Appalachian State University’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and Department of Anthropology will host archaeologist Dr. María Nieves Zedeño as the 2026 Mountain Studies Lecture Series speaker on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, from 7–8:30 p.m. in the Parkway Ballroom (Room 420) of the Plemmons Student Union. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. This visit follows her originally scheduled appearance for the 2024 Mountain Studies Lecture, which was canceled due to the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene. CAS is pleased to welcome Dr. Zedeño to campus to continue the series’ focus on the cultural, ecological, and historical significance of mountain landscapes. Dr. Zedeño will present “Ninaistákis, Home of Thunder: Chief Mountain as a Blackfoot Chronotype.” The lecture begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a Q&A. In her lecture, Zedeño will discuss the following: Across the world, mountain landscapes contain significant social, political, and spiritual values beyond unique ecologies and resources. Such significance evolves through time alongside the people who use them. The northern Rocky Mountain Front, headwaters of North America’s divides, figures prominently in the origins and cultural development of both Plains and Mountain aboriginal groups who traversed or inhabited it. Named Ninaistákis by the Blackfoot, Chief Mountain rises in striking contrast with surrounding peaks, providing a landmark for mobile bison hunters who not only traversed its base but ascended its cliffs to obtain knowledge and power. While archaeological remains on and around Chief Mountain attest to the antiquity of these interactions, the contemporary Blackfoot preserve oral traditions of the spiritual forces who inhabit it as well as ancient ceremonial practices that connect people to its power. Here, Zedeño proposes that Chief Mountain is a kind of chronotope where time and space fuse and thus stands as a monument to the community, its symbol, and a force that helps shape identity and belonging. T