Native American Archaeologist Honored at ASU Commencement

Newswise — In the United States, most of the archaeology is about Native American cultures. Yet nationwide, there are only about 15 Native American doctorate-level archaeologists involved in the interpretation of their archaeological past. On Dec. 17, William “Rex” Weeks joined their ranks as the first Native American to receive a doctoral degree with a specialization in archaeology from Arizona State University’s competitive anthropology program. His inspiring success story was shared during the commencement ceremony.

Weeks is a member of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, his clan being Anigatagewi, or “Of Wild Potato.” Born to Cherokee parents and raised in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains, the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee, he understands, speaks, writes and often thinks in the Cherokee language. Though he grew up in a poor rural community in eastern Tennessee, with the support of his family and the blessings of his elders, Rex achieved remarkable academic and personal success.

An outstanding scholar with numerous publications, Weeks was awarded several prestigious fellowships, scholarships and grants, including ones from the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation and ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He also received two teacher-training fellowships to design and co-teach undergraduate courses on rock art and Woodland Native American religions in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, home of ASU’s anthropology programs.

While still a graduate student, his professional expertise was sought twice in making critical rock art conservation assessments for the Navajo Nation and the United States Park Service at Chaco Canyon National Monument. He was also selected for a key supervisory role in a large-scale rock art documentation project sponsored by the city of Phoenix at South Mountain Park and helped to author the conservation and preservation plan for the park.

“Rex has held to his goal of bringing Native voice and understandings to the interpretation of the archaeological legacy of his people and other Native Americans, and to teach this enriched history to university students of all cultures,” explains professor Chris Carr who chaired Weeks’ dissertation committee. “He is a scholar of the finest caliber. He understands and is deeply committed to helping others understand just how different the perceptions, thoughts, feelings and motivations of people of different cultures can be.”

Weeks is held in high regard as an expert in rock art, which he studied extensively at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change’s Deer Valley Rock Art Center, located at the Hedgpeth Hills Petroglyph site outside of Phoenix. For five years, he documented, analyzed, interpreted and conserved rock art at the site, and also developed public education programs and exhibits under the tutelage of Peter Welsh, the center’s former director. Weeks is also one of the country’s foremost experts in the interpretation of the rock art of the Woodland Native Americans in the eastern United States.

Rex’s 897-page doctoral dissertation, according to Carr, “is a definitive scholarly analysis that unravels the antiquity of the Grand Medicine Society – the Midewiwin – and affirms for the Anishinaabeg Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands the credibility of their oral traditions about the Society’s founding.

“Anishinaabeg traditions state that the Grand Medicine Society – a cornerstone institution and spiritual mainstay of the tribe – originated long before European colonization. In contrast, dominant anthropological views have maintained that the Society began as a religious revitalization movement during the colonial era in response to disease, war and relocation – a view that essentially strips the Anishinaabeg of the integrity of their culture in academic literature. His research affirms for the Anishinaabeg – through an extensive analysis of evidence from excavated archaeological sites, rock painting sites, early colonial written documents and indigenous origin narratives – that the ceremonies of the Grand Medicine Society originated long before European colonists arrived and are, indeed, Indian ceremonies of Indian creation,” explains Carr.

“Of the 26 completed master’s and doctoral candidates that I have chaired over the past 30 years, he is the most thorough and critically thoughtful scholar. I feel very honored and thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Rex. He has been inspiring to watch, and he’s made me a better anthropologist,” notes Carr.

While finishing his doctorate, Weeks sought and obtained a tenure-track position as assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Nationally known for its archaeology program, the university is only a short drive to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma where Weeks looks forward to spending time and speaking his native language, doing archaeological and ethnographic research and involving Cherokee students in professional archaeology.

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY (www.asu.edu)
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (http://clas.asu.edu)
School of Human Evolution and Social Change (http://shesc.asu.edu)
Deer Valley Rock Art Center (http://dvrac.asu.edu)
Tempe, Arizona USA

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Nationwide, there are only about 15 Native American doctorate-level archaeologists involved in the interpretation of their archaeological past. On Dec. 17, William "Rex" Weeks, an Arizona State University graduate, joined their ranks.