Academic literature on the topic 'Native American Archaeology'

In the late nineteenth century, while advocates garnered support for a law protecting America's archaeological resources, the U.S. government was seeking to dispossess Native Americans of traditional lands and eradicate native languages and cultural practices. That the government should safeguard Indian heritage in one way while simultaneously enacting policies of cultural obliteration deserves close scrutiny and provides insight into the ways in which archaeology is drawn into complex sociopolitical developments. Focusing on the American Southwest, this article argues that the Antiquities Act was fundamentally linked to the process of incorporating Native Americans into the web of national politics and markets. Whereas government programs such as boarding schools and missions sought to integrate living indigenous communities, the Antiquities Act served to place the Native American past under the explicit control of the American government and its agents of science. This story of archaeology is vital, because it helps explain the contemporary environment in which debates continue about the ownership and management of heritage.

AbstractArchaeologists today are being urged from within and outside their profession to incorporate aboriginal oral traditions in reconstructing culture histories. Such challenges usually ignore or at least drastically underestimate the difficulties in doing so. Not least among those difficulties is that of attempting to reconcile inherently and profoundly different ways of conceptualizing the past without violating the integrity of one or the other or both. The pro and con arguments are examined theoretically and as actually employed in discrete instances. These raise such problems of incommensurability as to severely limit the fruitfulness and even desirability of making the attempt.

This paper analyzes the southeastern Connecticut Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation’s battle with cultural erasure and resistance through education. Indigenous education programs are gradual yet the most effective method of resisting Western cultural erasure from the United States government, because they peacefully invite both Natives and non-Natives to learn about Native American history outside of European colonizer textbooks. The Tribe battles the erasure that can result from external parties’ ability to grant state or federal titles recognizing tribal authority (known as recognition titles) to determine who receives the powerful stamp of Indigeneity and the right to self- govern. My case study focuses on the Eastern Pequots Archaeology Field School project in collaboration with University of Massachusetts, Boston. I evaluate how the Eastern Pequots use a collaborative archaeology education program with their Tribal members and non-Native individuals to resist erasure by decolonizing Western pedagogy. The Field School has gathered over 99,000 artifacts over 15 seasons that dismantle common misconceptions of how Native Americans lived during the beginning of the United States’ history and redefine modern beliefs about how Natives survived European colonization. The Field School contributes to expanding brief descriptions of Native history into a more complicated and dynamic story that elaborates on Native struggle, survival and resistance.

Legal regulation of the archaeological record has played a subtle though instrumental role in the shaping of American anthropology. Most studies of connections between politics and archaeology in analogous contexts have, however, focused on nationalisms and the popular political orchestration of archaeology. This paper grounds an analysis of the American case in legal apparatuses, disciplinary changes in anthropology, and a shift in the expression of American nationalism between the Antiquities Act of 1906 and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. The article argues that archaeology has attained broader social significance as archaeologists now consult native peoples in the practice of archaeology. Though archaeology remains a politicized science it has become a more broadly negotiated one and the historical and cultural issues it faces may yet find resolution through laws and responsive disciplinary practices that envision a society enhanced by cultural difference.

The replacement, for the most part, of native American populations by immigrants in the centuries after 1492 is one of the great demographic shifts of the modern world. It is fundamental for American archaeology, of course, and makes the background for acute moral and ethical issues, which will become more visible as the 500th anniversary of the Columbus landfall nears

This article reviews discussions and debates about effective communication within North American archaeology. The development of cultural resource management and the expansion of Native American control over archaeology have both influenced the practice and communication of archaeology. The concept of diverse stakeholders derives from discussions about ethics in archaeology, but is relevant to understanding the complexities of archaeological communication. Rather than focus on criticisms of archaeological communication, various examples of effective communication are provided.

This research focuses on the problem of how early pottery in New York State is defined and analyzed. Many traditional models suggest early pottery developed from an earlier steatite stone bowl technology. Thus far, studies that examine early pottery in the Northeast, called the Vinette Type Series, focus on the potential functions, archaeological contexts, and surface appearance of these vessels and fail to account for the social practices and technological choices inherent within these artifacts. This dissertation reevaluates early pottery using a non-typological approach. In the place of descriptive analysis, this research uses petrography, experimental geo-archaeology, and technical choice and agency theories to identify the different types of temper present in early ceramic vessels. This study also looks at the patterns of different technical choices made by early potters. The redefinition of early ceramic technology using post-modern theories allows the author to better understand the social practices involved in the rise of ceramic technology. The ceramic technological patterns identified are then compared with steatite stone bowl technology. This study concludes that early ceramic technology is more closely related to the practices of earth oven convection cooking than it is to any other cooking artifact. A reclassification of early ceramic fabrics is presented and the traditional early ceramic Vinette type categories are rejected.

Despite decades of Chaco-style great house research, the impetus for their construction and the extent to which their communities directly interacted across the northern Southwest remain poorly understood. A key question is whether great houses represent an articulated system centered at Chaco Canyon or whether they are a regional conceptualization of communal activities enacted on a local scale. The amount of documented great house variability suggests that local social and environmental contexts played an important role in the construction and use of these structures.

I present a case study of three late Pueblo II (A.D. 1050-1130) communities in the southern Cibola sub-region, located on the southern extent of the Pueblo culture area, to evaluate the role of great houses within their local and broader social contexts. I argue great houses in this area were constructed as costly signaling displays directed by local leaders to gain community prestige and access to non-local resources. I draw on survey, architectural, ceramic, faunal, and compositional data from each community to identify links between these great houses and others across the northern Southwest, examine the nature of great house use within the context of each associated community, and evaluate patterns of interaction with local and more distant communities. I then expand this analysis to evaluate evidence for costly signaling activities between great house communities from across the Chacoan sphere.

The results suggest that southern Cibola great houses were locally constructed using elements from the traditional Chaco architectural canon, and utilized remodeling events to increase their architectural link to Chaco Canyon. These great houses hosted community-integrating activities that incorporated ceramics from both the Pueblo and Mogollon ancestral traditions, possibly in an effort to socially integrate a multi-ethnic population. No evidence was identified to support the historically dominant model that southern Cibola great houses were built and controlled by Chaco Canyon populations. Based on this analysis, a costly signaling model better accounts for the construction of southern Cibola great houses than others posed for a Chaco regional system. This inference is supported at other great houses across the Chaco sphere, given the available macro-regional great house data.

This research involved low powered microscopic analysis of usewear patterns on the utilized edges of formal and informal tools sampled from the Nenana component (C1) and the Denali component (C2) of the Dry Creek Site. Dry Creek is one of the type sites for the Nenana Complex, which is often contrasted with the Denali Complex in Late Pleistocene archaeological studies of central Alaska (12,000–10,000 B.P.). There are twice as many unifacial scrapers than bifacial tools in the C1 formal tool assemblage. The C1 worked lithic assemblage contains a relatively high number of unifacially worked endscrapers and side scrapers when compared to the number of bifacial knife and point technology. The technological makeup of the formal tools sampled from the Denali component is characterized by the manufacture and use of a higher number of bifacial knives and projectile points. The presence of microblades within C2 and the absence of microblades in C1 are often cited as the most significant technological difference between these two tool kits. The analysis presented here suggests that with or without microblades, the Nenana and Denali components are different tool kits. However, differences in utilization signatures between formal bifacial knives and scrapers tools indicate that technological variability within C1 and C2 at Dry Creek may largely be shaped by early hunting and butchering versus later stage butchering and processing activities.

The 2011 excavation of Feature 9, a 3800 cal B.P. semisubterranean house at ADK-00237 on southwest Adak Island, is the only Neoglacial house excavated in the central Aleutian Islands and the only upland site excavation in the Aleutian Islands. House structural features, lithic debitage and tool analysis, sediment analysis, and spatial analysis are used to determine if upland household activities in Feature 9 differ from household activities in coastal Neoglacial houses. The complex hearth features at ADK-00237 are similar to those at the Amaknak Bridge (UNL-00050) site on Unalaska Island. The artifact assemblage at ADK-00237 is similar to other Margaret Bay phase sites in the eastern Aleutian Islands with the notable absence of fishing and hunting equipment and midden remains. Core and blade technology include one microblade core and two blade-like unifaces. Unifacial technology was more prevalent than bifacial technology and most tools were informal flake tools. The comparable tool assemblages suggest similar activities occurred in Feature 9 as at other Margaret Bay phase houses in the eastern Aleutian Islands. There is no evidence the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt)-like artifacts from Chaluka (SAM-00001) and Margaret Bay (UNL-00048) were identified at ADK-00237. The measurable differences in the upland site of ADK-00237 to coastal houses are that Feature 9 and the two additional houses were not stone-lined, it has a smaller assemblage size, there is a lower frequency of points within the assemblage, and no definitive fishing or hunting equipment was found. Given the available evidence, ADK-00237 was likely a lookout location, based on its proximity to a coastal village (ADK-00025) and its views and easy access to three other water bodies, Adak Strait to the west, South Arm Bay to the north, and Bay of Waterfalls to the southeast. ADK-00237 could also have been a refuge.

The examination of the tools that prehistoric people crafted for subsistence and related practices offers distinctive insights into how they lived their lives. Most often, researchers study these practices in isolation, by tool type or by material. However, by using a relational perspective, my research explores the tool assemblage as a whole including bone, stone and shell. This allows me to study the changes in tool industries in relation to one another, something that I could not accomplish by studying only one material or tool type. I use this broader approach to tool manufacture and use for the artifact assemblage from Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41), two sequential Middle and Late Woodland Period (A.D. 1-1050) archaeological sites on the central Gulf coast of Florida. The results of my research show that people made different choices, both in the type of material they used and the kind of tools they manufactured during the time they lived at these sites as subsistence practices shifted. Evidence of these trends aligns with discrete changes in strata within our excavations. The timing of depositional events and the artifacts found within each suggest people also used the sites differently through time. These trends exemplify the role of crafting tools in the way people maintain connections with their mutable social and physical world.

Anthropology
M.A.
This research addresses the identification of a Native American presence at the 18th century homestead of the Pharo family in coastal New Jersey, and what it reveals about life during the Contact period. Various stratigraphic contexts were excavated at the site that contain both European-made and Native-made artifacts. The foundation of this research is the definition and assessment of the contemporaneity of excavated contexts that include colonial and native-made artifacts at the West Creek site. By examining these contexts, conclusions can be drawn about the persistence of Native American technologies and settlement patterns into the 18th Century, as well as the interactions between Europeans and Native Americans at the site. Spatial distribution analysis utilizing ArcGIS technology was used to visualize the distribution of diagnostic artifact types throughout the site. Individual distribution maps were created for each of the selected artifact types. These maps were then compared to discern any site-wide patterns that exist. The spatial analysis conducted as part of this project demonstrates that Native Americans occupied areas at the West Creek site very close to one another. Native Americans and the Pharo family were interacting with one another on a regular basis for at least a short period of time. These interactions show no evidence of being violent or forceful. Despite the evidence of interactions, the Native Americans residing at the West Creek site maintained many Late Woodland technologies, including ceramics and projectile points. Furthermore, Native Americans continue to settle in settings similar to what is seen during the Late Woodland period.
Temple University--Theses

The purpose of this project was to determine if the human skeletal remains of two distinct Native American cemeteries, found in close geographic proximity, represent the same population. These archaeological sites are similar in location and artifacts. Burial practices, however, vary between the sites. These differences may represent class distinction or a difference in the times the cemeteries were used. Radiocarbon techniques have given dates of AD 230±300 and AD 635±105 for these two sites. Several methods of DNA isolation were compared for their ability to yield PCR amplifiable DNA. DNA isolation using a combination of CTAB and phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (24:24:1) provided the best results and yielded amplifiable DNA form two individuals, Hn I (8F-410) and Hn 10 ( 27F-8-14 b). Purification of the DNA by extraction from low melting agarose gel was required prior to PCR, and PCR conditions were optimized to maximize the DNA yields. Regions of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome of isolated DNA were amplified by PCR using primers which are specific for the HincII region of the mtDNA genome. Inability of restriction enzyme HincII to digest the amplified DNA of these two individuals suggested that they belong to the Native American mtDNA lineage C characterized by the loss of this restriction site.
Department of Anthropology

The Toltec Mounds site (3LN42) (A.D. 700-1050) in central Arkansas has intrigued archaeologists for decades. Although it dates well within the Woodland Period and has many features characteristic of a Woodland Period site, including grog-tempered pottery and a reliance on hunting and gathering, its mound-and-plaza layout is an architectural design suggestive of the later Mississippi Period (A.D. 1000-1500). This confusion is addressed in this thesis by examining two ceramic assemblages from different building stages of Mound D, the last mound to be altered at the site. The ceramics show an affiliation with northeastern Arkansas that has been underemphasized in the past, and that may provide more information on Toltec's relationships with its neighbors through the end of the Woodland Period.

This thesis examines the role played by European-made glass beads and other manufactured goods in first contact of Europeans with Native American Indian populations in Oregon, California and Washington. Utilising both the historical and archaeological record, the activities of the Spanish in Alta California, the Russians in Northern California, the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Pacific Northwest Coast companies are examined, highlighting their use of beads in gift giving and exchange with the Indians. The sources of the large volume of glass beads are presented and their method of manufacture discussed. The way In which different European nationalities and organisations progressed geographically and in the intensity of their interactions with the native populations is reflected in the archaeological assemblages, whilst processes of exchange and the use of trinkets such as beads in subjugation and pacification are clarified by study of the historical sources. Different European groups used such materials through the mission system, by pacification of groups to ensure access and safe passage and by the fur companies use of the beads as items of exchange for pelts of otters and other animals. The native Indian groups showed different preferences for specific coloured beads which then became part of their own wealth base and exchange system. The effects of such transactions, whether used deliberately as a form of subjugation or inadvertently as barter items, was to transform the economic systems of the native populations and specifically the way In which conspicuous consumption was carried out in potlatch ceremonies. The effect of both the introduction of new material items and the novel form of economic transactions bolstered other effects of the Europeans which transformed Native American cosmology and society permanently.

The article presents a survey of main prospects and procedures of archeological vessel shapes study employed by West European and American researchers. Development of methods and techniques used in vessel shapes description and interpretation as a source of cultural-historical information is analyzed. The basic concepts of vessel shapes analytical study were formulated by A.O. Shepard in the 1950s. She proposed principal procedural approaches in her fundamental work (1956). Later on, these approaches gained momentum. The procedure of vessel shape disintegration into structural parts and evaluation of proportions of their рarameters is the most widespread method. The New Archeology impact exemplifies in striving for clear quantitative definition of vessel parameters and in elaboration of a functional perception of the material culture development. New sources (ethnography and experiments) are come to draw in study of vessel shapes. Study of pottery in traditional societies has brought up two problems: 1) incongruity of researchers’ typological developments and evaluation terms of the very culture-bearers and 2) limitations of functional and adaptive models of interpretation. The first problem has brought about the task description of a more detailed and objective fixation of vessel shapes peculiarities while vessels groupings further on is performed by dint of various mathematic and statistical methods. The second problem has brought about a wide drawing of sociological and cultural research concepts that allow proceeding to study of vessel shapes features in interpretation of data obtained as results of certain mental processes and behavioral patterns that the people formed. Ethnoarchaeology, i.e. study of traditional societies with techniques employed in archeology, makes a considerable contribution to this prospect development. Individual researchers also carry on study of traditional potters’ labor skills in specifically simulated conditions. A number of researchers assume that contemporary techniques of vessel shapes analysis fit poorly the developed notions of the nature of the phenomenon and express the necessity to overcome the flaw. In general, development of views on vessel shapes in West European and American historical studies conform the same regularities as the Russian archeology does.