I am a PhD student in the Anthropology program. I graduated from Wake Forest University in 2024 with a B.A. in anthropology with an archaeology concentration, before interning with the National Park Service at both the Vicksburg National Military Park and the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. In these positions I performed artifact analysis on emergency disinterments of United States Colored Troops buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery, as well as site analysis and survey of Native American mound and village sites along the Natchez Trace, a historic and prehistoric trade and travel route running from the Mississippi River deep into Appalachia. With the guidance of my mentor, Dr. Jennifer Birch, I intend to pursue my research interests in the complex sociopolitical landscape of Native American polities in the 15-1600s and how indigenous politics, societies, and cultures adapted to the arrival of Spanish and other European forces in the region. In particular, I hope to emphasize the complex political relationships and rivalries among Native Americans and their relationship to the resilience of indigenous groups during initial contact with Europeans.