AltaMira Press
Pages: 240
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-0-7425-0328-1 • Hardback • January 2001 • $138.00 • (£106.00)
978-0-7425-0329-8 • Paperback • January 2001 • $54.00 • (£42.00)
978-0-7591-1709-9 • eBook • January 2001 • $51.00 • (£39.00)
Joe Watkins is an anthropologist at University of New Mexico and a member of the Choctaw tribe. He has a Ph.D. in archaeology from Southern Methodist University.
Chapter 1 ISSUES
Chapter 2 American Indians and Archaeologists: A Stormy Relationship
Chapter 3 Ethics in Anthropology and Archaeology
Chapter 4 Legislation Protecting American Indian Cultural Resources
Chapter 5 Repatriation Legislation
Chapter 6 Sampling the Attitudes of Archaeologists
Chapter 7 CASES
Chapter 8 Navajo Cultural Resource Management
Chapter 9 The Pawnee and the Salina Burial Pit
Chapter 10 The Conflict at the East Wenatchee Clovis Site
Chapter 11 The Ancient One of Kennewick
Chapter 12 Repatriation in Global Perspective
Chapter 13 Indigenous Archaeology
Dr. Watkins is to be commended for his thorough research and even-handed presentation of the facts and issues in a debate that sparks emotion on both sides.....
— Stacye Hathorn
This important book offers a unique lens on archaeology and its practitioners. Native American archaeologist Joe Watkins gives us a penetrating analysis of what archaeologists think about themselves and their subject, framed by his inimitable wit and tact. Indigenous Archaeology is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of archaeology as a profession.
— K Anne Pyburn
Joe Watkins draws upon his experience and expertise as a federal archaeologist and a Choctaw to address Native American sensitivities and the modern practices of archaeology. Tracing the often controversial and confrontational relationship between these two opposing perspectives, Watkins articulately highlights the key arenas where parties intersect including ethics, legislation, and archaeological practices....Indigenous Archaeology is very highly recommended reading for students of archaeology andNative American studies...
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Watkins is Choctaw and a professional archaeologist. Since college in the 1970s, he has worked to help other archaeologists understand First Nations' positions on research on their ancestors, and helped American Indians to see the benefits of archaeology.He clarifies First Nations' basic issue, sovereignty, and by implication, the same issue provoking archaeologists insisting on scientific research primacy—does science's universality supersede national claims? Does U.S. cultural patrimony encompass itsconquered nations' forbears? Watkins covers the history of antiquities legislation—a handy reference for practitioners—and with a few well-chosen cases illustrates a range of outcomes, culminating in the Kennewick Man controversy, in which eight leadingscientists are pitted against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' interpretation of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which holds that bones antedating European invasions, buried within territory recognized as Umatilla by treaty, must be given to the Umatilla Tribe. The eight scientists argue that a 9400-year-old person was not 'culturally affiliated' with historic Umatilla, and that biologically the skeleton doesn't fit any historic population. Watkins compares Canadian, Mao
— Alice Beck Kehoe, professor of anthropology emeritus, Marquette University
In this book... the author, a Native American with great experience in both archaeological research and managing Native American policies regarding the practice of archaeology on Indian lands or with Indian remains and ancestors, recounts with honesty hisown changing views on these matters, and how these conflicts have been dealt with in different situations. However, the book is not just a personal account, but a well-structured analysis of this problem in the U.S.... I can recommend this very comprehensive book to people interested in these matters, or in an overview of the situations in the USA...
— Paulo De Blasis