2026 Annual Meeting
April 10-12, 2026
Holiday Inn Downtown, Missoula, MT
The Montana Archaeological Society (MAS) will be holding the next annual meeting in Missoula. Missoula offers a great central location, with many amenities.
This year’s meeting will begin Friday with a site tour, Education workshop, Board and Committee meetings, and an evening social hour with posters and fundraising auction. Saturday will be filled with interesting papers and an evening banquet with a guest speaker. There will be additional offerings throughout the weekend, and a more detailed schedule is forthcoming. All meetings and presentations will be held at the Holiday Inn Downtown Missoula.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Oral presentations: Oral presentations (20 minutes maximum) are invited on all aspects of Montana archaeology. Please submit less than 200-word abstracts in MS Word format to jlarmon@hrassoc.com. Please include paper title, author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s), author(s) mailing address, email address and telephone number, and designation as an oral presentation. Abstracts will be accepted through Monday, March 2, 2026.
Authors who have had articles published in Archaeology in Montana are encouraged to present their research. Presenters are also encouraged to submit their research as an article to Archaeology in Montana. Remember to renew your membership or become a member when submitting your abstract and registration.
Poster Presentations: Poster presentations will also be accepted this year. While authors will not be expected to give formal presentations, they should be present and available to discuss their work when presented on Friday evening. Anyone wanting to do a poster presentation should contact Jeannie Larmon at jlarmon@hrassoc.com
STUDENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
1) Education Committee Paper and Poster Award: a conference stipend is available for students presenting their research at the Montana Archaeological Society conference. Two students who present papers will each receive a $275 stipend, and two students who present posters will each receive $225. Together, these opportunities help reduce financial barriers while encouraging fieldwork, research, and professional engagement within the archaeological community. Applications can be found on the MAS website and the deadline for all scholarships is March 15, 2026. Student presenters who receive a stipend will also receive a Saturday evening banquet ticket. You must be an MAS member with active registration to apply. If you are a student and interested in presenting a paper, please download the student reimbursement form. Submit your reimbursement form to admin@mtarchaeologicalsociety.org.
2) Ruthann Knudsen Scholarship: Established in honor of Ruthann Knudson, the scholarship provides TWO $800 awards to female students planning to participate in an archaeological field school. This scholarship reflects Ruthann’s own request to uplift women in archaeology and honors her legacy as an accomplished author, dedicated teacher, and leader for women in the field. Her career spanned academia, cultural resource management, public service, and policy development. Ruthann Knudsen Scholarship Application. The deadline for the Ruthann Knudsen Scholarship application is March 15, 2026. Please submit your scholarship application to admin@mtarchaeologicalsociety.org.
3) Travel Stipend: MAS is offering 6 travel stipends of $300 for early career archaeologists and students. To receive a stipend, please fill out the attached application. If you receive a travel stipend, we request that you plan to present at the 2026 conference (a poster or paper), submit a paper to Archaeology in Montana, or contribute a section to the MAS Newsletter. Upon the receival of your application, we will reach out to discuss these options. Please reach out Jeannie (jlarmon@hrassoc.com) with questions. Travel Stipend Application. The deadline for the Travel Stipend application is March 15, 2026.
4) Student Awards: Thanks to many generous donors, this year MAS is offering all student presenters (poster or paper) a $100 Presenter’s Scholarship. This scholarship can help to offset the cost of the conference and can be added to the student’s CV or resume as an official award.
5) Conservation Fund Award: The Montana Archaeology Society’s Committee on Conservation Archaeology wants to support your research efforts. We offer funding to help scholarly research, stewardship programs, laboratory analysis, stabilization efforts, and more. Funding can range from $500-2,000 and is meant to support existing efforts. Examples of successful past projects include funding for C-14 dates, pole-assisted aerial photography services, and GPR testing. Recipients of funds are required to share their results by publishing a paper in the Archaeology in Montana Journal or presenting at a MAS annual meeting. Applications are due March 15th, 2026.
Download the Conservation Fund App Here.
If you have any questions contact one of the Conservation Committee Co-Chairs:
Patrick Rennie – prennie@mt.gov
Laura Evilsizer – levilsizer@mt.gov
WORKSHOPS / TOURS:
Rock Art Site Recording Workshop
The Montana Archaeological Society (MAS), in collaboration with Sacred Sites Research (SSR), will sponsor a hands-on workshop on rock art site recording at the upcoming MAS annual meeting in Missoula on April 10, 2026. Participants will be guided through the ten steps for recording a pictograph or petroglyph site. The workshop includes three hours of illustrated classroom lectures, followed by two hours of practical field instruction at a rock art site east of Missoula. (MORE INFORMATION HERE!)
Unseen Missoula Tour
While most in Missoula are familiar with the name Mary Gleim or the brief history of Front Street, many of the district’s stories remain untold including Gleim’s and her businesses. Since its existence along the historic Mullan Road, Front Street has been dubbed with the title of Missoula’s ‘red light district’ implicating that district remained a place of vice, sin, and corruption influenced by the radical reformist religious movements of the late 19th century. However, violence and addiction found throughout the entirety of the American West remain only a sliver of the true story. Please sign up for the tour when you register.
(MORE INFORMATION HERE!)
Education Committee Ethnobotany Workshop with Scott Dersam and Sari Dersam:
Sunday, April 12th between 10-12. This workshop will discuss the methods and practices for identifying Indigenous conservation and landscape-tending behaviors in the archaeological record. We provide an overview of how these methods enable archaeologists to observe the physical manifestation of these practices, providing multiple methodologies anthropologists can rely on to present the long, diverse histories of the landscape, particularly when surficial expressions of ‘artifacts’ are not present on a landform.
HOTEL INFORMATION
The host facility is the Holiday Inn Downtown, Missoula, Montana (200 S Pattee St, 406-721-8550)
As the conference hotel, the Holiday Inn has reserved a block of rooms at the conference rate ($151 per night). The cutoff date for booking a room at the conference rate is March 10, 2026. Book early to ensure the widest room selection.
Online Reservations Booking Link:
Simply click on the booking link below and book your stay.
Reservations via phone:
You may also contact the front desk 24/7 at 406-721-8550 to make a reservation or ask questions. If you call, please let the front desk please have the following information available to provide the agent on the phone.
Group Name: MAS 2026 Conference Group Booking Code: MAS
MEETING REGISTRATION
Meeting registration is $45 for members, $50 for non-members, and $10 for students.
The Banquet will be on Saturday evening and banquet tickets are $40-45, per person (based on meal choice). Please indicate your dinner choice (Roasted Vegetable & Creamy Polenta, Bison Meatloaf, Salmon, or Chicken) along with your registration. Dinner registrations must be received by March 18, 2026.
Register on-line at: https://mtarchaeologicalsociety.org/mas-2023-meeting-registration/ Online registration offers an option to pay via PayPal or mailing a check to P.O. Box 4522, Missoula, 59806.
If you have any questions please feel free to send a note to jlarmon@hrassoc.com Jeannie Larmon, MAS President
FOR UP-TO-DATE MEETING AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION VISIT:
https://www.mtarchaeologicalsociety.org
FIND MAS on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM (@mt_archaeological_society)!
See you in April!!
Jeannie Larmon
MAS President