Josie Muskrat

‘Siyo! My name is Josie Magdalena Muskrat, my pronouns are she/they, and I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. I grew up on a small farm in the Ozarks, where I was homeschooled and spent my days learning about animal husbandry and the plants and wildlife in the forest surrounding our farm, and my nights working through my parents’ huge collection of books. I received my bachelor’s in environmental science from Haskell Indian Nations University, where I participated in a number of projects related to the Haskell wetlands, sustainability, rocketry, coding, and eventually an internship in anthropological genetics through the Haskell-KU Bridge program. I am now working in the same lab as a PhD student and have become broadly interested in the use of ancient DNA analysis to study the evolution of domesticates in North America.