Book Reviews: Thinking About Cultural Resource Management: Essays From the Edge

The Guru of Section 106 has just compiled a book of essays that every CRM professional, archeologist, anthropologist, historic preservationist, environmentalist (have I covered all the pertinent “ists”?), and Native Americans concerned with preserving, protecting, and managing historic properties should read. There is even a nifty glossary of terms for those readers who may not be familiar with the compliance lingo that goes along with Section 106, the National Environmental Protection Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the whole host of other federal laws related to historic preservation

Peyoteism and the Origins of Caddo Religious Thought

The Caddo Indians practiced a vibrant peyote religion long before John Wilson (Moonhead) or Quanah Parker re-ignited the Native American Church. Moreover, research has show the importance of the peyote plant to the Caddo long before any European contact. The peyote religion at the time of the Spanish mission in Texas was full of songs and dances in honor of one known today as (Aah-hi-u kuu-i\u27-ha) or Father Above, translated to mean home where God lives. Although Swanton proposes that the Hasinai medicine men used peyote at the beginning of the eighteenth century (a reference to Friar Hidalgo\u27s Spanish account) how long had they been using this plant before any written records

Review of \u3ci\u3eLand of the Tejas: Native American Identity and Interaction in Texas, A.D. 1300 to 1700. \u3c/i\u3eBy John Wesley Arnn III. Foreword by Tom D. Dillehay.

This tremendously enjoyable, thought-provoking book should be read by anyone interested in the history of the state of Texas, the archeology of the Plains, and the past social and cultural interactions among peoples living within this region during this time period. Arnn provides a concise framework for his theme in his introduction: This book presents a model of late prehistoric and early historic Texas that was also extremely dynamic and diverse and suggests that as early as A.D. 1300 aboriginal peoples living in this region may have also recognized a broader sociocultural identity. ... Overall, Arnn does a fine job explaining the intricacies of the archeology of Central Texas, the Southern Plains, and the Classic Toyah Culture Area

Book Reviews: Tribal Cultural Resource Management: The Full Circle to Stewardship

With only ten chapters, Tribal Cultural Resource Management provides model strategies of what it takes to properly “manage” cultural resources. Although it is geared toward tribal governments and creating the right combination of preservation and protection of their culture, don’t let the title fool you, this book is for any person who has a responsibility as a land manager. Those currently involved in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) work should give this book a close read. Off hand, I can think of several federal agencies, especially those operating without Cultural Resource Management Plans, who could truly benefit from following the practical strategies outlined in this readable and informal book

Review of \u3ci\u3eLand of the Tejas: Native American Identity and Interaction in Texas, A.D. 1300 to 1700. \u3c/i\u3eBy John Wesley Arnn III. Foreword by Tom D. Dillehay.

This tremendously enjoyable, thought-provoking book should be read by anyone interested in the history of the state of Texas, the archeology of the Plains, and the past social and cultural interactions among peoples living within this region during this time period. Arnn provides a concise framework for his theme in his introduction: This book presents a model of late prehistoric and early historic Texas that was also extremely dynamic and diverse and suggests that as early as A.D. 1300 aboriginal peoples living in this region may have also recognized a broader sociocultural identity. ... Overall, Arnn does a fine job explaining the intricacies of the archeology of Central Texas, the Southern Plains, and the Classic Toyah Culture Area

Documentation of a Native American Church Altar in Caddo County, Oklahoma

What little research that has been done in Caddo County, Oklahoma (and elsewhere) with Caddo Native American Church altars or fireplace locations show that there is a desperate need to document and record these locations for future generations. However, even with the paucity of this research, it is feasible to suggest that these ceremonial altars, their stylistic differences, and the passing of this religion to future generations of traditional practitioners have had a very long history. Others have discussed the ceremonial uses of fire, structures, objects, and mounds in the archaeological record, yet have not addressed the appearance and importance of these uses extending into the historic era and their continued use in present day religious rituals among the Caddo peoples. If, according to these researchers, the prominent role fire and the central hearth played are symbols of life itself, then I suggest that these symbols of life must be manifested in some form in present day ceremonial uses. Some researchers go so far as to suggest in leaving little to chance, these people [in referring to those living at the Harlan site, 34CK6I combined tangible elements of their material world with performance in acting out an ordered structure of belief. These belief systems, then, become a large part of the physical and archaeological record left behind, but not only this, many of these belief systems of the past have been carried on in the present through the peyotism ceremonies of the Native American Church. In studies of the historic Caddo, it is not unlikely that similar altars could be found in areas such as the Brazos Reserve on the Brazos River in Young County, Texas, Caddo Lake, and Timber HiJI (41MR211), an early 19th century Caddo village near Caddo Lake, as well as other pre-1859 Caddo sites across eastern Texas. Moreover. similar altars may never have been accounted for in the archaeological record of these areas, as archaeologists working in these areas may have been unaware of what was being observed, its particular use, and unknowingly failed to record them as significant in any way. Furthermore, the ceremonial altars themselves could have been a part of the natural landscape, thus making identification of these places extremely difficult

A Rediscovery of Caddo Heritage: The W. T. Scott Collection at the American Museum of Natural History

Back in August 1997, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma had submitted a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claim for a cranium that had been obtained by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City in 1877. Very little information was known about these remains, other than it had been obtained as a purchase/gift to the museum by Charles C, Jones Jr. and was found in a mound somewhere near the Shreveport vicinity in Caddo or Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Based on the presence of artificial cranial deformation, the museum dated these human remains to a period of between A.D. 800 and the contact period. Because of the cranial deformation, and the archeological investigations that had taken place in the past in Louisiana, the museum had determined that the remains were culturally affiliated to the Caddo Nation. Through consultation with the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Cultural Resources Office staff at the AMNH, in February 200 l the Notice of Inventory Completion was published for these human remains in the Federal Register

Reaping the Whirlwind: The Caddo after Europeans

The De Soto chronicles introduce us to the Caddo Indian peoples of East Texas in what we can arbitrarily call “historic times.” The Gentleman of Elvas had this to say when the Spaniards reached the Caddo province of Naguatex on the Red River in the Great Bend area of southwestern Arkansas in August of 1542. The cacique [of Naguatex], on beholding the damage that his land was receiving [from the Spanish forces], sent six of his principal men and three Indians with them as guides who knew the language of the region ahead where the governor [Luis de Moscoso] was about to go. He immediately left Naguatex and after marching three days reached a town of four or five houses, belonging to the cacique of that miserable province, called Nisohone. It was a poorly populated region and had little maize. Two days later, the guides who were guiding the governor, if they had to go toward the west, guided then toward the east, and sometimes they went through dense forests, wandering off the road. The governor ordered them hanged from a tree, and an Indian women, who had been captured at Nisohone, guided them, and he went back to look for the road. Despite the “miserable” condition of the lands traversed by the Spaniards in Caddo country, the Caddo were successful agriculturists, with a Mississippian societal flavor, as well as bison hunters when they were first described in 1542 by the Spanish expedition

Documentation of Unassociated and Culturally Unidentifiable Funerary Objects in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District Collections Housed at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin

This report concerns the documentation of unassociated Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) funerary objects from prehistoric sites at several man-made reservoirs operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District (COE) in northeastern Texas: Lake Wright Patman, Lake O’ the Pines, and Lake Sam Rayburn in the Sulphur River, Big Cypress Creek, and Angelina River basins, respectively. These NAGPRA materials are presently held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL)

Documentation of Caddo Funerary Objects from the Crenshaw Site (3MI6) in the Gilcrease Museum Collections

This report is one in a series of reports produced and published by the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, Cultural Preservation Program, that concern the documentation of funerary objects in museum facilities that are subject to the provisions and regulations of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) (Gonzalez et al. 2005; Cast et al. 2006; Perttula et al. 2007, 2009a, 2009b, 2010). These documentation studies have been done either with grants from the National Park Service, or through funding provided by the museum facility. In the case of the present study of Caddo funerary objects from the Crenshaw site (3MI6) in the collections at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the documentation effort was supported by a NAGPRA grant provided by the National Park Service (NPS)