Native American Archaeology in the Parks

Here’s a full-color guide to national parks and national monuments that have a strong connection to the lives of America’s First Peoples.

Historian Wallace Stegner characterized America’s National Park system as “the best idea we ever had.” One can quibble with that, but, indeed, it was a pretty good idea! This book specifically is a guide and a celebration of 30 of those national parks, national historical parks, and national monuments that, each in its own way, reveals the histories and cultures of America’s first inhabitants, the Native Americans.

Its pages will take you to:

• great mounds in Ohio where the dead were laid to rest in sumptuous splendor 2,000 years ago
• a place in Iowa where 1,000 years ago, Native Americans sculpted earth into the forms of giant bears and birds
• a quarry in Minnesota where Native People have, for hundreds of years, extracted blood-red stone for their ceremonial pipes
• the remains of a village in North Dakota visited by Lewis and Clark in the early 1800s and the home of their guide Sacagewea
• truly breathtaking, more than 700-year-old cliff dwellings in Arizona and Colorado, that will astonish you in their ethereal beauty and architectural ingenuity
• phantasmagorical images of 7-foot-tall, wide-eyed spirit beings in Utah painted more than 1,000 years ago
• And many more.

All of these sites have in common the fact that, at the insistence of Native and non-Native people, men and women, the federal government of the United States set them aside as places to preserve, study, and revere as part of the American story no matter where your ancestors came from, how they got here, or how long ago. Read this book and visit the historically sacred sites enshrined in our national parks, national historical parks, and national monuments, places that reveal the creativity and genius of the Native People of North America.

With 180 color photographs and complete visitor information, this is a wonderful guide to Native American archaeology in our national parks and monuments.

Part I: Parks and People

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: National Parks and National Monuments: Our “best idea.”

Chapter 2: History and Cultures of the First Peoples of America

Part II: Oh the Places You’ll Go

American Southwest, Villages Before European Contact

1. Canyon de Chelley National Monument, Arizona

2. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Arizona

3. Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

4. Navajo National Monument, Arizona

5. Tonto National Monument, Arizona

6. Tuzigoot National Monument, Arizona

7. Walnut Canyon National Monument, Arizona

8. Wupatki National Monument, Arizona

9. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado

10. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

11. Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico

12. Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

13. Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico

14. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, New Mexico

15. Hovenweep National Monument, Utah and Colorado

First Peoples Rock Art

16. Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

17. Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico

18. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah

19. Canyonlands National Park, Utah

20. Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

21. Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado

Mound Builders of the East

22. Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, Georgia

23. Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa

24. Poverty Point National Monument, Louisiana

25. Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ohio

Raw Material Procurement Sites

26. Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota

Villages After European Contact, the Southwest

27. Pecos National Historical Park, New Mexico

28. Salinas Pueblo National Monument, New Mexico

Villages After European Contact, the American Plains and Northwest

29. Knife River Indian Villages National Historical Park, North Dakota

War

30. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana

Glossary

References Cited

Index