ABSTRACT

The Choctaw had been removed from their original homelands in Mississippi in the 1830's to southeastern Oklahoma, replacing the original Caddoan people. The year 1971 witnessed an American Indian Movement (AIM) takeover of an archaeological dig and an archaeological laboratory, as well as sit-ins at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. The protesters made it clear that the materials being studied and curated were of special importance to Indian peoples beyond the "scientific value" the scientists felt they held. With the development of the AIM in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area of Minnesota, American Indian ideas toward anthropology and archaeology became more pointed. The codes and statements of ethics that the Society for American Archaeology and the Canadian Archaeological Association produced spoke of the necessity to openly acknowledge the relationships between archaeology and North American Indigenous populations.