Native Americans, Archaeologists, and the Mounds (review)

Written at the behest of Elders by a "Seneca-descended" scholar, this monograph adds to the growing number of Indigenous-written works that explore historical and contemporary Native American attitudes toward archaeology. Most recent academic surveys of the relations between archaeologists and Native Americans affirm the scientific utility of the discipline or promote collaboration between these two groups to bridge controversial cultural differences regarding the study of spiritual sites and human remains. Illustrating the deep roots of these differences and advocating political activism to surmount them, Native Americans, Archaeologists, and the Mounds is a fascinating accompaniment to this literature.

In an occasionally sarcastic tone which scholars are sure to find either humorous or offensive, Mann begins by widely surveying Western explanations of the Native American racial characteristics and origins that some have used to deny that they were capable of constructing the mounds found in the Ohio valley. Her appraisal of these interpretations, which alternatively asserted the Mound Builders to be of Welsh, Norse, Jewish, Hindu, Egyptian, Phoenician, and Lamanite descent, is more comprehensive than previous studies and reveals that these accounts were often based upon an understanding of the world shaped by Christianity. Next Mann describes the despoliation and obliteration of countless mounds, a story largely untold. In addition to excavations conducted by avocational and professional archaeologists, farmers, golfers, and U.S. Army soldiers, quarry, construction, and railway workers often searched and destroyed Mound Builder sites. Although public archaeology was widespread across North America before the twentieth century, few monographs have explored its affects. Mann also demonstrates the use of the Mound Builder myth by the American government to bolster support for policies such as Indian removal, reminding us that archaeology has always been political. She contradicts many scholars who believe that Indigenous peoples have recently politicized the discipline or claim that archaeology is an objective scientific practice.

Through the use of Shawnee, Iroquois, Cherokee, and Lenape oral traditions recorded in historical sources, Mann pairs her discussion of Western interpretations and treatment of the Ohio valley mounds with an exploration of Native American traditions of these sites. Unfortunately, the author does not include oral knowledge held by contemporary communities. Still, Mann demonstrates that the labelling of oral history as reliable or unreliable often fluctuated with its use in the American political realm. Further, she contends, we must understand Native American oral histories and archaeological sites within their own perspective, or else the information becomes "Euro-formed" and distorted. Consequently, Mann firmly places her work within the larger academic debate over the utility, accuracy, and significance of oral and traditional knowledge in Indigenous history. She closes this discussion with an invitation to scholars to seek relationships with the descendants of the Ohio valley in order to increase academic understanding of the mounds.

Because many of the Native nations who historically inhabited the Ohio valley are not officially recognized by the American government, these communities are excluded from the provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (nagpra) and, therefore, have little legal recourse to request the repatriation of human remains and burial items. Mann also asserts that archaeologists have begun to claim that they have always been respectful of Native remains, a process which Larry Zimmerman calls the "remythologization" of the past; while true, this obscures the increasing number of archaeologists who are indeed concerned and interested in genuine collaboration with Native American groups. As a result, Mann concludes that the onus for change falls upon the Native communities themselves and proposes strategies for the protection of the Ohio mounds and the repatriation of human remains by providing examples of the work of the Native American Alliance of Ohio, a group to which she belongs. This promotion of political tactics is unusual within an academic monograph, yet it provides a proactive plan to reshape archaeology outside of nagpra, and elevates the book above the historical discussion of the interpretation and excavation of the Ohio valley mounds.