Sins of the shovel Looting, murder, and the evolution of American archaeology

Review by Choice Review

The Wild West, buried treasure, hostile Native Americans, rugged men and strong ranch women, and a murdered white man are all elements of this remarkable page-turner, which masks a solid, thoughtful history of American archaeology and its involvements with American First Nations, from disdain to legal protection. Archaeologist Richard Wetherill (1858--1910) is the central figure, eldest son of a Quaker ranching family in the Chaco and Mancos Canyons. He was intellectually driven to find the relics of ancient Puebloans, attempting to record his diggings scientifically. Always on the brink of poverty and in danger of losing the homestead ranch, Wetherill worked for wealthy Easterners who demanded beautiful painted pots and Native skulls for the museums they patronized. He employed local Diné (Navajo) whose hogans, sheep, and horses dotted the canyons, including the extraordinary Chaco. Contemptuous of the men working for him, Wetherill was shot in a dispute over a horse. Morgan, a working archaeologist, weaves in the contentious development of federal heritage laws and of archaeological practices from the lawless early settler days to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and today's mandated collaborations with First Nations. Serving also as a study of settler colonialism, spanning itinerant singing Quaker families to Boston aesthetes in cowboy ranches, this book grabs readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. --Alice B. Kehoe, emeritus, Marquette University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Archaeologist Morgan debuts with an insightful examination of the colorful and controversial history of American archaeology. She begins with a chance discovery in the late 19th century by Colorado rancher Richard Wetherill, which ushered in decades of pseudoscientific digging in the southwestern United States. In 1888, Morgan explains, Wetherill stumbled upon and began excavation of Cliff Palace, the largest Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling in the U.S., located inside one of the canyons at Mesa Verde in Colorado. This ignited a frenzy of interest; Wetherill and others like him spent years looting prehistoric sites, including Chaco Canyon, N.Mex.; Grand Gulch, Ariz.; and many others. The Wetherill family had trouble turning their finds into financial success and accrued many enemies among both their neighbors and the burgeoning field of academic archaeology; a dispute with a neighbor that began over a horse led to Wetherill's murder in 1910. Morgan goes on to describe the increased application of scientific methodology and recordkeeping to archaeological research during the New Deal era, as well as the subsequent impact of new laws protecting heritage sites and artifacts (which were passed as a direct result of the damage caused by Wetherill's looting). This animated account combines the saga of hardscrabble cowboy archaeologists with serious reflection on the incalculable damage of their activities. It's an entertaining and informative study. (Nov.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Archaeologist Morgan skillfully moves among the personalities and politics that led to the professionalization of the field of archaeology in the U.S. From the shameless pillaging of abandoned sites to the enactment of federal laws regulating access to these remarkable places, it is a complex story filled with good guys, bad guys, and many in between, and it continues today. In this book, vivid personalities show up, such as the Swedish aristocrat Gustaf Erik Adolf Nordenskiöld, who arrived in Colorado in 1891 and joined forces with the storied Wetherill family of Durango to explore ancient ruins such as the Cliff Palace of Mesa Verde. The text is enriched with plentiful footnotes and photographs that capture day-to-day life among Indigenous peoples as well as the white people who usurped their lands and property. VERDICT An intriguing addition to the archaeological history of the American Southwest.--Ellen Gilbert

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It was cold and the cattle were nowhere to be seen. As the branches and brambles cut into the legs of both the men and the horses, they had to ask themselves: where are we?   Terra incognita would be the optimistic, adventurous response. But others had been there before. Richard's little brother Al traversed the area a year or so earlier, and he was not the first.  Beginning in 1882, Virginia Donaghe, a New York journalist, explored the region. A wealthy woman in her early twenties, she had accepted a job with the New York Daily Graphic to report on "buried cities." Her hair often fell in a fashionable pile of tight curls, her sharp features reflecting a seriousness and drive that few underestimated. She discovered no buried cities on her first venture, but she did spot the cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde region.  During a later visit, she had to hide in the canyons of Colorado for days. She was hungry, thirsty, and weary. A fall from a cliff had nearly ended her life, but Virginia was not deterred. She stood in view of the cliff dwellings. The red towers and rooms that rose out of the past mesmerized her and fortified her against the elements and her enemies.  Pictures of the cliff dwellings had circulated since William Henry Jackson photographed the ruins in the 1870s, but with the railroad in its infancy and no roads nearby, few got to enter the monuments as Virginia did.  Few who looked like Virginia, that is. The "hostile" Indigenous peoples she hid from and their ancestors had known of Mesa Verde for centuries, but they were no longer welcome in Colorado. In 1876, Colorado's first governor rode to electoral victory on the slogan: "Get the Utes out of Colorado." Three years later, a sheriff 's posse killed a young Ute named Tabernash. In return, some Ute inflicted a series of bloody reprisals on White settlers and agents. The entire Ute Tribe did not commit the crimes, but the entire tribe paid. They were driven out of Colorado to new reservations, leaving their much- coveted lands to settlers, railroads, and miners.   In their absence, the local papers declared that "the Utes are gone, and the white man is here. . . . The wigwam of the savage has passed away, and the cabin of the pale face marks the beginning of a new era and a new history."  Virginia admired the antiquity and beauty of the cliff houses, but she also saw their vulnerability. She wrote of Colorado, "To mighty multitudes her wealth she yields, As shifting seasons pass and years increase." Trains and legislation favorable to homesteading threw Colorado wide open. It was only a matter of time before the new arrivals laid siege to the ancient cliff dwellings. Virginia felt the artifacts and architecture of Mesa Verde were one type of resource that should never be tapped. The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde needed to be preserved and protected. Come hell or high water, Virginia Donaghe was going to see that they were.  Excerpted from Sins of the Shovel: Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology by Rachel Morgan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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