The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere

Abstract

Steeves eloquently reminds us that settler/colonial history is not the only history nor the singular authority on the past. Through a multi-lensed approach, weaving archaeology, sociology, and her own Indigenous traditions, Steeves challenges supporters of the already waning view concerning a panhemispheric cultural group that migrated to the prehistoric Americas. Defining all prehistoric Native Americans as descendants of a singular ancestral Clovis Point people is a gross oversimplification and is not supported by the archaeological evidence, the oral traditions of Indigenous groups, nor by linguistics. Steeves warns that classifying all prehistoric American Indigenous peoples as Clovis (a) wrongly groups them as homogenous, (b) superimposes a single technological categorization on diverse heritages, and (c) forces an untrue, Eurocentric narrative.Though the Indigenous method and theory that Steeves employs includes empirical knowledge and critical thought, her process also recognizes these are not the only systems for knowing the world. Furthermore, she emphasizes that in the Indigenous method, no one owns the knowledge; instead it is relational, providing a corroboration between oral tradition and archaeological record. Steeves presents her work in a way that celebrates the diverse groups often reduced to “Indian” tropes, refuting that these different cultural, heritage, and language groups were all the same; additionally, she is adamant in dispelling the stereotyped myth that Native Americans are anti-science. She frames this conversation in terms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) and the important work of returning human remains and funerary objects, including the remains of the Ancient One (Kennewick Man), the reburial of whom a number of Western archaeologists and institutions fought to prevent. Another issue she addresses is the use of arbitrary European nomenclature for groups, lands, flora and fauna, and cultural practices when discussing Indigenous history—instead, she argues, archaeologists and historians should use the names given by Indigenous peoples when referring to Indigenous histories. Steeves claims that expanding how we explain and explore Indigenous histories also expands our understanding of global history.Steeves postulates that there were much earlier and more frequent migrations of people to the Western Hemisphere, and that those who refute this possibility do so from the Clovis First hypothesis, which has never existed save in the minds of historians. Likewise, is it possible that indigenous groups migrated from North America to Asia (the reverse of the commonly affirmed migration pattern)? Steeves, a proponent of the multi-regional hypothesis, finds that human habitation of the Western Hemisphere could go back as far as 130,000 years ago. She investigates why pre-Clovis models have been dismissed by historians since the mid-twentieth century.Intercutting her criticism of the Euro-dominant praxis within archaeology and anthropology, Steeves uses empirical evidence, linguistic evidence, personal narratives, poetry, and Indigenous ways of knowing to express a lucid and thorough critique of commonly held beliefs about history and prehistory. Proposing a holistic approach, she shows a rich relational knowledge contained in traditional peoples’ oral histories stretching to deep time and spaces. Such stories speak of Pleistocene beasts, evidenced by two mammoth teeth kept as sacred objects.In short, Steeves attempts to reclaim the histories of prehistoric Indigenous groups by Indigenous scholars for Indigenous peoples today. In her journey, she shares with us that the stubborn inability of those who refuse a pre-Clovis habitation of the Western Hemisphere have done so not because of the evidence but because it was important to maintain the facade of a people who had an infant culture easily conquered by the older, more dominant, and more established Old World empires. By dehumanizing the Indigenous—then and now—it is possible to rationalize the systematic destruction of those traditional lifeways.Steeves ends her work by calling on scholars to fan the flames of the Eighth Fire—what she calls a healing smoke—which is a place of peace, intersected by settler and Indigenous pasts. Unlike any scholarly work I have enjoyed, Steeves brings an unprecedented life to her claims. Her fire not only challenges what we have said about the past but will also certainly inspire new, vibrant scholarship that breaks down conventions and barriers.