Listening to One Another: Contributions of Indigenous People to the Life and Research of Dennis Stanford

Summary

A wealth of mentors, colleagues, and friends influence the evolution of one’s approach to archaeological research. This paper reflects on Dennis Stanford’s associations with native people beginning with his graduate student days involved in audio recording American Indian Oral Histories for the Doris Duke Foundation, including learning from Santa Ana Pueblo Cacique Porfirio Montoya and his wife Eudora Montoya, assisting with land claims for the return of Sacred Blue Lake to the people of Taos Pueblo, and traveling to Alcatraz during its occupation in 1970 to interview John Trudell and others. Dissertation research in Barrow, Alaska involved generous sharing by Inuit neighbors regarding traditional hunting methods and technology. Later, indigenous archaeologists joined his excavations in Colorado. Stanford served as chairman of Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology during the initial decade of the implementation of the NMAI Act and NAGPRA. He was involved with the Kennewick law suit against the Army Corps of Engineers for NAGPRA violation. Recently, Snoqualmie individuals reached out to share their knowledge and interpretation of the East Wenatchee Clovis Cache and Northern Cheyenne Elder, Ralph Red Fox, initiated a discussion of an ancient Algonquian oral history regarding ancestors who arrived in North America across the Atlantic Ocean.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22456