Northern Ont. researcher’s book reclaims Indigenous history in the Americas

A researcher at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is being recognized for her work that challenges the traditional approach to American archaeology.

Paulette Steeves’ recently published book, ‘The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere,’ has been named an outstanding academic title by the American Library Association.

“This area of archaeology has been called an area of academic suicide,” Steeves said.

“I was floored (to win the honour). I was just so happy. I didn’t expect awards because I pushed back on the status quo.”

In her book, the archaeologist and professor strongly disagrees with the claim by many in her field that there was little to no human activity in the Americas more than 12,000 years ago.

“I list, I think, over 300 sites that have very strong evidence for human presence, dating between 12,000 to over 50,000 years in North America,” she told CTV News.

Steeves said the notion that Indigenous people were here before that era upsets a “euro-centric” way of thought.

It’s one she calls overtly racist.

“There’s a long history of racism in American archaeology,” Steeves said.

“If you think about social networking theory, all of the faculty and archaeologists we have teaching today, you can trace them back to one of the earliest archaeologists of North America in the early 1920s who were all avowed racists.”

Steeves said there are more and more colleagues in the field in recent years who are of a similar mind as her.

Not only does her book aim to rewrite what she calls the wrongs in archaeology for the continent, but the Cree-Métis academic feels strongly her work is about reconciliation.

“I can’t turn a blind eye to racism and bias that’s negatively impacting indigenous people,” she said.

“When you address that racism and bias, when you change people’s world views of Indigenous people in the past, you change their world views and understanding of them in the present.”

Steeves said she has heard from a number of people in response to her book.

One PhD student went as far as thanking her for “completely destroying American archaeology” and creating a space that allows the field to be rebuilt properly, with an open mind.