One Valley, Many Histories: The San Pedro Ethnohistory Internet Project

FAIN: GP-50173-05

Center for Desert Archaeology (Tucson, AZ 85701-1107)
Chip Colwell (Project Director: February 2005 to May 2006)

Planning for a website that would explore the prehistory and history of Arizona's San Pedro Valley from the perspectives of archaeologists and the four Indian tribes who live there.

Media Coverage

Book Review (Review)
Author(s): Joe Watkins
Publication: Kiva
Date: 6/1/2007

Book Review (Review)
Author(s): Lomayumtewa C. Ishii
Publication: Wicazo Sa Review
Date: 4/1/2007

Book Review (Review)
Author(s): Tamara L. Bray
Publication: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Date: 1/3/2012

Book Review (Review)
Author(s): Barbara W. Sommer
Publication: The Oral History Review
Date: 12/1/2009

Book Review (Review)
Author(s): Maureen Trudelle Schwarz
Publication: Journal of Anthropological Research
Date: 3/1/2008

Associated Products

History Is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona's San Pedro Valley (Book)
Title: History Is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona's San Pedro Valley
Author: Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip
Author: Ferguson, T. J.
Abstract: Arizona's San Pedro Valley is a natural corridor through which generations of native peoples have traveled for more than 12,000 years, and today many tribes consider it to be part of their ancestral homeland. This book explores the multiple cultural meanings, historical interpretations, and cosmological values of this extraordinary region by combining archaeological and historical sources with the ethnographic perspectives of four contemporary tribes: Tohono O'odham, Hopi, Zuni, and San Carlos Apache. Previous research in the San Pedro Valley has focused on scientific archaeology and documentary history, with a conspicuous absence of indigenous voices, yet Native Americans maintain oral traditions that provide an anthropological context for interpreting the history and archaeology of the valley. The San Pedro Ethnohistory Project was designed to redress this situation by visiting archaeological sites, studying museum collections, and interviewing tribal members to collect traditional histories. The information it gathered is arrayed in this book along with archaeological and documentary data to interpret the histories of Native American occupation of the San Pedro Valley. This work provides an example of the kind of interdisciplinary and politically conscious work made possible when Native Americans and archaeologists collaborate to study the past. As a methodological case study, it clearly articulates how scholars can work with Native American stakeholders to move beyond confrontations over who "owns" the past, yielding a more nuanced, multilayered, and relevant archaeology.
Year: 2006
Primary URL: http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid1667.htm
Publisher: University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ
Type: Multi-author monograph

Prizes

Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing—Honorable Mention
Date: 6/1/2007
Organization: Society for Humanistic Anthropology, American Anthropological Association

Memory Pieces and Footprints: Multivocality and the Meanings of Ancient Times and Ancestral Places among the Zuni and Hopi (Article)
Title: Memory Pieces and Footprints: Multivocality and the Meanings of Ancient Times and Ancestral Places among the Zuni and Hopi
Author: Ferguson, T. J.
Author: Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip
Abstract: The notion of the "contested past" has grown to be an important topic in anthropological research in recent decades, linking such themes as nationalism, identity, museology, tourism, and war. In North America, these discussions have largely centered on archaeology's shifting relationship with native peoples. As scholars give new attention to how research methodologies and representation of cultural histories affect indigenous peoples, it is critical to understand the unique ways in which Native Americans view their past. Contemporary Zuni and Hopi interpretations of ancestral landscapes in the San Pedro Valley of Arizona are used to explore how indigenous worldviews imbue ancient places with deep cultural and individual meanings. This research, based on a three-year collaborative ethnohistory project, argues for resolution to the "contested past" by incorporating a perspective of multivocality, which will enable the creation of alternative histories that do not eschew scientific principles while respecting native values of history.
Year: 2006
Primary URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.2006.108.1.148/abstract
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: American Anthropologist
Publisher: American Anthropological Association

Prizes

Gordon R. Willey Prize
Date: 6/1/2009
Organization: Gordon R. Willey Prize, American Anthropological Association, Archaeology Division
Abstract: Best archaeology paper published in the American Anthropologist within last three years

Virtue Ethics and the Practice of History: Native Americans and Archaeologists along the San Pedro Valley of Arizona (Article)
Title: Virtue Ethics and the Practice of History: Native Americans and Archaeologists along the San Pedro Valley of Arizona
Author: Ferguson, T. J.
Author: Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip
Abstract: For nearly a century archaeologists have endeavored to illuminate 12,000 years of Native American history in the San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona. Although this scholarship has established an essential foundation, it is limited by the construction of history through the singular interpretive framework of western scientific practice. The Tohono O’odham, Hopi, Zuni and Western Apache peoples all maintain oral traditions that provide alternative voices about the lives of their ancestors. This article examines the ethical environment of a collaborative ethnohistory project, which sought to document Native American histories and adjoin humanistic understandings of the past with scientific findings. We argue that a Virtue Ethics approach to the social context of this research offers sound moral guidance to a flourishing ethic of collaboration. Using this work as a case study, we aim to extend the available research models for future anthropological inquiry and broaden the ethical framework of historical research.
Year: 2004
Primary URL: http://jsa.sagepub.com/content/4/1/5.abstract
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Social Archaeology
Publisher: Sage

Always Multivocal and Multivalent: Conceptualizing Archaeological Landscapes in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley (Book Section)
Title: Always Multivocal and Multivalent: Conceptualizing Archaeological Landscapes in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley
Author: Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip
Author: Anyon, Roger
Author: Ferguson, T. J.
Editor: Patricia E. Rubertone
Abstract: This collection of original essays explores the tensions between prevailing regional and national versions of Indigenous pasts created, reified, and disseminated through monuments, and Indigenous peoples' memories and experiences of place. The contributors ask critical questions about historic preservation and commemoration methods used by modern societies and their impact on the perception and identity of the people they supposedly remember, who are generally not consulted in the commemoration process. They discuss dichotomies of history and memory, place and displacement, public spectacle and private engagement, and reconciliation and re-appropriation of the heritage of indigenous people shown in these monuments. While the case studies deal with North American indigenous experience—from California to Virginia, and from the Southwest to New England and the Canadian Maritime—they have implications for dealings between indigenous peoples and nation states worldwide.
Year: 2008
Primary URL: http://www.lcoastpress.com/book.php?id=182
Publisher: Left Coast Press
Book Title: Archaeologies of Placemaking: Monuments, Memories, and Engagements in Native North America
ISBN: 978-1-59874-15

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