Thread by @karlajstrand

Excited for the next session of the #Indigenous History Conference today! Starting shortly.

https://twitter.com/Plymouth_400/status/1315318415268216833

.@PauletteSteeves is up first to discuss "Reclaiming and Reviving Deep Indigenous Histories on Turtle Island". Steeves is Cree-Metis first, researcher and archaeologist second.

Steeves: Location is critical to an Indigenous research paradigm. Research is ceremony framed in respect and reciprocity. Stories lay the foundational framework of Indigenous sovereignty and material ground.

Steeves: North American archaeology has consistently erased, destroyed, stolen, and appropriated Native spaces, lands, cultural sites, artifacts, and more. There is evidence of the existence and flourishing of Indigenous peoples long before we've been taught.

Steeves: Archaeologists have always violently dismissed any site over 12k years old. Cites Fanon: Colonialism isn't simply content to impose its rule, or uphold its rule, it actually oppresses, distorts and destroys it. Western archaeology has done this forever.

Steeves: The greatest price for this has been paid by Indigenous groups who deal with legacy of trauma, violence, poverty. Political control of cultural knowledge is critical to Indigenous survival. - Wiseman (2005)

Steeves: Western education serves the purpose of empire through social engineering - Tupper (2011). Must add Indigenous stories to historical education to decolonize. The Clovis hypothesis is embedded in the narrative but it has never been substantiated by research.

Steeves: Created Western Hemisphere Pleistocene Database that compiles data on over 4k archaeological sites. Much vast and diverse evidence of Indigenous civilizations prior to 12k years ago.

Steeves: Mammalian, fossil, fluted point technologies, and climate evidence shows that humans were around long before 12k years ago. Sites exist from 18k, 200k years ago. Some sites uncovered broken mammoth bones which indicates human existence and intervention.

Steeves: How tusks are found placed in the ground also indicates human existence and intervention. Also, there have been tools found in places where they didn't originate. Multiple sites have been found in CA that date to over 100k years old.

Steeves: There's a vast body of evidence that supports humans were in the Americas over 100k years ago. Must consider the evidence of earlier sites and explore earlier migrations between continental areas.

Steeves: Archaeology has been a colonial act and we must reexamine the practices and narratives. Decenter US archaeological histories and reclaim Indigenous histories. We must examine, record, and discuss the evidence, including oral histories.

Steeves: Identity today and ownership of the past is affected by these erroneous normative narratives. These narratives are not based on science or evidence. There's academic violence against archaeologists who support the new theories.

Steeves: Google "Turtle Island origin stories" to learn more about where the name comes from. Listen to the stories told by the communities who own those stories. But in essence, North America grew on the back of the turtle. South America, a condor.

Steeves: Oldest sites are in South America. The Indigenous Paleolithic Database of the Americas is here: tipdba.com

Steeves: US archaeologists are much less open to hearing these new Pleistocene theories; others around the world are more open. Not one shred of data supports the Clovis-first hypothesis; been conjecture for a long time. There's a ton of data for earlier people.

Steeves' upcoming book "The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere" will be releasing in late spring 2021 from Univ. of Nebraska Press @UnivNebPress.

Steeves: Underwater and coastal archaeology is increasing along continental shelf, in Lake Michigan, etc. Technology like LIDAR is helping this.

Steeves: Geneticists have less than 1/10 of 1% of the data so we can't say anything definitively yet. There's very little data and DNA evidence. The data and evidence change and are added to often.

Steeves: In many colonized countries, the colonizers erase or control Indigenous histories. If you do this, it makes it easier to steal the land. Reclaiming history is really important and help to heal these traumas. Read her papers for more: scholar.google.com/citations?user…

Thanks to @PauletteSteeves, @joyce_rain18, Linda Coombs, and @Plymouth_400 for this presentation. Fascinating and enlightening!

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Next up is "Historical Trauma: The Wounds that Won't Heal" with Gkisedtanamoogk, Mishi Lesser, and Dawn Neptune @DawnNeptuneDNA. @Plymouth_400 #indigenoushistory

Gkisedtanamoogk begins: We'll be looking at the efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission dealing with trauma of residential schools.

Dawn Neptune Adams @DawnNeptuneDNA : Spent childhood from 4yo-18yo in foster care. Is now back home with her tribe and relearning traditions, dealing with intergenerational trauma.

Mishy Lesser: Part of the Upstander Project that made Dawnland and Dear Georgina upstanderproject.org/georgina.

Lesser: Indigenous children were stolen and forcibly sent to boarding schools or foster homes in order to sever them from culture, community, and kin. Hundreds of thousands have this story. Settler colonialism's violence causes a legacy of intergenerational trauma.

Gkisedtanamoogk: Reflecting on the short film, Dear Georgina, that we just viewed. How do we heal our traumas? The wound keeps being reopened. You don't get over that until the Earth and relatives have a sense of healing as well.

Gkisedtanamoogk: We are more than the events that scarred us. During the TRC, dealt with realities of genocide, forcible removal of children. Current nation-state policies are based on genocide. Denial and ongoing trauma is persistent violence.

Gkisedtanamoogk: We need to embrace one another and the land, we must find each other in all this, and acknowledge each other, open our hearts, move in a way we know we should in our hearts and souls, we must conclude we are family with all life around us and we will heal.

Adams: Gave a statement at TRC but worried about opening the wound and deal with it. Felt dread in giving a public statement. Did it though so that it doesn't happen to other children. We have to think about the intergenerational trauma.

Adams: Was asked to be in Dawnland film but hesitated because was scared to be seen. Being invisible kept her safer as a child. Realizes thru healing process she doesn't need to drag this defense mechanism into her adulthood.

Adams: "I will never be done with the healing process but I've had a good start with it." @DawnNeptuneDNA

Lesser: Gkisedtanamoogk refers to "the view from the boat", where you didn't know there was a view from the shore. As kids we are only taught one perspective.

Lesser: Dawn has been healing herself among community. When children are taken from their communities, it's genocide. It cuts across the histories of all Indigenous peoples of this world. Learn their stories in order to be of better service to all.

Gkisedtanamoogk: Check the -ologies and -isms, because they only work for a small portion of the population. There must be a better way than what they've been confronted by. Find what fits into the Indigenous framework of respect and caring for the world around us.

Gkisedtanamoogk: Direct parallels can be drawn between how we treat people and how we treat the land and animals. We must break the dangerous patterns of violence and minimalization of nature and communities.

Adams: Reconciliation can't be achieved when the behavior continues. We can look back at settler colonial history, and there's a pattern of stealing our relatives. It is still happening today.

Adams: Maine-Wabanaki Reach is the org that worked for the TRC. mainewabanakireach.org Reconstruction is now the term used, instead of reconciliation. They are still doing amazing work in this area.

Lesser: Gkisedtanamoogk refers to reconciliation is the long road, way beyond our lifetimes. Reparations may be a step on the road to reconciliation for some. But the land is crucial here as well.

Lesser: The taking of the children is directly related to the taking of the land. Can only understand the former when examining the latter. How can you reconcile without giving back the land?

Lesser: Legislation has been introduced to create a national TRC. But the work also has to happen at the local level. Non-Natives must confront reality as occupiers. What does it mean to become neighbors with legitimacy?

Gkisedtanamoogk: Real reconciliation means sharing the land. People excuse the violence because it was government-sanctioned. The real reconciliation begins with all people where we are. We cannot depend on governments. We must embrace one another in this process.

Lesser: Dawnland and Dear Georgina should be required viewing for social workers and educators, especially non-Native ones. Non-Natives were taught in a white supremacist educational system. The social work system is white supremacist and must be transformed.

Gkisedtanamoogk: Example of checking in with -ologies and -isms: we have a lot of Indigenous social workers and educators and professionals coming up who are regularly confronted with oppression and violence. What nation on earth has treaties with its citizens??

Gkisedtanamoogk: Why is it necessary for government to extend reach into Native communities? They have no legal right to do this. Why are Indigenous peoples never consulted? Why do governments never get consent? We must reimagine all of these methods.

Adams CORRECTION: Restoration is the word instead of reconciliation, not reconstruction.

Adams: White middle class values imposed on Indigenous peoples throughout history. Unfairly judged against these standards. Profit is often the incentive for violence, stealing relatives, land, etc. Simulation as intent and profit as motive.

Adams: For-profit detention centers (concentration camps) along the imaginary line called the border, are examples of this. People are fleeing the southern countries to the US because of oppressive and violent policies and situations the US government created.

Gkisedtanamoogk: When Europe began to invade Turtle Island and upset the whole balance, we were thriving. Federal Indian policy and colonial policies of deprivation are being played out throughout the world currently. We are much more borderless than we are led to believe.

Gkisedtanamoogk: Most reservations are welfare states. Lack connection to their homelands. Protected by some treaties, perceived as lacking "legitimacy". No access to economic resources, so forced to be dependent.

Thanks to @joyce_rain18, Linda Coombs, Gkisedtanamoogk, Misha Lesser, @DawnNeptuneDNA, @BridgeStateU, @Plymouth_400 for this illuminating, sad, and infuriating session. So important to disrupt the normative narratives with these truths.

The next sessions of the Indigenous History Conference will be held next week Sunday Oct. 25. bridgew.edu/event/indigeno…

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