Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere

Paulette F. C. Steeves (Cree-MÉtis) is an associate professor of sociology and Canada Research Chair Tier II Indigenous History Healing and Reconciliation at Algoma University. She is also an adjunct faculty at Mount Allison University.

"The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere offers a refreshing perspective of the peopling of what was once called the New World."-Justin A. Holcomb and Curtis N. Runnels, Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology "I want people to read this exciting book and challenge our own assumptions about what we know about Indigenous people's past. Reading books such as this one is important if archaeologists are to confront their own troubling history and challenge themselves to tell different stories which celebrate Indigenous people, their land, and their own ideas about where they come from."-Matthew E. Hill, Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society "Unique and thoughtful. . . . This solid narrative of research findings-the first from a Native American perspective-is essential reading."-C. C. Kolb, Choice “Writing in the vein of scholars such as Vine Deloria Jr., Paulette Steeves’s critique of the ‘Clovis-first’ model of peopling of the Americas both engages with and moves beyond current ideas about how and when people first came to these lands. The research presented in this book questions the ways archaeologists have traditionally constructed narratives of movement and arrival without considering Indigenous ways of knowing. This is an important and timely contribution to the field.”-Kisha Supernant (MÉtis), associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta “Paulette Steeves decenters Western power and authority over Indigenous thought, voice, inclusion, and history. The result is an act of healing that benefits both Indigenous people and academic scholarship.”-Randall H. McGuire, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at SUNY Binghamton University “A timely analysis of the ethnocentric influences on past and present scientific inquiry and archaeological practice from the perspective of an Indigenous archaeologist. Steeves brings together a host of voices espousing the importance of contextual relationships in hypothesis development and archaeological analysis.”-Kathleen Holen, director of the Center for American Paleolithic Research “Written from an essential Indigenous perspective, this insightful book examines the existence of First Peoples in the Western Hemisphere for at least 50,000+ years longer than previously accepted and uncovers the reasons this theory has been dismissed for decades.”-Karla Strand, Ms. Magazine "Paulette Steeves writes this book from a very personal and intimate understanding of the various impacts of Indigenous colonization."-Guadalupe SÁnchez, American Anthropologist

• List of Illustrations    List of Tables    Acknowledgments    Introduction    Terminology    1. Decolonizing Indigenous Histories     Finding Home     2. Unpacking Colonial Baggage     Rise Up     3. Relations Who Opened the Way     Riddle Me This     4. Minds Wide Open    5. Pleistocene Sites in North America     Old World: -60,000 6. Pleistocene Sites in South America    7. Genetics, Linguistics, Oral Traditions, and Other Supporting Lines of Evidence     Memories     8. Reawakening, Resisting, Rewriting     All My Relations    Appendix: Pleistocene Sites and References    Notes    Bibliography    Index