Inheriting the Past ─ The Making of Arthur C. Parker and Indigenous Archaeology

In recent years, archaeologists and Native American communities have struggled to find common ground even though more than a century ago a man of Seneca descent raised on New York’s Cattaraugus Reservation, Arthur C. Parker, joined the ranks of professional archaeology. Until now, Parker’s life and legacy as the first Native American archaeologist have been neither closely studied nor widely recognized. At a time when heated debates about the control of Native American heritage have come to dominate archaeology, Parker’s experiences form a singular lens to view the field’s tangled history and current predicaments with Indigenous peoples.

In Inheriting the Past, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh examines Parker’s winding career path and asks why it has taken generations for Native peoples to follow in his footsteps. Closely tracing Parker’s life through extensive archival research, Colwell-Chanthaphonh explores how Parker crafted a professional identity and negotiated dilemmas arising from questions of privilege, ownership, authorship, and public participation. How Parker, as well as the discipline more broadly, chose to address the conflict between Native American rights and the pursuit of scientific discovery ultimately helped form archaeology’s moral community.

Parker’s rise in archaeology just as the field was taking shape demonstrates that Native Americans could have found a place in the scholarly pursuit of the past years ago and altered its trajectory. Instead, it has taken more than a century to articulate the promise of an Indigenous archaeology?an archaeological practice carried out by, for, and with Native peoples. As the current generation of researchers explores new possibilities of inclusiveness, Parker’s struggles and successes serve as a singular reference point to reflect on archaeology’s history and its future.

Dr. Colwell-Chanthaphonh received his PhD from Indiana University and his BA from the University of Arizona. Before coming to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, he held fellowships with the Center for Desert Archaeology and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Focusing principally on Native American communities in the American Southwest, Dr. Colwell-Chanthaphonh has undertaken a range of studies to examine the role of history?and objects that embody history?in politics, science, landscapes, museums, and heritage sites. He has published more than two dozen articles and book chapters, and has authored and edited five books including History is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley which received Honorable Mention in the 2007 Victor Turner Prize juried book competition, and Massacre at Camp Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History which received a 2008 Arizona Book Award in the Political/History category. in anthropology from Indiana University and is now a Project Director at Anthropological Research, LLC.