Dr. Paulette Steeves: Hidden Histories of the Americas: Archaeologists Who Challenged Orthodoxy

Summary

Paulette F. C. Steeves presents a groundbreaking exploration of Indigenous history in North and South America, revealing evidence of human presence dating back over 60,000 years, challenging the long-held Clovis-first model. Her work emphasizes the political history of American anthropology and the dismissal of pre-Clovis archaeology. This episode dives into a decolonizing perspective on the archaeology of the Americas, showcasing Indigenous oral traditions alongside archaeological findings.

Key takeaways

• 1Paulette F. C. Steeves claims human presence in the Americas dates back more than 60,000 years, potentially even 100,000 years.
• 2The Clovis-first model has dominated American anthropology for nearly a century, dismissing pre-Clovis evidence.
• 3Genetic and linguistic anthropology studies support the early migrations of First Peoples.
• 4A vibrant group of archaeologists has faced challenges excavating and reporting on pre-Clovis sites.
• 5Steeves is a Cree-Métis professor and author of 'The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere'.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

Part of the stories that I've been told was that at one time the Potawatamese, Ojibwe, and Ottawa we were all one large tribe that split up in the sixteenth centuries near the straits of the Mackinac. These old stories were passed down to me from our elders, and according to them, each tribe, when they came to be were given tasks. The Potawatamese were to be the keepers of the fire bowde that's where our name originated from Bode, and the Ojibwe were given a task of keepers of the faith. In fact, the word. Ojebwe as we know it refers to a term known as g bomb, which is the spirit of you and I at the present living. The term Ottawa originally meant dawa to sell something or to trade something, so they were to be the people that kept the trade routes alive. Among the Nishnabek, which we refer to ourselves as the original people, all of our language is pretty pretty close, but there are some differences. That's Mike Alloway. He is an elder of the Pata Monoway tribe in the United States, and that's a sample of an oral tradition and we're talking about oral traditions today because it is important to begin integrating this into our understanding of ancient history. Forgotten history could be pre deiluvion, pre flood catastrophic events. And this is something I discovered over a decade ago in my research on the Maya, is that they have oral traditions, but they are important to tribal history should be included in our own history about the past. ...

Excerpt from Earth Ancients, May 16, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.