CAN ANYONE JUST TELL THE TRUTH
With a little more effort, we can destroy all American pre-history in our lifetime. It will take
the effort of all of the groups involved, but with the current state of cooperation, I believe we
can do it. How can we save history if everyone involved, lies to justify their own bias and needs
for control and power? Less than 1% of the population cares about American history at any
level. Those involved with pre-history is far less than 1%. Museums, archaeologist, government
bureaucrats, collectors and Native Americans are all working together to destroy our past.
The museums are more interested in being politically correct and not offending anyone that
might withdraw contributions than keeping their mandate to preserve the past, all the past, for
future generations. Many are willing to give up Native American collections to keep the money
flowing. So any Indian claim for any artifact is honored. Some museums have now established
a policy to remove their Amerid collections from public view. Some are trading or selling
collections away to retain value for their institution; rather than have the government
bureaucracy mandate surrender without compensation under the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act. The problem with this attitude is that if they are willing to
give up one collection, then they are also willing to give up all the other collections as well. The
museum is satisfied, just as long as there is no controversy and the donations keep flowing.
Many of these surrendered artifacts were originally donated by individuals to the museum.
These artifacts were acquired legally, donated and then maintained for future generations
through public donations. Giving them away breaks the public trust. Most historic medicine
bundles were acquired through gift, trade or purchase as Native Americans became Christians
and sold off their traditional icons. Native beliefs and religion did not cease over the past two
to four hundred years by the absence of these items. Therefore, it is hard to believe that these
items are essential for the practice of such religions. Public confidence is not enhanced when
we find repatriated items in the market for sale through Native Americans with the original
museum numbers still intact. Even stranger is the fact that modern mask carvings and other
arts are now being declared as sacred under the act, even though they were never used in
any ceremony and were fabricated by Native Americans for the art market.
Archaeologist have been too silent. They too are so interested in being Politically correct that
they refuse to write the entire book. In the beginning they may have spent too much attention
on burials and burial goods, now they spend too little. The shift to climate and pollen is good
to a point. However, when you spend years looking at a site and then refuse to look at the
people who built it, something is wrong. The archaeological community has been too silent
on Kenniwick Man, and other research issues. They condemn collectors for picking up
arrowheads in a plowed field. They liken it to tearing a page out of the history book. They
ignore the fact that the artifact once broken is like forever burning the page. At least the
page still exist if it is picked up. It should be their job to build a system that allows that page
to be reported and the information indexed to culture, site, region and finder. I have heard
some archaeologist claim that Amateur journals are just publishing items that are for sale.
In my 35 years of observation, very few items published are ever sold. More likely, they are
not for sale and never will be unless the owner dies. There used to be a common ground
between the collectors and the professionals. They cooperated and shared information.
Then the professionals began schools which graduated far more students than there were jobs.
Soon you could not make a comfortable living even with a Masters degree. Collectors were
blamed. They should not do research for free until every professional had a job for pay.
Wadlow, Titterington, Vietzen and hundreds of other collectors were shunned. Their research
was minimized. Collectors were often vilified. Young archaeologist refused to contact local
collectors or view their collections. Some even went so far as to tell farmers not to let
collectors on sites, some of these sites had even been reported to state archaeologist collectors
by collectors. From their glass temples, professional archaeologist viewed collectors with
contempt and suspicion. Vanishing sites were blamed on pot hunters, rather than on urban
expansion, farming and mining practices, the lack of funding and manpower. Meanwhile,
professional newsletters condemn fellow professionals who’s carriers focus on excavation and
writing books and reports. They suggest that professionals should be hired to protect sites, to
give tours, write legislation, interpret legislation, teach, and other activities not directly
associated with archaeology. A prescription for maintaining and expanding bureaucracies,
but not for expanding knowledge or answering questions on our pre-history. If the
professional archaeologist chooses to preserve all sites and not excavate, to allow Native
Americans to choose which sites can be dug and edit all reports to comply with their oral
history or myths, then the science of archaeology is dead and we do not need archaeologist.
We can adopt oral traditions as truth, hire high school students to give tours, and save all
sites by allowing them to be developed without study. Meanwhile as the archaeological
community remains silent, the museums are looted through NAGPRA and all investigation
is slowly strangled by political correctness, layered bureaucracies, dwindling funding and
militant opinions.
Government is a major problem. They know nothing about archaeology, and count votes
as being more important than the common good. The politics of perceptions has nothing to
do with truth. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act are both open ended and undefined. The liberals
through the courts are actively attempting to have ARPA apply to private land. NAGPRA
was to address problems of historic remains and artifacts taken during the Indian wars
and archived in Washington’s Surgeon Generals Museum, the Smithsonian and other
institutions. Direct blood tie was the beginning requirement. Another requirement was to
be that religious items or cultural patrimony were supposed to be taken illegally without
permission of the tribe or clan or family of ownership. Then they left the door open by
allowing claims to be made on stories, myths, beliefs, oral traditions, subsequent living
patterns, and anything else someone might want to use. When belief is fact, you
immediately have a logical problem. There are thousands of contrary beliefs. To allow
one belief to be set as law and dominant over all other beliefs is the establishment of a
National religion. This is unconstitutional under the Constitution and the separation of
church and state. Government then leaves religious, related etc. undefined. With the
appointment of a liberal militant committee to oversee NAGPRA we soon have a ruling
that there are no unrelated remains or burial objects and everything is sacred. Every
arrowhead, pot shard, ax, celt or other artifact is sacred to some militant. Government
sets up such open ended laws and then waits for the courts to define the meanings.
Meanwhile, our public institutions bend rather than go through the expense of being
the grand test case. As our public institutions are stripped of the American heritage,
militants on the reservations plan to decide which tribe might have the best chance of
seizing the artifacts from the next earlier period in age. With Kenniwick Man they are
attempting to seize 9300 year old remains. If they win, how much earlier, Adam and Eve?
Collectors are also at fault. Most collectors are honest and will share information with
the professional community. Far less than 1% of the collectors ever dig. Let’s face it,
walking fields and creeks is more profitable than digging. Digging usually yields a sore
back and nothing more. For the time and effort, it is far better just to walk sites. Of those
who do dig, most are excavating in open farm fields where the plow draws their attention to
storage pits, house floors and other features that are being exposed. If trained, and if they
keep good records, take photographs and then report the information to the state; they can
be an invaluable resource. The Pot Hunters are another matter. Those who dig sites that
are not in danger and dig solely for profit. These individuals are very few in number in
the Midwest and south, but every state has a few. They keep no records and most just dig
out of greed or curiosity. As a whole they make less than minimum wage after expenses
and they do give collectors a black eye. Archaeologist blame these individuals for the loss
of history. Makes good rhetoric, but the truth is that the pot hunters do not even register
as a measurable statistic on the loss of site registry. Development, farming, mining, erosion,
road construction, deforestation, dams, and other planned activities destroy virtually 100%
of lost sites, not pot hunters. Another problem with collectors is that a few lie. They change
the origin of artifacts to increase their value on the market, or lie about finding an artifact to
get a ribbon at a show, or lie to get a piece published to increase it’s value or maybe just to
get their name published. For whatever reasons, some collectors lie and this reduces our
contribution to archaeology. If an archaeologist is doing a study on an exotic material’s
distribution, many will refuse to use collector submitted information. They will not rely
on collectors due to the possibility of being lied to and thus changing the outcome of their
research. Other archaeologist, have decided to work with the collectors and many have
received invaluable information to assist them in their research. However, they too must be
on the alert of dishonest collectors. As a whole, most of us are very willing to be honest and
share our information. The few, make us look bad and debase our knowledge and value to
archaeology. Then there are the fakers who fabricate artifacts and histories for profit.
I don't believe I even have to get into the problems these individuals bring to our hobby.
Finally the Native American. The big lie is that there was an intentional plot to destroy
them. Nothing could be further from the truth. I can not deny that hundreds of thousands
died, but not from war or intent, but from disease and ignorance. When the first explorers
came to this country, they were looking for gold and silver. As a result, the Spanish invaded
South America, Mexico and stopped in the southern United States. There was no gold in the
North or Eastern United States and so the Spanish did not care to invest their energies there.
The first European settlers in the Eastern United States were a different breed and were
looking for farm land to settle. As the first settlements were established, the sea captains,
after unloading passengers and goods, would sail down the coast looking for a chance to
map the coast and trade with the natives. Often they found large villages at the confluence
of rivers and the ocean. These areas were important for they allowed the foraging of fresh
and salt water environments, good hunting and fertile soils for farming. Once provisioned,
the ships sailed on leaving behind diseases unknown to the natives. A week or two later, the
village would become ill and begin to die off. Afraid of this unseen death, evil spirits were
blamed and the villages abandoned. The natives fled to nearby villages for refuse, bringing
the plagues with them. The death villages became taboo and as the natives ran from the
silent death. Everywhere they went, they infected every village that took them in. Eventually,
huge areas were abandoned. Settlers soon occupied the abandoned areas. They settled there
for the same reasons the original inhabitants had settled there. Also, since the areas were
either uninhabited or sparsely inhabited, there was no conflict to this occupation.
In time, the English and French were at odds over the new lands. Each made trading
partners with the strongest tribes. For centuries these tribes had been mortal enemies. By
arming one side, they forced the other side to also form an European alliance with the
opposite nation. In time, trading goods replaced traditional tribal utensils and dress and
custom became Tribal and European hybrids. A hundred years of disease and warfare
destroyed many tribes and survivors were assimilated within tribes of similar language and
traditions, sometimes some distance away. New weapons that killed rather than maimed or
counted coup replaced less effective weapons. Brass and copper replaced pottery, silver
and glass beads replaced painting and porcupine work. Everything was in change. Trade
dependent, the tribes gave up their unique identities. Disease continued to claim thousands.
The tribes became weaker and weaker. As the Europeans expanded, they kept their Indian
allies on the fringe of their settlements. These natives served as a buffer against hostile tribes.
As settlements increased in size, they no longer had a need for their once allies. The tribes
were so weakened and dependent that they were easily bought out and moved further west,
thus allowing further European expansion.
Many tribes allied themselves with the British during the Revolutionary War. After the war,
the vanquished and their Indian allies were forced out of vast territories. The Americans did
not want their former enemies amongst them. This process of trade dependence, disease,
white expansion, small wars and assimilation of the vanquished continued time after time. In
time, nearly all the tribes had been conquered and forced on to reservations. Oklahoma finally
saw the remaining Eastern tribes, so weakened and hybridized that they had lost most of their
original identities and were settled together. Friends and enemies alike, living together in the
Indian Territory.
After the Western Indian Wars, America was finally a united Nation. Tribes beaten and
subjugated were forced onto reservations. Each church denomination was given a reservation
and the responsibility of educating and saving the souls therein. It was decided that to save
the Indian, they had to adjust and accept American customs, dress, religion and economics.
To this end, Indian military schools were set up to educate and train Indian children. They
would spend half the day in school and half the day working a trade. They were forced to wear
white clothes, cut their hair and only speak English. It was thought that American assimilation
could be accomplished within a generation or two. Tribal identity was also tested with the Daws
act, that gave each adult Indian 160 acres to own privately. This created competition and
attempted to stop the traditional communal sharing practices within most tribes. Cohabitation
led to a blending of cultures. Dress, traditions, stories, even language changed. After World
War I, the returning veterans decided to spice up the costumes with more color and the fancy
dance bustle was born. The dance tempo was picked up and new steps introduced. Intertribal
Pow Wows were held, where concepts were borrowed from other tribes. The result was the
end of individual tribal identities. Generations of welfare led to alcoholism and drugs, broken
families and a lack of positive identity. Tribal identity was replaced with a new idea, Pan
Americanism) which proposes that all tribes are the same. This Pow Wow generation believe
that all tribes are the same, have the same beliefs, religion and culture. They also believe that
they have no history, that their culture is the same today as yesterday and tomorrow.
The only problem is that there are no pure blooded tribal members of any tribe East of the
Missouri river. English, French, Spanish, American, Black and other tribes have intermixed
all the bloodlines. Everyone is part of something else. In the West, this is also true of the
majority of Native Americans. So being a Native American is more a spiritual feeling or
belief, rather than a reality in fact. In time, a 256th Native American lineage may get you on
the tribal rolls. Only time will tell. In the East, some tribes look blond, black and anything
but Native American. There are some tribes that are already accepting membership if you
are 1/128th in an effort to build up tribal rolls and be recognized by government to allow
gambling casinos.
Many Native American groups are making genuine efforts to bring back their culture.
Efforts are being made to renew their language and bring back customs and crafts. Tribal
projects; like reintroducing the Buffalo to reservations is being done in intertribal
cooperation. The Buffalo will serve as a spiritual remembrance and a cash crop. The meat
is also good for the people, as many are victims of diabetes from our white man diet. However,
Indian culture is so destroyed that many of the Winnebago were against this project until
they were reminded that they had a Buffalo Clan. Native Americans have an identity, but
that is not the identity of pre-contact.
The destruction of Indian culture was a series of accidents, bad ideas with good intentions
and even some culpability on the leaders and members of the tribes. However, NAGPRA
may result in finally killing off tribal identities. This terminal destruction will be done with
an overt act of kindness that allows the Indians themselves to go into our nations public
institutions and museums and seize and destroy the only remaining evidence of their pre
and early contact artifacts. These items point to and reflect tribal cultures in their original
colors, designs, materials and forms before they were hybridized and merged. Before they
became so dependent on the white man, that their culture was lost. In time, only the
Pow Wow costumes will remain. Lost will be the people. Grass dancers in sun glasses
dancing to recent innovations in Native American song, with no concept of their roots
before the reservation, the white man’s education, religion and societal trappings. Today
their grandfathers are vetern’s of Korea and Viet Nam. There is no memory of the changes
in costume and dance created by those vetrens from World War I or the changes in costume
and adaptations made after World War II. Mistakenly, they imagine that is was always the
same, and this is the real shame.
How can a culture reinvent itself in language, religion, custom and costume if we help them
destroy the only evidence of their pre-white existence? Yes, we can all destroy. Not only
destroy our Nation’s Prehistory, but we can also help the Native Americans destroy their
history as well. It can all be done if we just all work hard at doing what we are doing now.
In a pure world, where idealism was seated in logic, reality and the common good; this would
all be different. Museums would have their collections on display and always available to the
serious student, white and Indian alike. Archaeologist would have open computer systems
where honest collectors could internet information on a regular basis. Record sites, describe
finds, add to the site inventory list at any time. Models could be made and information would
be open to anyone contributing to the system. Collectors would be the eyes, ears, finance and
back of the professional agenda. Professionals would seek out amateur collectors and view
their collections, marking site maps and taking notes. Only trained archaeologist or
avocational archaeologist would dig. Avocational archaeologist would only explore exposed
features in immediate danger of destruction. Professional assistance would be sought and
provided; reports, photographs and sketches made and submitted to the State Archaeologist.
Government would not protect artifacts on public lands by demanding that they be stepped
on by cattle, run over by vehicles, or erode into reservoirs and rivers to be lost forever without
being picked up or recorded. Laws would be written to protect our National treasures not
give them away. Laws would also have concrete intentions and definite dates to restrict claims
going back to the origins of the world. Native Americans would be allowed to protect their
historic cemeteries, but by identifying them and marking them so they can be protected by
everyone. Remains previously seized or dug and identifiable to a family, clan or tribe should
be returned upon request from the institution housing them. Any artifacts that belonged to
those remains should also be returned, unless the family, clan or tribe wishes them to be
preserved for future generations. This does not mean remains and artifacts to which there
is no logical blood tie; or remains and artifacts of antiquity. Such are the property of the
institution and the American people. Anything more would be to deny science, create a
National religion based upon the beliefs of a few, and favor mandated ignorance. No matter
how fervently some beliefs may be held, the archaeological facts do not support the concept
that prehistoric Native Americans had taboos on disturbing bone, the dead, or ancient
sites. Countless Mississippian cemeteries show regular disturbance of previous graves,
bundle burials, cremations and human bone ornaments and tools show that bone was not
sacred either. Native Americans deserve respect and assistance in preserving their cultural
identities, or what is left of them. However, creating a National Native religion, stripping
our museums of historic artifacts and prehistoric remains and artifacts will not accomplish
the restoration of Native culture. To the contrary, it may destroy it. We can either work
together for the common good and future generations or bicker like little children and watch
the all the history books past and future burn. We either work together or destroy together,
there can be no middle ground.
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