Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge: Teaching and Learning in Indigenous Archaeology (review)

Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge: Teaching and Learning in Indigenous Archaeology, edited by Stephen W. Silliman, is a welcomed addition to the expanding professional literature concerning indigenous peoples and their exercise of control over their archaeological heritage. As a professional university-based archaeologist, Silliman sees potential for the discipline of archaeology to help address the needs and concerns of indigenous groups and, at the same time, stimulate the intellectual and methodological development of this discipline. Silliman and his sixteen colleagues have generated a scholarly product, primarily for the professional audience, sharing experiences and concepts resulting from archaeological field schools conducted with indigenous groups, all in North America.

Silliman uses the term indigenous archaeology to describe this variation of archaeology, defining it as a catchall for the various terms that have been used to conduct similar efforts by archaeologists and indigenous groups. He defines indigenous archaeology as "for, with, and by Indigenous people." The notion of an indigenous archaeology suggests that there are commonalities that can be drawn from the many experiences of archaeologists and indigenous groups working together. By highlighting these commonalities, a method, theory, and ethic can emerge. In support of this notion, we can look to the global health community, where there is growing recognition of the many similarities among American Indians and indigenous peoples, such that it is useful to think in terms of a global indigenous health field.

Silliman further proposes an orientation he calls collaborative indigenous archaeology to describe the openness of archaeologists to learn from their indigenous counterparts, and vice versa. He borrows the concept of "at the trowel's edge" to explain that collaboration begins at the ground level and involves planning, preparation of research designs, excavation, analysis, and interpretation of the archaeological deposits. This process, along with attention to how one teaches collaborative indigenous archaeology, is the thrust of Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge.

While we have concerns about use of the terms archaeology and collaborative, as discussed later in this review, we are glad to see more and more archaeologists open to sharing and, in some cases, relinquishing intellectual and programmatic control over the recovery, analysis, writing, and preservation of archaeological resources. We are especially glad to see those archaeologists who bring their skills and experiences to indigenous settings spurred on by concerns for social justice. When archaeologists accept that an indigenous group has the right to exercise control and make decisions regarding the group's own heritage (and even to make mistakes, as the action anthropologist Sol Tax would say), we get closer to what the authors describe as an indigenous archaeology, "an archaeology for, with, and by indigenous peoples."

The book begins with a foreword by Larry Zimmerman, an archaeologist who early on fought for the rights of indigenous groups to obtain ancestral skeletal remains, protect ancestral sites, access traditional use areas, treat and interpret material culture, and be involved in archaeological research. Zimmerman provides a brief personal account of his archaeological experiences in Iowa, where he spent his life working, helping, and learning with Native Americans. He predicts that Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge "will help create a better archaeology."

Stephen Silliman introduces the book in chapter 1. The collection of twelve papers grew out of a 2005 symposium held at the Society for American Archaeology's 70th annual meeting in Salt Lake City. The symposium was oriented around archaeological field schools conducted in collaborative settings. With support from the Amerind Foundation and others, the indigenous and non-indigenous participants met afterward to continue discussions. This book is a product of those efforts.

Silliman does a good job in the introduction at explaining the many dimensions of indigenous archaeology, the roles that archaeologists may play, and the influence that working with indigenous groups can have on the intellectual development of the discipline. As he explains, indigenous archaeology is a...