New Books Network – Paulette Steeves on The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere

Host: Lucas Rappel (for New Books in Science, Technology, and Society)
Guest: Dr. Paulette F. C. Steeves
Date: November 30, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Paulette Steeves, associate professor of sociology at Algoma University and a Canada Research Chair in Healing and Reconciliation, discussing her groundbreaking book The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). Dr. Steeves’ work radically challenges the dominant archaeological narrative that Indigenous peoples arrived in the Americas via the Bering Strait only about 12,000 years ago, instead presenting evidence for a much deeper and continuous presence. The conversation explores decolonizing archaeology, reclaiming Indigenous history through oral traditions, linguistics, genetics, and storytelling, and the personal journey underpinning Dr. Steeves’ research.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal and Academic Journey

• Origins and Mission: Dr. Steeves shares her Cree-Metis heritage, the dispossession of her family (06:00), and an early formative encounter with Salish elder Leonard Sampson:

  “We understand you have a job to do that's going to be really hard... in the future, you're going to do something really good for all Indian people... that's going to be even harder than this." (06:17)

• Path to Academia: Her experience as a single parent, her move to the U.S., and the "billboard" realization upon earning her PhD that her role was to "rewrite all the history of the Americas and reclaim Indigenous links to the land." (08:01)

2. Rethinking the Timeline of Human Presence

• The Persistence of Colonial Narratives:
  • Western archaeologists have argued for a 12,000-year presence or less. Early 20th-century scholars like Alex Hrdlička asserted a mere 3,000 years, mostly "based on one site he had studied and looking around" rather than data. (09:14)
  • Clovis discovery pushed acceptance to at least 10,000 years, and even recent mainstream estimates rarely exceed 15,000 years. (09:45)
• The Real Evidence Base:
  • As a graduate student, Steeves uncovered 500+ Pleistocene-age sites with evidence of much deeper antiquity, after being warned:

    “‘Don’t tell anyone what you’re studying. They're just going to call you crazy.’” (10:16)

  • Deeply under-acknowledged evidence suggests a continuous Indigenous presence far predating glacial maxima.
  • The drive to tie human remains to modern communities via laws like NAGPRA, and how using genetics supported the Quapaw tribe's claims and led to the return and reburial of 500 ancestors (12:12).

3. Science as Colonizer and Liberator

• Dual Role of Science:
  • While science has historically been used as a tool of erasure and domination, Dr. Steeves demonstrates its "liberatory potential" in supporting Indigenous land claims and histories. (14:19)
  • Indigenous involvement in paleoarchaeology is crucial, yet rare, especially in the subfield of Pleistocene studies (14:31).
  • New evidence—such as 23,000-year-old footprints in New Mexico—underscores the importance of linking physical sites to ongoing community histories.

4. Integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems

• Methodological Synthesis:
  • Dr. Steeves intentionally merges oral histories with archaeological and scientific data:

    “I look for examples of oral traditions that maybe include discussions of extinct species... these oral traditions are coming across thousands of years.” (16:55)

  • Case: Osage oral tradition describing mastodon battles (“huge beasts”) aligns with archaeological evidence of burned mammoth and mastodon bones and tool finds. (17:45)
• Deep Temporality & Diversity:
  • Indigenous temporalities challenge Western linear time; oral traditions are meticulously crafted for transmission over millennia:

    “If you're telling an oral tradition... and you want it carried over 10 or 20,000 years, you don't just give the main points. You color that story so that it can never be forgotten.” (20:59)

  • The staggering diversity—more than half the world’s 360+ language families are indigenous to the Americas—evidences a deep, ancient presence. (19:50)
  • Learning Indigenous languages is necessary for a true understanding of history and place, a challenge for non-Indigenous archaeologists. (21:40)

5. Storytelling, Style, and Healing

• Personal and Accessible Narrative:
  • The book’s blend of rigorous science, personal stories, and poetry reflects Indigenous methods, which value storytelling as both knowledge transmission and healing.

    “Storytelling is how we have told our history since time immemorial, right? You have to be a really good storyteller…” (25:40)

  • Humor and poetry feature as essential means of survival and healing in the face of ongoing erasure and trauma.
• Impact on Communities:
  • The book has inspired hope among Indigenous youth:

    “At this meeting, all these young girls… were asked to share one thing that brought them hope for the future… there’s this archaeologist saying we’ve been here over 50,000 years. And that gives me hope that we’ll get our identity, our land, our culture, that we’ll get it all back.” (29:50)

  • Steeves’ highest goal is to contribute toward the “healing fire” after genocide—a collective restoration of identity, land, and dignity. (31:05)

6. The Politics of Paleolithic Identity

• Challenging Reductionist and Colonial Labels:
  • The “Asian from Asia” narrative erases Indigenous identity; such terms are inappropriate and inaccurate given the time scales at play:

    “Asia and Asian culture did not exist 12,000 years ago... I’ve asked a few archaeologists... ‘Oh, so you’re really African from Africa.’ And they just are astounded.” (32:12)

  • Calls for proper, historically conscious terminology that respects Indigenous sovereignty—“weave decolonizing and healing through academe if people will take the time to read, to listen, and to write carefully.” (33:20)

7. Debunking Clovis as “A People”

• Clovis as Technology, Not Culture:
  • Clovis refers to a tool type (dating to 10,000–11,000 years ago), not a homogenous culture:

    “To say that one culture covered the Americas, never happened in the history of the world. What does that do? It erases the identity and diversity of all those people…” (34:19)

  • Steeves points out that major institutions even catalogue “Clovis people” alongside actual nations (e.g., Cherokee, Catawba), reflecting pervasive colonial misconceptions. (34:43)

8. Pyro Epistemology: Cleansing and Renewal

• The Power of Fire:
  • Indigenous philosophy uses fire to clear land, allowing native growth to return—a metaphor for Dr. Steeves’ concept of “pyro epistemology”:

    “We need to burn all that literature. We need to burn all of that racist, hateful talk that teaches students and people to be disrespectful, to dehumanize us.” (37:00)

  • By “burning” dehumanizing academic narratives, new, truthful stories rooted in Indigenous experiences and voices can flourish.
  • Direct impact on students: “When people become more informed, we inform racism, we inform discrimination, and we make the world a better place.” (39:18)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On personal vocation:
  “I just have to rewrite all the history of the Americas and reclaim Indigenous links to the land.” — Dr. Steeves (08:01)

• On decolonizing Western timeframes:
  “Indigenous people have been erased from the continents of North and South America prior to 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. And that is incorrect.” — Dr. Steeves (11:55)

• On the liberatory potential of science:
  “There are not very many Indigenous archaeologists... I think it would benefit us if there were more. So for what I do... I don't know another Indigenous archaeologist that's specifically working in this area or reclaiming homelands.” — Dr. Steeves (14:40)

• On storytelling as reclamation:
  “If it doesn’t serve a community or a people, what’s the point in doing it?” — Dr. Steeves (26:56)

• On the dangers of the “Clovis people” label:
  “Clovis was not a people. Clovis was a tool, technology... it is so strongly embedded that you have a major university placing it in the cultural group of people.” — Dr. Steeves (34:57)

• On pyro epistemology:
  “We need to burn all that literature... and fill that landscape with truth and stories from Indigenous people.” — Dr. Steeves (38:30)

Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:03 | Introduction to Dr. Steeves and her book’s challenge to mainstream paleoarchaeology | | 06:00 | Dr. Steeves’ personal journey, family dispossession, and advice from Leonard Sampson | | 09:14 | The colonial roots and limitations of archaeological timeframes | | 12:12 | Application of genetics and success in the Quapaw NAGPRA case | | 14:19 | Dual role of science as both colonizer and liberator | | 16:55 | Integrating oral traditions with scientific data, Osage mammoth story example | | 19:50 | Diversity of Indigenous languages and challenges for archaeologists | | 25:40 | Discussion on storytelling, tone, and inclusion of poetry as methodological choices | | 29:50 | Personal impact: youth report hope upon learning of the true depth of Indigenous history | | 32:12 | The importance of terminology: rejecting “Asian from Asia” labels | | 34:19 | The myth of the “Clovis people”; deconstruction of misapplied categories | | 37:00 | Pyro epistemology: cleansing academic literature and nurturing new Indigenous knowledge | | 40:03 | Closing reflections and appreciation |

Conclusion

Dr. Paulette Steeves’ scholarship re-centers Indigenous voices, bodies, and knowledges in the deep history of the Americas. By challenging longstanding colonial narratives, weaving together rigorous science and oral tradition, and emphasizing healing and renewal, her work invites listeners to see both the past and the act of reclaiming it as an ongoing, communal, and transformative process.