Evolving Native American Participation in the Excavation and Interpretation of a Tutelo Site in Ithaca, New York

Summary

In the 1990s, Cornell University students partnered with community members when service-learning courses were a fairly new concept for archaeological education. Native students participated in the excavation to locate a neutral Tutelo village that was destroyed in 1779 in a punitive military expedition by American forces.  The Cornell team also worked in partnership with local farmers, property owners, developers, and town officials in Ithaca, New York.  The site was open to the public and tours were regularly offered. As the project evolved over fourteen years, Tutelo involvement increased. The Native leaders collaborated with archaeologists and planners to create a commemorative site. The Tutelos brought a new voice to interpret a Revolutionary War landscape. When Tutelo Park opened, the Tutelo Indians took the lead in organizing the activities and discussing with the public what this site meant to them and why the commemorative park was a homecoming for them.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Interpretation and Presentation of Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Sites: Evolving Horizons   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 630