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________________________________________________________________In discussions concerning American Indians/First Nations and the practice of archaeology in North America, the issues are typically presented in a polarized fashion with American Indians/First Nations on one side and archaeologists on the other. Frequently the literature discusses how archaeologists should modify their practice in response to the needs of American Indian communities. Very little of the literature looks at the roles and challenges faced by American Indians who choose to pursue archaeology. This paper addresses this latter issue by examining my own work among First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada. Through the lens of 'lived experience', I will examine the interplay of identity, personal and communal histories, and the contemporary situation of my self and the First Nations communities I worked with, looking at how having 'insider' knowledge can be both useful and a handicap in fieldwork. ________________________________________________________________Résumé: Dans les discussions concernant les Amérindiens/Premières nations et la pratique de l'archéologie en Amérique du Nord, les questions sont typiquement présentées comme polarisant les Amérindiens/Premières nations d'un cô té et les archéologues de l'autre. Fréquemment la littérature débat sur la question de connaître comment les archéologues pourraient modifier leur pratique pour mieux répondre aux communautés amérindiennes. La littérature regarde très peu les rô les et défis rencontrés par les archéologues amérindiens qui ont décidé de pratiquer l'archéologie. Cet article traite de cette question particulière en présentant mon propre travail parmi les communautés des premières nations de l'Ontario, au Canada. Par le biais d'une expérience vécue, je vais considérer l'effet de l'identité personnelle liée aux histoires communautaires, ma propre situation ainsi que celle des communautés des Premières nations, avec lesquelles je

This study examines the role of rock art in the construction of Woodland Period (300 BC to AD 1700) hunter-gatherer landscapes in the Lake of the Woods region of northwestern Ontario. The authors examine the distribution of documented pictograph sites relative to the locations of rock formations where the geologic conditions would have favored the placement of pictographic rock art but are absent. Point pattern analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and least cost path analysis were used to analyze the findings. The authors suggest that pictograph sites were placed at points on the landscape along water routes to facilitate information exchange among highly mobile hunter-gatherers.

This study examines the role of rock art in the construction of Woodland Period (300 BC to AD 1700) hunter-gatherer landscapes in the Lake of the Woods region of northwestern Ontario. The authors examine the distribution of documented pictograph sites relative to the locations of rock formations where the geologic conditions would have favored the placement of pictographic rock art but are absent. Point pattern analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and least cost path analysis were used to analyze the findings. The authors suggest that pictograph sites were placed at points on the landscape along water routes to facilitate information exchange among highly mobile hunter-gatherers.

Examinations of rock art typically focus on acts of creation and compositional meaning, with little attention paid to the position of these created places in the palimpsest of history. As these sites endure, their recognition and importance within subsequent social developments, including memory and oral tradition, are both invented and reinvented as descendant populations become established or as new populations move in displacing or replacing the makers. This paper examines the ways in which oral histories of historic and contemporary First Nations populations in northwestern Ontario, Canada, challenge standard understandings of rock-art in the region, taking these sites out of the maker/meaning context and placing them within a framework of user/caretaker. The results of this contextual shift contest notions of applied cultural affiliation and traditional ownership, resulting in a perspective that reveals a transgenerational and transcultural endurance of these places in the contemporary social memory of these Indigenous communities.