Echoes: Indigenous Communities in the Americas

DOCUMENT Citation Only C. Andrew Buchner.

After the American Revolutionary War disrupted Native American groups were pushed westward, and among these were Cherokee who settled in the Arkansas River Valley beginning in the 1790s.  Their population peaked during 1818-1828, after which they resettled farther west in Indian Territory.  Archaeological evidence for the Arkansas Cherokee sites has been slow to come to light, because the sites were so briefly occupied and exhibit low artifact densities.  Additionally, because the Arkansas...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen A. Hammack.

This paper will present the results of five years of historical detective work and archaeological research into the Creek Indians who lived in the Southeastern United States, along Middle Georgia's Ocmulgee River (previously Ochese Creek), between AD 1680 and 1716.  Contradictory historical maps depicting town locations will be discussed, as will attempts to document their modern locations.  Comparisons of ethnohistorical research into the two groups of Lower Creek, the more numerous Hitchiti...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel K. Wentz.

Spanish colonialism impacted, transformed, and ultimately extinguished the indigenous populations of Florida. Every aspect of aboriginal culture was affected, including their mortuary practices. Body position and treatment, grave good assemblages, and method of interment were radically altered by the imposition of Catholicism on Florida natives who fell under colonial regimes. Burials associated with mission sites provide insight into the impact of Spanish colonialism on the people they...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anastasiya Travina.

In the viceroyalty of Peru under Francisco Toledo, cultural and political organization represented a fusion of European and Andean ethos, ideology, and language. Using archaeological data and historical analysis, this paper explores the intermixture of the European colonial political structure and traditions with the Inkan quadripartite social organization and dualistic beliefs. The paper discusses the combination of two record-keeping methods during the Toledan order: the Inkan khipus, a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen J. Bragdon.

This paper looks at wills written by and for Wampanoag people in their own language and in English and their relation to other native mortuary customs in the eighteenth century. I argue that while writing wills was an innovative practice adopted by Christian Indians and suggests a breakdown in native community structure in the eighteenth century, the practice was consistent with other evidence for strong community identification.  Knowledge of the "writing culture" of southern New...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Valerie M. J. Hall.

Documentary evidence indicates English colonists in seventeenth-century Maryland were trading for/purchasing native-made pottery for use in their daily routines.  I undertook a subtypological analysis of historic-period indigenous ceramics which demonstrated changes occurred in pottery treatments throughout the century.  While exterior attributes showed a trend towards smoother surfaces and thinner walls, echoing European-made ceramics, interior attributes maintained cultural traditions.  This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John L. Creese.

This paper considers the sources of demand for European-manufactured goods among the Native American societies of the Northeast Woodlands in the early seventeenth century.  I propose that among the Wendat-Tionnantate and Attiwandaron societies of southern Ontario, objects perceived to be potent – including many obtained from European sources – fed into local ‘economies of affect’.  These systems involved characteristic cycles of ritual exchange focussed on the accumulation and enchainment of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cameron B. Wesson. John Cottier.

Beginning with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson and ending with the forced removal of most Creeks on the Trail of Tears, the Tallisi Phase (1814-1836) was a period of tremendous cultural transformation for the Creeks of Southeastern North America. Historical documents suggest the most profound of these changes were alterations in political structure, domestic economies, and demographics. This paper examines the archaeological and historical records to evaluate the impacts of these...