e Search for the First Americans Science, Power, Politics • Robert V. Davis Jr. : Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Davis, Robert V., 1947– author. Title: The search for the first Americans : science, power and politics / Robert V. Davis, Jr.. Description: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “Case study of the practice of science in its search for the First Americans and examines: (1) the conflicts between the methods of science and the traditional beliefs of modern Native Americans; (2) the power struggles for primacy of place internal to the sciences themselves; and (3) the interactions with external authorities such as government agencies, the press, universities, and museums. It examines how First American issues have been defined and how differences in cultural myths, scientific theories, research methodologies and public policy remain unsettled in modern America. It also investigates the blurred boundaries between science and myth as well as between fact and theory that ultimately weaken the credibility of science as a cultural mechanism for interpreting the natural world”— Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021023226 (print) | LCCN 2021023227 (ebook) | ISBN 9780806175911 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780806175935 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Indians of North America—Origin. | Indians of North America— History. | Indians of North America—Government relations. | Indians of North America—Ethnic identity. | Indians of North America—Science. | Indians of South America—Origin. | BISAC: HISTORY / Indigenous Peoples of the Americas | HISTORY / Civilization Classification: LCC E61 .D25 2021 (print) | LCC E61 (ebook) | DDC 970.004/97—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023226 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023227 Copyright © 2021 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. 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We hope you will spend a few minutes answering a couple of questions at this url: https://www.longleafservices.org/shmp-survey/ More information about the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot can be found at https://www.longleafservices.org. Preface ix Introduction : , , American Indian Creation Myths Euro-American eories Clovis-First Pre-Clovis: Monte Verde and Meadowcro Case Studies: Atlantis and Chinese Bestiary : Anthropology and Archaeology Bioanthropology e Other Sciences: Genetics, Linguistics, and Physics Laboratories and Museums : Identity and Heritage Preservation Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Case Studies: Kennewick Man and Tarim Basin Conclusions Notes Bibliography Like many Americans, I have routinely followed popular press reports about early human remains found in the United States. As a young boy growing up in Oklahoma, I was fascinated by searching for arrowheads during camping trips and even enjoyed an occasional visit in Tulsa to the omas Gilcrease In- stitute of American History and Art, which houses one of the most extensive collections of American Indian artwork and artifacts in the world. I studied the symbolism in the Oklahoma state ag and the stories of the ve “civilized” tribes. I uncritically accepted what I learned as the truth. However, as adults, even among people of goodwill, an agreed-upon truth can be elusive and may well be dependent on where and how we situate our conceptual lives. As Mark Twain reportedly warned, what gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, but rather what we think we know that just isn’t so. e simple fascinations of our youth can lead later to complex intellectual journeys that disabuse us of some things that we thought we knew for sure. For me, this book has been just such an undertaking. In many ways it is a manifestation of the contradictions in American society between accepting the practical usefulness of science when it is in conict with important cultural values. e scientic search for the First Americans is, at a conceptual level, simple. As James Adovasio asked, “who the hell are these people, where did they come from, and when did they get here?” Although much has been documented, sci- ence is no closer today to nding an answer than at any time since the arrival of Columbus. In short, it has been a failed endeavor. Archaeology and anthropol- ogy, which are the intellectual domains most central to the search for the First Americans have, unfortunately, been caught ercely protecting conclusions that are now known to be erroneous. Science has many strengths and is a critical com- ponent of the material progress that humans have enjoyed. But, at times, it can treat an explanatory theory with the same concreteness that should be reserved only for a material fact. American Indians were present in the Western Hemisphere thousands of years before Columbus, or the Vikings, or the Phoenicians, or the ancient Chi- nese, or whomever has occasionally been put forward as the rst to colonize the ix x Preface New World. ese indigenous tribes each have a creation story as to how they came to be. ey do not tell stories of having wandered aimlessly over the Bering Strait during the last ice age. e diculty for science is, understandably, valu- ing these beliefs when they are inherently contradictory and also conict with clearly documentable ndings of genetics and physics. Moreover, modern Amer- ican Indians believe they are the direct descendants of the very rst Americans and seem unwilling to concede that their ancestors might be later arrivals. is is clearly in conict with the modern US psyche, which believes it must surely have been the destiny of everyone who ever came to this land to want to become an American. e conicting positions taken by First American scientists and modern American Indians have created an interstitial ontological void that has resulted in the power of the US political system being used to determine primacy of in- tellectual place. is examination of the search for the First Americans is a case study in the complex relationships between the biological ndings of science and the social importance of cultural beliefs; the oen fractious relationships across the sciences; the power of the US political process to dictate constraints on how science is conducted as well as how ancient human remains are to be disposed; and the hegemonic and oen racist assumptions that are frequently embedded in how science has been conducted. I must acknowledge the contributions of several others. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments; Skip Furhman, Peter Schmitthen- ner, Ann Laberge, and Matthew Goodrum for their guidance on an earlier ver- sion; and Alessandra Tamulevich and Ihsan Taylor for their guidance through the publishing process. While it is dicult, if not impossible, to operate completely external to one’s system of values, it is my hope that I have fairly captured both the strengths and weaknesses represented in the positions taken by American Indians as well as First American scientists. Introduction cultural past is a reection of unstabilized power relationships in the present. is is a case study of the S practice of science in this unstable environment as it has been employed in the search for the First Americans. It is not an attempt to determine the validity of any specic theory or material artifact; rather, it is an investigation into the practice of science as it relates to a search to explain a particular human exis- tence. It is concerned with how personal, organizational, and cultural power has been manifested through scientic concepts, government policy, Ameri- can Indian tribes, the public, and the scientists themselves in the search for the First Americans. It is an examination into how the issues have been constructed and, nally, the manner in which (as well as the degree to which) di erences in cultural myths, scientic theories, research methodologies, and public policy remain unsettled in modern America. As this examination of the search for the First Americans shows, perceptions of the past can be as unstable as any projec- tions of the future. Compounding the challenges faced by scientists, modern American Indians have used the US political system to gain a voice in dening the history of America’s indigenous peoples. As a direct result, in the US Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) requiring that American Indian folklore and oral traditions be granted equal epistemological status with science in regard