Rethinking Colonial Encounters • Nagpra at 20
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RETHINKING COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS • NAGPRA AT 20 • ALASKA 14,000 YEARS AGO WINTER 2010-11 Vol. 14 No. 4 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy DealingDealing WithWith TheThe BPBP OilOil SpillSpill $3.95 american archaeologywinter 2010-11 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 14 No. 4 COVER FEATURE 18 18 COPING WITH THE BP OIL SPILL BY KEITH O’BRIEN Archaeologists are dealing with the challenges posed by the disaster. 12 A NEW LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD BY NED ROZELL Alaska’s Broken Mammoth site is offering a glimpse of the earliest Americans. 25 NAGPRA AT 20 BY MIKE TONER The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed 20 years ago. It’s had a huge effect on archaeology, but is it helping or harming the discipline? ALVIN BANGUILAN ALVIN 32 THE COMPLEXITY OF COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS BY MICHAEL SIMS The investigation of the Otstonwakin site is contradicting assumptions about European and Native American interaction. 38 TAKING ON A TEXAS-SIZED PROJECT BY RICHARD A. MARINI Robert Drolet has investigated more than 50 sites in his long-term project in south Texas. 44 new acquisition DAN RIVER VILLAGE ACQUIRED The Conservancy obtains the Belmont site. 12 NED ROZELL 45 new acquisition 2 Lay of the Land REMEMBERING THE WAR OF 1812 3 Letters Old Fort Stokes may be the only earthen fort from that conflict on Maryland’s eastern shore. 5 Events 46 point acquisition 7 In the News Defending Canada’s First English SET IN ANCIENT STONE The Shelton Stone Mound complex is Settlement • Nineteenth-Century thought to have been a ceremonial site. Prostitution • Jamestown Pipes 50 Field Notes 47 point acquisition A GLIMPSE OF THE ANCIENT FRONTIER 52 Reviews The Hewitt-Olmstead trading Post could offer information about commerce between white settlers and Native Americans in the mid 1800s. 54 Expeditions COVER: Researchers walk past a 48 point acquisition heavily-oiled prehistoric shell midden THE TALE OF FORT TOMBECBE on Louisiana’s Brush Island. The Conservancy partners with the University of West Alabama to obtain the 18th-century fort site. Credit: Alvin Banguilan american archaeology 1 Lay of the Land Oil And Archaeology wo decades after the Exxon Valdez be protected in case of another major spilled at least 11 million gallons oil spill in American waters. That plan- Tof crude into Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, ning is paying off today as cleanup of they are still cleaning up and assessing the BP spill continues. While oil was the damages, including destruction of still gushing from the broken well, a dozens of archaeological sites. When contract archaeology firm was hired to BP’s Deepwater Horizon well exploded assess the sites and the damages. The Mark Michel, President DARREN POORE killing 11 men and releasing 200 mil- firm worked with archaeologists from lion gallons of oil into the Gulf of the states affected by the spill to inves- and thereby avoid making a bad situa- Mexico, the preservation community tigate some 500 threatened sites and to tion worse. Clearly the early planning was much better prepared to deal with protect them, if possible. At last count, led to the preservation of many sites in the disaster that threatened hundreds 53 are contaminated with oil. the Gulf. The long-term impact remains of sites along the Gulf Coast (See “Cop- One lesson learned from the Alaska to be seen, but it could have been a lot ing With The BP Oil Spill,” page18). experience was that the cleanup crews worse. The next time disaster strikes, In 1997, several federal agencies, were capable of inflicting as much be it oil spills, forest fires, or earthquakes, including the National Park Service damage to cultural sites as the spilled we all need to be better prepared to and the Environmental Protection oil. Consequently, in Louisiana and the save the nation’s cultural treasures. Agency, collaborated on an 11-page other affected states, officials have policy document spelling out just how instructed BP’s cleanup crews to leave archaeological and historic sites would the sites alone and work around them, 2 winter • 2010-11 Letters Misunderstanding NAGPRA INDIGENOUS ARCHAEOLOGY As an archaeologist who strongly • REEXAMINING KINCAID MOUNDS • CULTURAL LANDSCAPE STUDIES Editor’s Corner supports and helped draft NAGPRA, FALL 2010 In 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of I was disappointed by your Fall 2010 americana quarterly publication of The Archaeological archaeology Conser vancy Appeals, in a decision that culminated Vol. 14 No. 3 News article “New NAGPRA Regula- years of legal wrangling, upheld an tion Alarms Researchers” that covered earlier ruling that the 9,400-year-old the new federal regulation concerning THE remains known as Kennewick Man the repatriation of culturally unidentifi- Clovis Comet Debate should not be repatriated to Native able human remains. A statement you Americans who claimed them. attributed to Sherry Hutt, the manager In 2007, with little fanfare, the U.S. of the National NAGPRA Program, and Forest Service gave the 10,300-year- reported without comment, that “the old remains of an individual found in rule applies only to human remains... a cave (he’s sometimes referred to as from sites on tribal land, or the aborigi- On Your Knees Cave Man) in south- $3.95 east Alaska to the Tlingit tribe. nal land of tribes,” is simply false. The $3.95 rule applies to all culturally unidentifi- Kennewick Man, who became AA Fall 2010 front end.indd 1 something of a celebrity as a result of able Native American human remains in 8/25/10 10:34:06 AM museum or agency collections regard- the legal battle, remained in the cus- less of where they were found. office whose mismanagement and bias tody of the Army Corps. of Engineers Also, contrary to the article, there (as recently documented by GAO) have and underwent a thorough study by a is no “provision in the statute that undermined the letter and spirit of team of scientists. On Your Knees Cave [such a] regulation must be promul- NAGPRA, to the detriment of American Man, of whom few people have heard, was placed in a beautiful ceremonial gated.” The rule was issued over the archaeology. wooden box and then buried. strenuous objections of the major sci- Keith Kintigh According to the noted forensic entific organizations, museums, and the Arizona State University anthropologist Douglas Owsley of NAGPRA Review Committee. Sadly, it is Past President, Society for the Smithsonian, the Kennewick Man another abuse of authority by a federal American Archaeology skeleton has yielded a remarkable amount of information about this indi- Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation vidual and, by inference, the ancient 1. Publication Title: American Archaeology. 2. Publication No.: 1093-8400. 3. Date of Filing: October 1, 2010. 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 4. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $25.00. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of world he inhabited. The development Publication: The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. 8. Complete Mailing of new diagnostic technologies in the Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: same as No. 7. 9. Names and Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher—Mark Michel, address same as No. 7. Editor—Michael Bawaya, address same as No. 7. Managing future will likely make him, and his Editor—N/A. 10. Owner: The Archaeological Conservancy, address same as No. 7. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other world, even more comprehensible. Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publication Title: American Archaeology. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: On Your Knees Cave Man also Spring 2010. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average Number of Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: (A) Total No. underwent a certain amount of scien- Copies (net press run): 32,450. (B) Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail): (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 18,899; (2) tific study, such as DNA testing, before Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, the Tlingit, who claimed him as their and exchange copies): 0; (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS: 4,552; (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS (e.g. First- ancestor, respectfully buried him. Class Mail): 1,233. (C) Total Paid Distribution (Sum of 15B (1), (2), (3), and (4)): 24,684. (D) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (By Depending on one’s point of Mail and Outside the Mail): (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0; (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0; (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS (e.g. First- view, both of these examples—one Class Mail): 80; (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 1,420. (E) Total Free or Nominal Rate a victory for scientists, the other for Distribution (Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)): 1,500. (F) Total Distribution (Sum of 15C and 15E): 26,184. (G) Copies not Distributed: 6,266. (H) Total (Sum of 15F and 15G): 32,450. (I) Percent Paid (15C/15F x 100): 94.27%.