment Stories: Indigenous Land Relations under Settler Siege, edited by Daniel Heath Justice and Jean M. O’Brien. University of Minnesota Press, 2022.
“S2, E18, Pt1: A Fascinating New Look at Our Choctaw History by the Decade: Megan Baker (Choctaw).” Native Choctalk.YouTube. September 22, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vsoAqqTZeQ.
“Chahta Textile Revitalization With Jennifer Byram,” ChoctawNationOK. YouTube. February 11, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFHZELroeSE.
“Myths of Fifty-Fifty: Household Water Use & Gendered Divisions of Labor in Los Angeles.” Working Paper Series No. 1. Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, UCLA, November 2019. https://escholarship.org/content/qt97k0x27n/qt97k0x27n.pdf?t=q2eqw9