William A. Starna

William A. Starna, (born 1943) is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. Starna has written and edited many books and journal articles, largely devoted to the archeology and history of the Mohawk and Iroquois Indian Nations in upstate New York and related colonial American history. Starna specializes in studying the Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples. He has also devoted much time to the study of the relationships that existed between the Indian nations and federal and state governments during the revolutionary era, and to the study of epistemology.

William A. Starna
Born	1943 (age 80–81)
Academic work
Institutions	State University of New York

Career

Starna and fellow archeologist Dean R. Snow conducted an extended project beginning in 1982 involving archeological excavations along the Mohawk Valley and its river, referred to as the Mohawk Valley Project. The project was conceived in 1980 during discussions between Starna and Snow. Starna, who grew up among the modern indigenous inhabitants and who introduced Snow to the valley, provided valuable archeological assistance to Snow during the first two projects, proving crucial to the project's long-term success, which lasted thirteen years. By 1989 Starna and Snow developed methods by which enabled them to determine Mohawk Indian population size for any specific year with "unexpected accuracy".

Other fields Starna has studied and written about include epistemology, i.e.the relationship between existing knowledge and philosophy, and the models used in this field, while asserting that there is no general consensus on what constitutes a model, as their application is greatly varied, maintaining that it is best to describe models in terms of their function. Starna has written several technical reports on Native American history and culture for Indian tribes, universities and museums. In 1986 he received a Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government Senior Fellowship award to assist him in the effort in studying Iroquois land claims in upstate New York involving the allegedly illegal transfer of much of Iroquois land that occurred between the 1760s and the 1840s.

In 2014 Starna noted various errors in New York State Education Department's (YNSED) Social Studies Framework and their Toolkit Development Project, involving interpretations and facts about colonial and American Indian history. In February the next year Starna met with a NYSED staff member to discuss the various discrepancies, following with an extended email correspondence. At first there was cooperation between NYSED and Starna, however, according to Starna, indifferences emerged, where he later wondered if there were political factors influencing their discussions and lack of cooperation. Starna concluded that, "Neither the state's teachers nor its students are well served by such an inattentive approach to education, Common Core Standards not withstanding".

On April 19, 2018, Starna delivered a lecture at the Jacob Leisler Institute, in Hudson, New York, on the Iroquoian and Algonquian Indian nations of Eastern North America with focus on their culture and society. Starna has also conducted lectures, and held adjunct appointments at the State University on New York at Albany, Binghamton University, and Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario.

Starna was elected vice president of the board of trustees of the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History in 2020. He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of History and serves on the board of the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History. He was a consultant with the Native American Rights Fund.

Works

• Starna, William A.; Snow, Dean R. (1981). Foundations of northeast archaeology. ISBN 0-12-653960-X.
• ——; Relethford, John H. (October 1985). "Deer Densities and Population Dynamics: A Cautionary Note". American Antiquity. 50 (4). Cambridge University Press: 825–832. doi:10.2307/280171. JSTOR 280171.
• ——; Gehiring, Charles T.; Fenton, William N. (October 1987). "The Tawagonshi Treaty of 1613: The Final Chapter". New York History. 68 (4). Fenimore Art Museum: 373–393. JSTOR 23178797.
• ——; Vecsey, Christopher (1988). Iroquois land claims. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-81560-2224.
• ——; Watkins, Ralph (Winter 1991). "Northern Iroquoian Slavery". Ethnohistory. 38 (1). Duke University Press: 34–57. doi:10.2307/482790. JSTOR 482790.
• —— (Autumn 1991). "The Southeast Syndrome: The Prior Restraint of a Non-Even". American Indian Quarterly. 15 (4). University of Nebraska Press: 493–502. JSTOR 1185366.
• ——; Snow, Dean R. (1996). In Mohawk country : early narratives about a Native people. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-81560-4105.
• ——; Hamell, George R. (October 1996). "History and the Burden of Proof: The Case of Iroquois Influence on the U.S. Constitution". New York History. 77 (4). Fenimore Art Museum: 427–452. JSTOR 23182553.
• —— (2013). From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80324-4955.
• —— (Winter 2003). "Assessing American Indian-Dutch Studies: Missed and Missing Opportunities". New York History. 84 (1). Fenimore Art Museum: 4–31. JSTOR 23183474.
• ——; Fenton, William N. (2007). Iroquois Journey: An Anthropologist Remembers. ISBN 978-0-80322-0218.
• —— (September 2008). "Retrospecting the Origins of the League of the Iroquois". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 152 (3). American Philosophical Society: 279–321. JSTOR 40541589.
• ——; Dally-Starna, Corinna (2009). Gideon's People, 2-volume Set. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80322-4278.
• —— (Winter 2017). "After the Handbook: A Perspective on 40 years of Scholarship Since the Publication of the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, Northeast". New York History. 98 (1). Fenimore Art Museum: 112–146. JSTOR 90018774.

_{Further reading}

---

• Sturtevant, William (1978). Handbook of North American Indians (20 volume work). Vol. XV, Northeast Indian nations. Smithsonian Institution.

See also

• William N. Fenton, American scholar, known for his extensive studies of Iroquois history and culture.
• Arthur C. Parker, archaeologist, historian, noted authority on Native American culture
• Elisabeth Tooker—Anthropologist and a leading historian on the Iroquois Indian nations in the United States

Sources

• Snow, Dean R. (1995). Mohawk Valley Archaeology: The Collections. Occasional Papers. Vol. 22. Matson Museum of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University. ISBN 0-9647913-1-5.
• "William Starna elected to institute office". The Oneonta Bulletin. September 2, 2020. Retrieved Jul 13, 2023.
• "William Starna On Native People In Hudson April 19th". New York Almanack. March 22, 2018. Retrieved Jul 13, 2023.
• Lauter, Jenna (Dec 4, 2015). "William A. Starna, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, State University of New York College at Oneonta" (PDF). Retrieved Jul 14, 2023.
• "2018 Lecture Series". Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History. 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• "American Indians in the Mid-Hudson Valley". Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History. 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2023.