Rewriting history: New evidence challenges Euro-centric narrative of
early colonization
Indigenous people remained in southeastern US for nearly 150 years, study shows

Date:
July 15, 2020
Source:
Washington University in St. Louis
Summary:
New research provides evidence that Indigenous people continued
to live in southeastern US and actively resist European influence
for nearly 150 years after the arrival of Spanish explorers in
the 1500s.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In American history, we learn that the arrival of Spanish explorers led
by Hernando de Soto in the 1500s was a watershed moment resulting in
the collapse of Indigenous tribes and traditions across the southeastern
United States.


========================================================================== While these expeditions unquestionably resulted in the deaths of countless Indigenous people and the relocation of remaining tribes, new research
from Washington University in St. Louis provides evidence that Indigenous people in Oconee Valley -- present-day central Georgia -- continued to
live and actively resist European influence for nearly 150 years.

The findings, published July 15 in American Antiquity, speak to the
resistance and resilience of Indigenous people in the face of European insurgence, said Jacob Lulewicz, a lecturer in archaeology in Arts &
Sciences and lead author.

"The case study presented in our paper reframes the historical contexts
of early colonial encounters in the Oconee Valley by way of highlighting
the longevity and endurance of Indigenous Mississippian traditions and rewriting narratives of interactions between Spanish colonizers and
Native Americans," Lulewicz said.

It also draws into question the motives behind early explanations and interpretations that Euro-Americans proposed about Indigenous earthen
mounds - - platforms built out of soil, clay and stone that were used
for important ceremonies and rituals.

'Myths were purposively racist' "By the mid-1700s, less than 100 years
after the abandonment of the Dyar mound [now submerged under Lake Oconee], explanations for the non-Indigenous origins of earthen mounds were being espoused. As less than 100 years would have passed between the Indigenous
use of mounds and these explanations, it could be argued that the motives
for these myths were purposively racist, denying what would have been a
recent collective memory of Indigenous use in favor of explanations that
stole, and disenfranchised, these histories from contemporary Indigenous peoples," Lulewicz said.



==========================================================================
The Dyar mound was excavated by University of Georgia archaeologists
in the 1970s to make way for a dam. Lulewicz and co-authors -- Victor
D. Thompson, professor of archaeology and director of the Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of Georgia; James Wettstaed, archaeologist
at Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests; and Mark Williams, director
emeritus of the Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of Georgia -- received funding from the USDA Forest Service to re-date the platform
mound, which contained classic markers of Indigenous rituals and
ceremonies.

Using advanced radiocarbon dating techniques and complex statistical
models, modern-day archaeologists are able to effectively construct high-resolution, high-precision chronologies. In many cases, they can determine, within a 10- to 20-year range, dates of things that happened
as far back as 1,000 years ago.

"Radiocarbon dating is really important, not just for getting a date to
see when things happened, but for understanding the tempo of how things
changed throughout time and really understanding the complex histories
of people over hundreds of years," Lulewicz said. "In archaeology, it's
really easy to group things in long periods of time, but it would be
false to say that nothing changed over those 500 years." Their research yielded 20 new dates from up and down the mound, which provided a refined perspective on the effects that early Indigenous-colonizer encounters did,
and did not, have on the Indigenous people and their traditions.

Missing from the mound was any sign of European artifacts, which is
one of the reasons why archaeologists originally believed sites in the
region were abruptly abandoned just after their first encounters with
Spanish colonizers.

"Not only did the ancestors of Muscogee (Creek) people continue
their traditions atop the Dyar mound for nearly 150 years after these encounters, but they also actively rejected European things," Lulewicz
said.



========================================================================== According to Lulewicz, the Dyar mound does not represent an isolated
hold-over after contact with European colonizers. There are several
examples of platform mounds that were used beyond the 16th century,
including the Fatherland site associated with the Natchez in Louisiana, Cofitachequi in South Carolina and a range of towns throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley.

"However, the mound at Dyar represents one of the only confirmed examples,
via absolute dating, of continued Mississippian traditions related to
mound-use and construction to date." Today, members of the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation, descendants of the Mississippians who built platform
mounds like the one at Dyar, live in Oklahoma. "We have a great,
collaborative relationship with archaeologists of the Muscogee (Creek)
Nation Historic and Cultural Preservation Department, so we sent them
the paper to review. It was really well received. They saw, reflected
in that paper, a lot of the traditions they still practice in Oklahoma
and were generous enough to contribute commentary that bolstered the
results presented in the paper," he said.

"This is where the archaeology that we write becomes so important
in the present. ... Without this type of work, we are contributing
to the disenfranchisement of Indigenous peoples from their history."
"Of course, they already knew many of the things we 'discovered,' but
it was still meaningful to be able to reaffirm their ancestral link to
the land." In the end, Lulewicz said this is the most important part of
the paper. "We are writing about real human lives -- Indigenous lives
that we have historically treated very poorly and who continue to be
treated poorly today in some cases.

With the use of advanced radiocarbon dating and the development of really
high resolution chronologies, we are able to more effectively reinject
lives into narratives of the past."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Washington_University_in_St._Louis. Original written by Sara Savat. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jacob Holland-Lulewicz, Victor D. Thompson, James Wettstaed, Mark
Williams. Enduring Traditions and the (Im)materiality of Early
Colonial Encounters in the Southeastern United States. American
Antiquity, 2020; 1 DOI: 10.1017/aaq.2020.40 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200715131215.htm

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