Changing Tides: Tribal Engagement in Oregon's Coastal Archaeology 

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting Archaeological Legacies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeology on Oregon’s Coast has been largely limited in scope and lacks a holistic viewpoint of coastal history. Archaeological investigations began in earnest around 1930 with avocational archaeologists like Marcus Seale interested in expanding their "trophy item" collections. The heavily male dominated field of professional archaeology began to evolve in the 1940s and 1950s with investigators from varying backgrounds like Luther Cressman who began studying the material culture of the tribes as if they were an extinct group. The push for federal recognition in the 1970s sees increased tribal involvement with archaeologists such as Dick Ross. Unfortunately, tribal interests in archaeology are still not well captured today. Cultural resource professionals at major institutions continue to curate "cultural material" under the egis of science and resource protection, while arguing against the repatriation of material based on lack of skeletal components, or a misguided understanding of "affiliation," and of the Native view of sacredness. We explore the legacy of our predecessors and how we as archaeologists must take a more comprehensive approach to understanding coastal history since time immemorial.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting Archaeological Legacies

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26335