Reviews Riddle of the Bones: Politics, Science, Race, and the Story of Kennewick Man By Roger Downey (Copernicus/SpringerVerlang New York, 2000; 202 pgs., $25 cloth; 800-777-4643)
Native American Weapons By Colin F. Taylor University of Oklahoma Press, 2001; 128 pgs., illus.; $20 cloth, 800-627-7377 In this engaging volume, Colin Taylor describes weaponry made and used by Native Americans from prehistoric through historic times, when European technology caused drastic changes. He also tells of defensive weapons, like body armor, and the symbolic weapons that played such an important role in Indian ceremonies. With 122 color and 33 black and white illustrations, it is a delight to read.
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Since its discovery along a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, the ancient skeleton called Kennewick Man has ignited a raging political controversy that dwarfs the scientific controversy about its age and importance. Seattle reporter Roger Downey chronicles the epic, beginning with the discovery of the skeleton in 1996, the media feeding frenzy that followed, and the legal circus involving some of America’s leading Paleo-Indian archaeologists. Kennewick Man’s is a complex story—partly about science, partly about law, partly about publicity, but mainly about power. It is a metaphor for the tragic struggle between Native Americans and archaeologists that was set off by a poorly crafted statute passed by Congress in 1990—the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The fate of this 9,000-year-old skeleton seems to rest on the determination of its race. If it is Native American, it will be turned over to a local tribe and reburied. If the remains are of a non-native race, it will be made available for intensive study. In Riddle of the Bones, Downey tells the story without frills or emotion, baring the facts of the case and exposing the personalities that color it so vividly. The outcome of the case will most surely shape the future of American archaeology.
The Ancient Mounds of Poverty Point By Jon L. Gibson University Press of Florida, 2000; 292 pgs., illus., $55 cloth; 800-226-3822
One of America’s most intriguing prehistoric monuments sits on a small ridge overlooking Bayou Maçon in northeastern Louisiana. Consisting of a series of concentric earthen half-rings and several large mounds, it is one of the most unusual and confounding sites in the New World. Louisiana archaeologist Jon Gibson, the grand old man of Poverty Point archaeology, tells the story of this great site and the scholars who study it in this folksy, readable volume. When radiocarbon testing dated it to 3,500 years ago, Poverty Point was upgraded from unusual to extraordinary. Nothing so complex and old had ever been found before, and archaeologists flocked to the Louisiana swamps to study it. They found massive construction for the rings and mounds, and a continental system of exchange. Stone for tools came from as far as 1,500 miles away. Conventional wisdom said monumental architecture could not flourish in a time before agriculture and pottery, but it did at Poverty Point. Famous archaeologists including Clarence Webb, William Haag, and James Ford helped make the site a state park in 1972. Yet for all the attention, Gibson estimates that only three tenths of one percent of the site has been excavated. Poverty Point is one of North America’s greatest sites, and Gibson has done it justice. —Mark Michel summer
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2001
