Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, And The Battle For Native American Identity

490 Pages·2001·2.76 MB·English

by  David H. Thomas

Table of Contents

Praise
Title Page
A NOTE ABOUT HUMAN REMAINS
Foreword
PROLOGUE: A HISTORY WRITTEN IN BONE
Part I - NAMES AND IMAGES

Chapter 1. - COLUMBUS, ARAWAKS, AND CARIBS: THE POWER TO
NAME
LOS INDIOS
NOBLE ARAWAKS AND BLOODTHIRSTY CARIBS
Chapter 2. - A VANISHING AMERICAN ICON
“PLAYED-OUT IDEAS” GO OVERBOARD WITH THE TEA
PATRIOT CHIEFS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC
THE AMERICAN MELTING POT
THE WAR OF 1812 AND REMOVAL
THE INDIAN WARS
A PROGRESSION OF IMAGERY
Part II - NINETEENTH-CENTURY SCIENTISTS

Chapter 3. - THE FIRST AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGIST
JEFFERSON DEFENDS THE AMERICAN VIRTUE
DIGGING FOR INDIAN ORIGINS
Chapter 4. - A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC RACISM IN AMERICA
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF SKULL SCIENCE
SKULL SCIENCE AND INDIAN POLICY
Chapter 5. - DARWIN AND THE DISAPPEARING AMERICAN INDIAN
“REAL INDIAN PEOPLE BOTH HAD—AND HAD NOT—
DISAPPEARED”
GENERALIZING THE IROQUOIS
THE RISING TIDE OF SOCIAL DARWINISM
LUBBOCK’S PRE-HISTORIC TIMES
Chapter 6. - THE GREAT AMERICAN SKULL WARS
THE GILDED AGE OF NATURAL HISTORY
“LET ME HAVE THE BODIES OF SOME INDIANS”
“IT IS MOST UNPLEASANT WORK TO STEAL BONES. ...”
Chapter 7. - THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ASSIMILATION
“A CONVENIENT MARRIAGE OF PUBLIC OUTRAGE AND
SCIENTIFIC THEORY”
STRONG PAPER TO PROTECT OUR HOME
Chapter 8. - THE ANTHROPOLOGIST AS HERO
THE CUSHING EXPERIMENT AT ZUNI
Chapter 9. - COLLECTING YOUR FOSSILS ALIVE
“I BEG TO SUGGEST THAT YOU BRING BACK A MIDDLE-AGED
ESKIMO”
“SO ONE DAY WE ALL SAILED AWAY”
MINIK “VISITS THE (SUPPOSED) GRAVE OF HIS FATHER”
LAST OF A VANISHING SPECIES
“THE MOST UNCIVILIZED, UNCONTAMINATED MAN IN THE
WORLD TODAY”
“SAY FOR ME THAT SCIENCE CAN GO TO HELL”
Chapter 10 - IS “REAL HISTORY” EMBEDDED IN ORAL TRADITION?
“THE RELIGIOUS RITES OF A VANISHING PEOPLE”
“ACCORDING TO THE CANONS OF ABORIGINAL RATHER
THAN A SCIENTIFIC LOGIC”
PHYSICS ENVY: A LARGER BOASIAN AGENDA
INSIDER VS. OUTSIDER PERSPECTIVES
LOWIE ON ORAL TRADITION
Chapter 11. - THE PERILOUS IDEA OF RACE
THE RACIAL DETERMINISM OF HRDLIČKA AND HOOTON
STEPHEN JAY GOULD TAKES ON MORTON
RACE AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ETHICS
SOME PROBLEMS WITH FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY
PROBLEMS WITH THE C-WORD
Part III - DEEP AMERICAN HISTORY
Chapter 12 - ORIGIN MYTHS FROM MAINSTREAM AMERICA
A RACE OF (NON-INDIAN) MOUNDBUILDERS
THE RED SONS OF ISRAEL
WANDERING CELTS
THE ARIZONA AZTECS
ACROSS THE BERING STRAIT
Chapter 13 - THE SMITHSONIAN TAKES ON ALL COMERS
AN EMERGING EUROPEAN STONE AGE
WHY NOT AN AMERICAN PALEOLITHIC?
Chapter 14 - WHERE ARE ALL THE NATIVE AMERICAN
ARCHAEOLOGISTS?
Chapter 15. - BREAKTHROUGH AT FOLSOM
GEORGE MCJUNKIN’S BONE PIT
“SOMETHING IN THE NATURE OF AN ANTICIPATED
SURPRISE”
“AND THE DURNED THING IS RIGHT BESIDE A BISON RIB”
“DR. HRDLIČKA WAS NOT HAPPY”
“IN MY HAND I HOLD THE ANSWER ...”
THE PALEOINDIAN SEQUENCE AT BLACKWATER DRAW
THE CLOVIS-FIRST HYPOTHESIS
Chapter 16 - BUSTING THE CLOVIS BARRIER
FIRST EXPLORATIONS
HIGH PROFILE SKEPTICS
“THE CLOVIS CURTAIN HAS FALLEN”
REVISITING MONTE VERDE
Chapter 17. - WHAT MODERN ARCHAEOLOGISTS THINK ABOUT THE
EARLIEST AMERICANS
THE ICE-FREE CORRIDOR CLOSES
A PALEOLITHIC FRENCH CONNECTION
LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
MOLECULAR ARCHAEOLOGY
Part IV - THE INDIANS REFUSE TO VANISH

Chapter 18 - “BE AN INDIAN AND KEEP COOL”
“A REAL AMERICAN IF THERE EVER WAS ONE”
INDIANS DISCOVER TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA
“AT HOME ON EITHER SIDE OF THE BUCKSKIN CURTAIN”
INDIANS AS TWENTIETH-CENTURY CULTURE BROKERS
THE POWER OF INDIAN COSTUME
Chapter 19. - AN INDIAN NEW DEAL: FROM ABSOLUTE DEPRIVATION
TO MERE POVERTY
PUEBLO INDIANS TAKE ON WALL STREET
COLLIER HUMANIZES THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY REINFORCED AND REDEFINED
THE TERMINATION BACKLASH: FROM AMERICAN INDIANS
TO INDIAN AMERICAN
Chapter 20 - THE RED POWER OF VINE DELORIA, JR.
DID CUSTER DIE FOR YOUR SINS?
RED POWER ON ALCATRAZ
DO THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS HONOR INDIAN PEOPLE?
REFUSING TO WALK THE BERING STRAIT AND NARROW
Chapter 21. - LEGISLATING THE SKULL WARS
“I AM A FUTURE ADULT MEMBER OF THE OMAHA TRIBE...”
THE PASSAGE OF NAGPRA
THE BONES GO HOME
THE PUEBLOS RETURN TO PECOS
THE NEW YORK ESKIMOS RETURN TO GREENL AND
WHO’S GOT ISHI’S BRAIN?
Part V - BRIDGING THE CHASM

Chapter 22 - TRIBAL AFFILIATION AND SOVEREIGNTY
DETERMINING CULTURAL AFFILIATION
WHAT’S AN INDIAN?
WHAT’S AN INDIAN TRIBE?
KENNEWICK MAN REVISITED
DOES KENNEWICK MAN THREATEN TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY?
UMATILLA SOVEREIGNTY AND TREATY RIGHTS
A BACKLASH AGAINST SOVEREIGNTY
Chapter 23. - SPEAKING OF ORAL TRADITION
IS ARCHAEOLOGY A REAL SCIENCE?
ARCHAEOLOGY REDISCOVERS ITS HUMANISTIC ROOTS
HIDATSA ORIGINS: CONVERGING TRIBAL AND
ARCHAEOLOGICAL VIEWS
MOUNT MAZAMA: CAN ORAL TRADITION SURVIVE FOR 7,500
YEARS?
A SPECTRUM OF ORAL TRADITIONS
SEEKING COMMON GROUND
Chapter 24. - AN ARCHAEOLOGY WITHOUT ALIENATION
THE POWER OF HOME: WE WERE, WE ARE, WE WILL BE
DIGGING AFOGNAK
THE MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT: REBUILDING WHAT WAS
TAKEN AWAY
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgements
ENDNOTES
LITERATURE CITED
INDEX
Copyright Page
PRAISE FOR SKULL WARS:
“From page one, Skull Wars is a book you can’t put down—packed with
fascinating, shocking, controversial and moving stories that present a sweeping
picture of American archaeology and anthropology at its best and worst. It is
beautifully written, impeccably researched, completely engrossing, and one of
the best books on archaeology I have ever read.”
—Douglas Preston
Author of Cities of Gold and Thunderhead

“Skull Wars is a very good piece of historical investigative journalism and
ethnography that chronicles the rise of antagonisms between Indian, Anthro and
Bureaucrat tribes. It will outrage the radicals on all sides and give solace and
direction to those seeking solutions.”
—Don D. Fowler
Mamie Kleberg Professor of Historic Preservation and Anthropology
University of Nevada, Reno

“Thomas has taken a very important issue and dissected it brilliantly for the
general reader. His story and his message—that we need to face history honestly
and listen to each other carefully—should be read by everyone who believes that
science can serve humanity. He has done a great service to the cause of cross-
cultural understanding.”
—Fred Hoxie
Swanlund Professor of History
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

“Hurray for David Hurst Thomas’s Skull Wars! It is at once meticulously exact
in the information presented, skillful in its narrative, and written in good,
eloquent prose. A book, not a mere treatise, its moral purpose is to induce
respectful and therefore productive relations between Thomas’s fellow
archaeologists and the descendants of their subjects.”
—Roger G. Kennedy
Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History,
former Director, National Park Service,
and author of Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson

“Skull Wars is not just a good book but a great book: well-written, interesting,
and evenhanded. Thomas does a fantastic job of showing how good research can
be done in collaboration with the Indian community.”
—Clark Larsen
Amos Hawley Professor of Anthropology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“Skull Wars holds a mirror up to the archaeological community. By helping us
see ourselves as we are, Thomas’ book will help us understand the sometimes
awkward and contentious, but potentially enriching, relationships that can and
must be forged between Native Americans and archaeologists.”
—David J. Meltzer
Southern Methodist University

“Skull Wars treads on delicate and controversial historical ground avoided by
many scientists. With characteristic and refreshing frankness, David Hurst
Thomas explores competing visions of the early American past and points the
way to a new scholarly world where archaeologists do not necessarily call the
intellectual shots. This extraordinary and important book is bound to send shock
waves through the halls of academe.”
—Brian Fagan
Author of The Great Journey and Floods, Famines, and Emperors

“An outstanding scholarly study of the root causes of the distrust between
archaeologists and Native American groups. ... [An] important piece of work.”
—Library Journal
“Thorough, detailed, important and well documented.”
—The Seattle Times

“The ancient history of America is being rewritten, and David Hurst Thomas has
written a report from the front lines.”
—Insight