Archeologist Organizes Field School in Search of a Tribal Perspective

Archeologists interpret history through artifacts dug from the earth, while American Indians often rely on stories passed down through generations.

If the two groups worked together, suggests archeologist Larry Zimmerman, “both would have a much wider perspective on how the past happened.”

Zimmerman, chairman of the American Indian and Native Studies Program at the University of Iowa, invited 13 archeology students from across the country to learn about the tribal perspective this summer at the Loess Hills of western Iowa.

The students have spent the last six weeks learning archeological field methods and visiting with representatives of American Indian tribes to hear what they think about the men and women of science.

Not much, in some cases.

Reva Barta of Sioux City, a member of the American Indian Movement, told the students that scientists have no business digging up the sites of Indian villages or studying remains.

“I had never met a person who hated something that I loved,” said Liz Handwerk, 19, of St. Paul, Minn., a sophomore at the University of Iowa. “And I needed that point of view. It was good to hear that.”

Zimmerman had wanted to organize a field school for years. It became possible this summer, he said, when Plymouth County officials decided to straighten and widen a county road near the artifact-rich Broken Kettle West site in the Loess Hills north of Sioux City.

Archeologists believe the site was home to Siouan-speaking peoples during the Great Oasis period, more than 1,000 years ago.

Before offering the class to students, Zimmerman contacted representatives of seven tribes to see what they thought of the project.

He then organized the Archaeological Field Methods and American Indian Concerns Advisory Board.

“I think this is something that people should have done years ago,” said Dawn Makes Strong Move, an official with the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin.

She said tribal elders view archeologists with suspicion. The elders’ attitude, she said, is: “We don’t care what you think you’ve found. We know what we’ve got.”

Zimmerman understands.

“Archeology was part of American colonialism, pure and simple,” he said. “It was just used as another way to get their land from them.”

For too long, he said, researchers uncovered and examined American Indian artifacts without regard for tribal customs or oral histories. “The minute you start seeing Indian people as part of the contemporary world, you start changing how you see archeology.”

Zimmerman said he hopes the course work in western Iowa will open dialogue.

“I’m trying to get the students to understand that Indian people want to control their past,” he said. “They’ve almost had their past forced down their throats.”

The repercussions are felt today.

Consider the controversy over the 9,300-year-old bones known as Kennewick Man. The skeleton, found three years ago along the Columbia River near Kennewick, Wash., is one of the oldest and most complete discovered in North America.

Scientists say more information about Kennewick Man’s lineage could provide clues about the migration of people to this continent.

Anthropologists are suing to study the skeleton after the federal government announced plans to return it to Northwest Indian tribes for reburial.

The Interior Department has yet to make a final decision about the remains.

Zimmerman said the dispute creates simmering resentment that could be avoided if both groups better understood each other.

The students are listening.

“For so many years, there was no respect for human remains or any other artifact,” said Kim Cruz, 20, a junior at the University of Colorado. “Archeologists didn’t give a second thought to that. Indians weren’t even considered human.”