Resilience in Stone: The Role of Lithic Technology in Studying Colonial Encounters

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For years, archaeologists have utilized technological studies as powerful tools for understanding the impacts and negotiations of colonialism. However, lithics remain an overlooked or even oversimplified line of evidence for these studies, despite the social and cultural importance of stone technology. This paper addresses this deficit by exploring how ancestral Apache groups in western Kansas adapted their lithic technologies in response to Spanish colonialism. In this research, I investigate shifts in tool production, use, and raw material procurement strategies as ancestral Apache encountered new environmental and social pressures, including the arrival of Puebloan migrants. By examining stone tools as a critical lens for understanding continuity and change, this case study provides insights into broader trends of technological adaptation among Indigenous groups in response to European colonization. This research highlights the resilience and innovation of Indigenous technological systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 54095