Michael Eugene Harkin is one of the leading anthropologists in the United States specializing in the ethnohistory of indigenous people of the western U.S. and Canada.
More recently he has worked with the Nuu-chah-nulth (formerly referred to as "Nootka") people of Vancouver Island, and several groups of the northern Great Plains.
In more recent works, he has pursued a range of interests, primarily in the analysis of indigenous culture in a historical context.
He has also contributed to the literature on ethnoecology, arguing that traditional Northwest Coast ecological models expressed via ritual and myth non-linear system dynamics.
He has edited several important books on Native Americans and the environment, revitalization movements, and Northwest Coast ethnology.