Enriching Archaeological Interpretations with Tales from the Rez: Braiding Indigenous Knowledge into Archaeological Praxis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hood Archaeologies: Impacts of the School-to-Prison Pipeline on Archaeological Practice and Pedagogy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

“In order to know yourself and find your way in this life, you need to know where you and your People come from and understand their relationship with the land.” This insight formed critical foundational knowledge that guides my Indigenous archaeological praxis. My experience and knowledge as a first-generation Indigenous woman archaeologist has created a difficult pathway to being an archeologist. My experience and knowledge are often misunderstood by archaeologists and dismissed as being unimportant to understanding the past. This practice contributes to further marginalization of Indigenous archaeologists and Indigenous knowledge, it also pushes Indigenous archaeologists out of the discipline and creates a vacuum of information and pedagogy that has the potential to transform archaeological practice and pedagogy. The “tales from the Rez” that Indigenous archaeologists share with one another and their communities reflects a pedagogical shift in the need for braiding Indigenous knowledge into archaeological practice in order to shift the power that lies within archaeological interpretations to one that centers collaborations with, by, and for Indigenous Peoples and Communities. This process and shift creates pathways for archaeologists to learn how to work with Indigenous Communities to braid Indigenous knowledge into the stories they tell about our deep past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Hood Archaeologies: Impacts of the School-to-Prison Pipeline on Archaeological Practice and Pedagogy   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38177.0