Joe Watkins, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, has dedicated his life's work to anthropology and archaeology within the context of the Indigenous Peoples of North America and beyond. A recent president of the Society for American Archaeology, he has served on the faculties of the University of Arizona and the University of New Mexico and was a research associate at the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Japan). He has written and spoken widely in both academic and public spheres, and he is a sought-out commentator on Indigenous issues. 

At Dartmouth he met with both the faculty and the students of Dartmouth's Native Studies Program, and he was a visiting professor in classes in that program and the anthropology department, as well as dining with students in their house communities.