No Terra Nullius: The Indigenous Paleolithic Of The Western Hemisphere / Paulette Steeves

Indigenous archeologist Dr. Paulette Steeves (Cree-Métis) joins me to discuss The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere (University of Nebraska Press), “a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic."

There are myths we are told growing up — be it via schooling, popular media, or elsewhere — that people have lived in the Western Hemisphere for only 10-12,000 years, at most. This is the Clovis First theory. In archeology in particular, this framework, that the peopling of the North and South American continents could only have occurred that recently, is treated as dogma. In comparison to the astounding discoveries made by archeologists on other continents — pushing back human and protohominid migration, settlement, and cultural development hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years into the past — why is it that this story has persisted in this field for so long? This is especially troubling when one considers the hundreds of archaeological sites that show human settlement in the Americas extending back much further into the historical past, as documented by Dr. Paulette Steeves and numerous others.

This issue is relevant to us all, but especially for Indigenous peoples across the Western Hemisphere. As Dr. Steeves demonstrates in her book, archeology is largely a colonialist enterprise, a field that has historically generated a form of knowledge production that actively excludes Indigenous peoples’ oral traditions and ignores their concerns, appeals, and demands to respect their lands and ancestral sites. Archeologists have been viciously attacked by colleagues for publishing scientific findings that strongly prove people have lived in what we now call North and South America for tens of thousands of years longer than what the Clovis First dogma would suggest. To grant Indigenous people their history, to acknowledge the grand timescale of their existence on these continents, upends deeply colonialist narratives that deny Indgenous peoples their humanity. 

To state it bluntly, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a vital, timely, honest, and fierce book that pushes us to expand our understandings, and to more fully acknowledge and respect Indigenous peoples, and their incredibly rich histories, across the Western Hemisphere.

BIO:

Dr. Paulette Steeves. Ph.D. – (Cree- Metis) is an Indigenous archaeologist with a focus on the Pleistocene history of the Western Hemisphere. In her research, Steeves argues that Indigenous peoples were present in the Western Hemisphere as early as 100,000 years ago, and possibly much earlier. She has created a database of hundreds of archeology sites in both North and South America that date from 250,000 to 12,000 years before present, which challenges the Clovis First dogma of a post 12,000 year before present initial migrations to the Americas.

EPISODE NOTES:

Purchase a hardback copy of The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere from Bookshop, or preorder the paperback from University of Nebraska Press.

Learn more about Dr. Steeves and follow her work at her website, Twitter, and The Indigenous Paleolithic Database of the Americas.

Music produced by Epik The Dawn.