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CoPS

Coalition of Pre-Columbian Studies

Rick Osmon

Associate of Science, Laser and Electro-Optics Technology

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The science of archaeology itself is scarcely more than 100 years

old

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Cultural artifact, a human-made object which gives information about the culture of its creator and users

Artifact (archaeology), any object made or modified by a human culture, and later recovered by an archaeological endeavor

Social artifact, a product of individuals or groups (social beings) or of their social behavior

Just the ‘Facts, Ma’am

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•Social artifact is any product of individuals or groups (social beings) or of their social behavior.

•Biofact (or ecofact) is an object, found at an archaeological site and carrying archaeological significance, but previously unhanded by humans

•Mentifacts are the ideas, values and beliefs of a culture.

•Art object that is made and or valued primarily for an "artistic" rather than practical function

Related ‘Facts

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CoPS Mission Highlights

• Scientific mission

• Political mission

• Educational mission

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CoPS Mission Highlights

• Compile data of pre-Columbian cultures

• Catalog that data

• Coordinate review of data, analysis, & conclusions (avocational peer review process using scientific method)

• Compel respect for sites and artifacts

• Change paradigms

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Not Just Contact Facts

All the evidence is potentially important

Geological

Astronomical

Climatological

Mineralogical

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Paradigms

• Hoaxes

Any evidence of ancient contact not found / discovered in “controlled” context

• Misinterpretations

Contextually indisputable, but “clearly” not what it is purported to be

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Science by Declaration

• Henrietta Mertz observed this is legally described as “Ipse Dixit”, a Latin phrase meaning "he himself said it." The term labels a statement asserted but not proved, to be accepted on faith. Usually from a person of standing; a dictum.

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Who Could Dictate this Paradigm?

• Who had the means?• Who had the opportunity?• What was the motive?• How has the paradigm survived?

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Major John Wesley Powell

Born March 24, 1834 at Mount Morris, New York, Died September 23, 1902

Second Director of the United States Geological Survey. Served from 1881-1894. Famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers that included the first passage through the Grand Canyon

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About Powell

Hero & disabled veteran of the Civil War

Established and first Director of the Smithsonian’s Bureau of Ethnology

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Powell’s Background

Father was itinerant Methodist preacher who immigrated from Shrewsbury, England in 1830.

Family moved frequently and generally westward

He studied at Illinois College, Wheaton College, and Oberlin College, acquiring a knowledge of Ancient Greek and Latin but never graduating.

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Powell’s Motives

Born near the place and time of the establishment of Mormon Church, Anti-Mason Party, and while Indian Removal Act of 1830 were all still hotly debated

Illinois College is a day’s ride from the site of Joseph Smith’s assassination and two days from the area of the “Mormon War”

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Powell’s Doctrine

ON LIMITATIONS TO THE USE OF SOME ANTHROPOLOGIC DATA. BY J. W. POWELL

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Powell’s Views

“It may be said that in the Pueblos discovered in the southwestern portion of the United States and farther south through Mexico and perhaps into Central America tribes are known having a culture quite as far advanced as any exhibited in the discovered ruins. In this respect, then, there is no need to search for an extra-limital origin through lost tribes for any art there exhibited. “

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Powell’s Views

“With regard to the mounds so widely scattered between the two oceans, it may also be said that mound-building tribes were known in the early history of discovery of this continent, and that the vestiges of art discovered do not excel in any respect the arts of the Indian tribes known to history. There is, therefore, no reason for us to search for an extra-limital origin through lost tribes for the arts discovered in the mounds of North America. “

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Powell’s Views

“The great body of picture-writings is thus described; yet to some slight extent pictographs are found with characters more or less conventional, and the number of such is quite large in Mexico and Central America. Yet even these conventional characters are used with others less conventional in such a manner that perfect records were never made. “

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Powell’s Views

“Three centuries of intimate contact with a civilized race has had no small influence upon the pristine condition of these savage and barbaric tribes. The most speedy and radical change was that effected in the arts, industrial and ornamental. A steel knife was obviously better than a stone knife; firearms than bows and arrows; and textile fabrics from the looms of civilized men are at once seen to be more beautiful and more useful than the rude fabrics and undressed skins with which the Indians clothed themselves in that earlier day. “

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Cranks, Crackpots, & Charlatans

• When impossible to discredit the evidence, discredit the discoverer

• No need to examine directly, dismiss out of hand

• When all else fails, ignore

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The Opposition

• Isaiah Thomas (January 8, 1749 - April 4, 1831), was an American newspaper publisher and author. He performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Worcester, Massachusetts and reported the first account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He was the founder of the American Antiquarian Society

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AAS Philosophy

• The Society was incorporated by act of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on October 24, 1812, in response to a petition from Isaiah Thomas and his colleagues that they might establish an organization to "encourage the collection and preservation of the Antiquities of our country, and of curious and valuable productions in Art and Nature [that] have a tendency to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge." Further, they wished to promote the use of such collections in order to "aid the progress of science, to perpetuate the history of moral and political events, and to improve and interest posterity."

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AAS Alumni

• Some notable members of AAS before and during Powell’s life

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Teddy Roosevelt

All but Hayes and Jefferson are known Freemasons

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Univ. S. Maine

“Although modern scholars no longer believe in the diffusion theory it was once thought that the Red Paint people traveled across the Northern Hemisphere from Europe to North America. The diffusion theory was based on similarities between the Red Paint people's stone tool technology, houses, and ritualistic burial habits that included the use of red ocher.”

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Warren King Moorehead

• Warren King Moorehead was known in his time as the 'Dean of American archaeology'

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Warren Moorehead“1912-1920s Moorehead, the director of the Peabody Museum, brought attention to the Red Paint People, and to the controversy surrounding their identity. Moorehead proposed that the Red Paint People were not related to the Algonquin tribes that inhabited the Maine territories of the Red Paint People at a later point in time. Instead Moorehead believed that the Red Paint People were an unrelated ancient culture.”

http://www.usm.maine.edu/gany/webaa/newpage4.htm

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Unacceptable

• Moorehead observed, as did Willoghby, that Red Paint People tools, prey, architecture, grave rituals and grave goods were identical on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Moorehead’s Position

• The controversy surrounding the age and identity of the people originated with the character of red ocher deposits. Although they were generally considered to be graves, they were apparently so old that no bones were preserved and some of the stone artifacts were even badly decayed. This led Moorehead to declare in the pages of the preimmenent journal, American Anthropology:

"It is our conviction that the graves represent an ancient and exceedingly primitive culture, totally different from that of the later Algonquin tribes" (Moorehead 1913).

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Challenged w/out evidence

• The proposal of a "new" ancient culture could not go unchallenged and the challenge came in 1914 from none other than David T. Bushnell of the Smithsonian Institution, who suggested that the Red Paint People may indeed be quite recent. This controversy occurred long before the radiocarbon dating (carbon 14) techniques had been invented, and as with so many controversies, that of the Red Paint People faded away with new information. Moorehead was correct that the graves were quite ancient, usually dating between 2,000 to 6,000 years ago, but with rocks going as far back as 6,000 years.

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Don’t Give an Inch

• Bushnell's concern was not unfounded, however, as the Smithsonian was at the time waging a battle against other "Satanic" interpretations of Native American archeology, most notably the theory that the Mound Builders of Midwestern United States were an ancient race of people, perhaps one of the seven tribes of Israel, that came before the Indian cultures of North America.

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C-14 to the Rescue

• Moorehead’s age for Red Paint was eventually vindicated using C-14. Same age found in Scandinavia, Orkneys, and even Mauritania.

But they are still “parallel, independent development”.

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“Awkward” Parallels

“In suitable areas houses were made by excavating depressions into boulder beaches. At some sites, where the retreating sea level left a series of raised beaches, house forms can be seen to have evolved from single family dwellings to communal dwellings consisting of a number of "fashion rooms" arranged in a linear along the beach. These dwellings reached their peak at the Nulliak site, where "longhouses" as long as 100m have been discovered. “

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/maritime.html

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Hard Science, Hard Evidence

• It took eighty years for full realization that people could have navigated the Atlantic in ancient times. Radiocarbon dating, geologic context, and identical material culture were merely coincidence.

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Lesson?

Hard science coupled to solid logic eventually wins out.

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How to Fix It?We Need Tools and a Plan

• Scientific Method

• Solid Logic

• Education/ Edification

• Cooperation

• Political Action

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Enter CoPS

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CoPS Evidence Cycle

• Use best SM practices• Consensus analysis• Paper reviews• Publish• Publicize

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Compile

• Compile data regarding all forms and instances of Pre-Columbian evidence, both contact and non-contact

• Earthworks, architectural, historical, traditional, religious, scripts, tablets, tools, technology, mining, skeletal, DNA, maps, commodities, linguistic, others

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Catalog

Establish and maintain a relational

database of physical finds and the

documents related to them. Public domain

documents and images would be cataloged

in entirety. Copyrighted materials will be

reference only. Catalog entries to be

provided and maintained by CoPS

members.

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Coordinate(and facilitate)

Coordinate the efforts of various groups and organizations towards scientific evaluation of evidence.

Coordinate political actions regarding protection of certain ancient sites.

Coordinate certain other political actions, e.g., petitions

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Compel

• Compel the general public, political entities, and academia to regard Pre-Columbian contact with a scientific, open-minded approach and to regard Columbus as one of many explorers to reach the New World.

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Change

• Change the paradigm that Columbus was First

• Change the bias that ancient people were

stupid and unsophisticated

• Change the presumption that any evidence

of Old World contact is either faked or

misinterpreted

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Education / Edification

• Public Access Database• Public Outreach, Participation• Public Presentation Programs• School Presentation Programs• Scholarship Programs• Lay Research Assistance Program

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Cooperation

• Establish Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with Other Groups, Institutions

• Establish Procedures for Cooperative Efforts for Protection of Endangered Sites

• Establish and Grow Network of Interested Researchers, both Lay and Doctrinal

• Provide United Front on Important Ideas

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Political Action

• Site Protection Issues

• Participate in Relevant Public Feedback

Cycles for EIS, etc.

• Submit “Friend of the Court” Briefs When

Needed

• Promote Strategic Changes to existing Laws and Regulations

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First Political Goal

Quit Calling it “Columbus Day”

Legally Rename it, by Act of Congress or State Legislature

“Explorers' Day”

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Precedents

• Alaska – does not recognize

• Hawaii -celebrates Discoverer's Day

• South Dakota-"Native American Day"

• Nevada - not a legal holiday

• Colorado - parade in Denver has been protested by Native American groups and their supporters for nearly two decades

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History

Leif Erikson Day is an American observance occurring on October 9. It honors Leif Ericson (Leifr Eiríksson), who brought the first Europeans known to have set foot on North American soil. In 1964, Congress authorized and requested the President to create the observance through an annual proclamation. Lyndon B. Johnson and each President since have done so.

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Who Else?

What other famous explorers deserve national recognition and celebrations?

And it's not just geographical exploration

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Key Word: Deserve

Apollo Eleven Crew, Lewis and Clark,

Sacagawea, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford,

Captain John Smith, Daniel Boone, Wright

Brothers, Israel Cook Russell, Jonathan

Carver, Richard E. Byrd, Tesla, Einstein,

Barry Fell, Gloria Farley, Fred Rydholm…

many, many others

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Including even Columbus

&

Major John Wesley Powell!

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OrganizationPolitical / Legal Scientific Education

Data Base Data Base Data Base

Legislative Review New Finds/Papers

Scholarships

Public–held

Artifacts

Review Old Finds/Papers

School Outreach

Disputed objects Disputed objects Public Outreach

Site Protection Testing Policy Outreach

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Affiliation

• NEARA

• MES

• AKHA

• AAPS

• AAS

• FAMSI

• Tribes

• Historical Societies

• College Anthro Depts.

• Pro Orgs

• Others

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Funding

• Propose $1 from each dues paying member of each group diverted to CoPS

• Propose that education institutions no fee

• Propose non-group members pay $10 / year or “on-access” fees

• Propose book / document sales from web site

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Evolving Concept

• Draft Business Plan

• Basic Documents Development

• Membership Rights and Responsibilities

• Outreach Program Content and Plan

• State Coordinators

• Financial Officer

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CONTACT

• Rick Osmon

• Ph 812 259 1102

• oz@oopaloopacafe.com