Changing how archaeology is done in Native American contexts: An Ndee (Apache) case study

Abstract

The White Mountain Apache Tribe Cultural Heritage Resource Best Management Practices (WMATCHRBMPs) present and delineate in guideline form cultural heritage resource definitions, management, and necessary steps before, during, and after project implementation for any ground-disturbing projects potentially adversely affecting cultural heritage resources on Ndee (Apache) trust lands. However, since the tribe’s adoption of the practices, the application of Ndee tenets found within the guidelines to real-world cultural and archaeological methods and practices remains scant. Embedded in the Ndee cultural tenets is the tenet of “respect,” which I will argue can be used as a tool by non- Ndee researchers to critically reflect on their own research agendas and to guide research projects with Ndee communities. By foregrounding respect within various ongoing archaeological project-related occurrences, contemporary Ndee experiences, defining Ndee material trait lists, superiority statements, archaeological categorizations, and stereotypical underpinnings, better paths forward for collaborative research with Ndee and other Native American communities can be highlighted.

The future of archaeology is (still) community collaboration

“…This facet of collaborative research has emerged in dialogue with the 'ontological turn', which has drawn scholars' attention to divergent understandings of being (Alberti et al 2011;Alberti 2016;Harris & Cipolla 2017). To date, much of this work has been conducted by scholars operating within Indigenous Archaeology, who have advocated for the integration of Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies into interpretative archaeological practice (Todd 2016;Cipolla et al 2019;Laluk 2020;Acebo 2021;Montgomery 2021;Two Bears 2021).…”

Archaeological Survey as Participatory Counter-Mapping

“…In Canada and the United States, it emerged as a direct result of the American Indian Movement and other Indigenous-led activism protesting the desecration of Indigenous cemeteries and other sacred sites in the name of archaeological research (Echo-Hawk and Echo-Hawk 1994;Hammill and Cruz 1989). Although the ghts against development-related destruction and for the return of ancestors are ongoing, tribes have increasingly initiated their own archaeological projects, often pioneering minimally invasive methods (see Atalay 2006;Laluk 2021;Nelson 2020;Silliman 2008;Watkins 2000). As discussed by our fellow authors in this volume, Indigenous archaeologists design research collaboratively with community partners, braiding Indigenous knowledge systems and their ethical entailments with traditional archaeological practices (Atalay 2012).…”