Civilization And Perception

By having requirements to return archaeological findings back to their native tribes entirely, archaeologists are limited in their discoveries and possibly their job. An archaeological discovery is meaningless if it never experiences any practical investigation on whether its characteristics benefit society. For this reason, archaeologists should own the right to keep critically important parts of Kennewick Man’s skull such as his teeth, but return the rest of the skull to the Colville tribe and find an equal compromise. DNA testing should be the first step in deriving information from an archaeological discovery such as a skull, but NAGPRA should give archaeologists the right to keep the most important parts of discoveries for scientific use and then return the remaining parts to the native tribe. In the long run, scientific progress is prevented whenever conflicts emerge over the ownership of archaeological discoveries, therefore Native American tribes should have the courtesy to allow archaeologists to use only specific parts of a specimen and have the remaining parts returned to them if DNA testing comes back positive in relation to their

There were many situations and events in history that led to wars, freedom of religion, civil unrest, unfair trade, terrorism, and independence. By examining experiences, troubles, and triumphs of

| |over 12,000 years and the beginning of the european intrusian which almost destroyed the Native American |

Since the very first contact, the Native Americans have been treated as subordinates, being mistreated, shamed, embarrassed, and oppressed by white settlers. After the Revolutionary War in the late 1700’s, matters only got worse for the Native Americans. Population was skyrocketing due to a great deal of immigration of white settlers in the early to mid 1800’s, and there wasn’t enough space for everyone. With this came expansion, and to reach the goals they had set out for it, the Native Americans had to go. A prime example of this is shown in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” where in chapter seven he talks about the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands, carelessness and failure by the American government to protect, and multiple slaughters carried out by the American military on the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Sac and Fox, and the Seminole tribes. Closely related is “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,” written by Dee Brown, his writings from chapter thirteen focus on the Nez Perces tribe that resided in Oregon, and their attempt at a journey in Canada, and other western Indian tribes’ affairs. To go along with Zinn and Brown, is Alan Brinkley’s “American History,” which posed an unbiased view of what modern day textbooks are informing students across the nation about what happened to the Native Americans. An article titled “The North American Indian Holocaust,” written by

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

Archaeologists can’t just possess any Native American material on their own for research purposes without the consultation of the Native American tribes. To the Native Americans, the past is connected to present. Rebecca Tsosie, a law professor from the Arizona State University mentioned that “The past is very real to contemporary Indian people ans is preserved in oral histories and ongoing ceremonial practices and beliefs.”(66). The native people feel that they’re obligated to take care of their past, they have to honor their ancestors no matter how long ago they have passed away. They believe that they should have the right to stop any behaviors that might desecrate their ancestors. It is very understandable that one might not appreciate someone digging up their grandparents and perform research without permission. Especially to people who practices a religion, this action may be interpreted as the archaeologists trying to disturb the spirits of their ancestors. Not only the remains and objects are important to the Natives, but also their land. Land was considered to be a gift given from the Creator. Just like the ancestral remains the descendants are responsible for their sacred land. It is believed that “The land is complete with sacred teachings, marked by tribal history, and places of interrelations to the powerful beings of the nature-spirit world.” (Champagne). The Native Americans do not have the need to know the truth, all they care is to ensure spiritual peace to their ancestors and to pass on the legacy of their own

Another social conflict underlined in this book was the conflict between the Irish-American citizen and the citizens of Indian origin. Typically, Irish people looked down upon the Indian citizens. The writer notes that the Irish people were slowly forgetting their own fate of how they too were the subject of discrimination and callous victimization in the

Human beings, desire to maintain a connection with the past is achieved through the languages spoken, the various cultures practiced, and sadly through acquiring of cultural property by the means of grave robbing. Native Americans wanted justice for these past mistreatments and control over their history. According to Chip Colwell, campaigning, repatriation of indigenous artifacts began in the 1960s by indigenous activism. Finally, on November 16, 1990, The United States Government passed The Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act. NAGPRA summarizes that museums must conduct an inventory of all native American cultural artifacts and remains. (Native) In addition, Museums send the inventories to federally recognized tribes, in

Having a tumultuous background, the Native American history in itself should be respected, but there seems to be a nuisance doing so. In the 1830’s, after removal policy failed to prevail, “not only did individual Indians remain, but native communities also struggled over the next century and a half to carve out a place for themselves in the South"(Perdue 3). Native American’s were challenged to find a place in the idealistic society, but their ritualistic culture was not fit for the United States. Further on, they dealt with poverty, discrimination, and violence against their community.

Sometimes the controversy goes beyond disagreement on factual information, such as the age of humanity or source of Earth’s creation, and how we cover this information in schools. In the case of certain American Indian groups, there has been conflict in the actual excavation of artifacts, preventing physical evidence from being utilized for limitless amounts of scientific conclusion. There has been disharmony in the idea of ownership and increased distrust, which is most likely in part due to the American Indians’ deeply regrettable historic relationship with the United States government.

The first major piece of legislation that applied to the protection of indigenous remains and cultural materials came with the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The act had major implications for the relationship between anthropology and Native Americans. The intent of the Antiquities Act was to protect the cultural resources of the United States by creating a permitting process for archaeological excavations and establish punishments for looting. Unfortunately, the act furthered the notion that anthropologists held authority over indigenous material culture (Daehnke 2011). Instead of protecting artifacts for indigenous parties, the act legislated the appropriation of culture by anthropologists. Native American remains essentially became

The Native Americans have been in North America since about 13,000 B.C.E. and even left traces of art in the state of Ohio. However, those traces have been messed with over the years and an act had to be put in place to protect their burial mounds in particular. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was put in place in 1990 to stop people from removing artifacts out of their graves without meeting certain requirements and have some of them be returned as well. They do not want any more disturbances to the burial ground as it is disrespectful to the tribes and it makes it harder on archeologists to identify the item, where it came from, and how old

Much of the curiosity about Native American origins stems from individuals wanting to learn about human capabilities. Knowing the time frame of when the first people of the Americas got here, gives historians insight to what tools and technology they had already developed to help them make the long trek. Historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists estimate that Native Americans arrived in North America less than 100,000 years ago (Stebbins, 2013, p. 42). The world has changed so

According to Nieto as an agent in the category of indigenous heritage I’m condition to believe that Indigenous people no longer exist in North America. From the beginning children and young adults are taught of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. According to Loewen the problem with talking about the “discovery of America” imply there weren’t people on the land before the “discovery”. In the contrary to what was taught Native American has been living on the land for thousand of years. The use of the word “discovery” implied that Christopher Columbus was curious and set out to find new land but instead the European government needed to increase their slaves and land.

Conflicts in these countries stem from a complex nature of historico-political legacies of past leaders. While some scholars blame conflicts in Africa to be the consequence of colonialism, I believe it is more complex than that. The continual preservation of the system that does not balance the power differences, however produced group formation along the lines of applicable social identities, as it relates to their experiences. (Volkan, 1997) Bloodline, a metaphor for the process of identity formation draws its strength from the author’s ability to draw a link between social identity formation and blood-related issues. Citing the Middle East, Isreal, and Palestine, his psychoanalytic methods helps in understanding dimensions of social identity formation as one beyond the Freudian understanding of the dynamics of group psychology. (Moghaddam, 2006) equally situates social identity formation as the best explanation for Islamic terrorism.