Waldo Rudolph Wedel
Encyclopedia
Waldo Rudolph Wedel was an American archaeologist and a central figure in the study of the prehistory
of the Great Plains
. He was born in Newton, Kansas
to a family of Mennonites. In 1939 he married Mildred Mott, a fellow archaeologist and ethnohistorian. Wedel died in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado
just shy of one year after Mildred’s death.
in Newton, Kansas. In 1928, he transferred to the University of Arizona
to study under archaeologist Byron Cummings and visiting professor William Morris Davis
. In 1930 he received his BA from the University of Arizona. He then transferred to the University of Nebraska for a M.A. degree and studied under William Duncan Strong
. In 1931 Wedel received his M.A. degree. His thesis utilized Strong’s direct historical approach
to studying Pawnee archaeological materials. During the next four field seasons he was involved with excavations under the University of Nebraska and the Nebraska State Historical Society
. In 1934, he published his first report on the Medicine Creek site, under Nebraska State Historical Society archaeologist A. T. Hill
.
In 1932 Wedel went to the University of California, Berkeley
for his Ph.D. He studied under Strong’s mentor Alfred L. Kroeber
. While at Berkeley, Kroeber steered Wedel into conducting ethnographic research with the Comanche
. Wedel’s interest at the time, however, was leaning toward studying the effects that climate
had on prehistoric populations. He was influenced by the fact that the dust bowl
was occurring in the Midwest. In particular, he was interested in studying the effects of similar droughts on prehistoric people. Kroeber discouraged this subject, so Wedel pursued his interests under geographer Carl Sauer. In 1936 Wedel was the first person to receive a Ph.D. in anthropology
with a specialization in archaeology from Berkeley.
and worked as an archaeologist for the Nebraska State Historical Society for one field season. In August 1936, he began his career with the Smithsonian Institution
. His original position was Assistant Curator
of Archaeology. Over the next 29 years, Wedel held numerous positions at the Smithsonian until his ultimate position of Senior Archaeologist. In 1976 Wedel retired from the Smithsonian but continued to remain active in research as Archaeologist Emeritus for the Institution.
In the 1930s, Wedel, William Duncan Strong
and A. T. Hill
found archaeological evidence in Nebraska were different from the prehistoric Central Plains
and Woodland
traditions. The evidence was attributed to a new culture called the Dismal River culture
, or Dismal River aspect, for its location on the Dismal River basin
, dated between 1650-1750 A.D.
Among the positions that Wedel held was that of Field Director and Party Chief for the Smithsonian Missouri River Basin Surveys Project. The Missouri Basin Project was a separate division of the Smithsonian that existed for nearly 24 years beginning in 1946. The goal of the project was to survey the roughly 500000 square miles (1,294,994.1 km²) of the Missouri River Basin for archaeological remains that were to be impacted by the construction of federal reservoirs. Although the project was technically a division of the Smithsonian, it was funded by a cooperative agreement between federal agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. During its time, the Interagency Archeological Salvage Program accomplished more archaeological recovery than any other river basin in the nation. The River Basin Project was eventually transferred to the National Park Service
and led to the development of the Midwest Archeological Center.
Wedel remains a key figure in archaeological studies. Because he never held an academic position he is important for shaping the image of the professional federal archaeologist. He has been referred to as “the professor without a classroom”.
Wedel has also been cited as a central figure in the utilization of the direct historical approach for archaeology. This approach in archaeology focused on identifying cultural links between modern native groups with complexes found in the material record. Wedel explains his project:
“Here the task becomes one of linking the archaeological record with the documentary, of correlating late material culture complexes with the various tribal units known or thought to have inhabited certain localities”.
This tool for archaeologists has become especially important in recent times as a result of the effect of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
, which requires the identification of cultural affinity for repatriation of remains.
Wedel undoubtedly had an impact on archaeological theory
due to his focus on Plains ecology
and human history. In “Primitive Man in the Boulder Area” Wedel discussed the need to study archaeological materials from a multidisciplinary approach. He cited archaeology
, geology
, climatology
, and biology
as useful disciplines for explaining the past in a more comprehensive and insightful manor than typically practiced. He also was a long advocate for the use of the scientific method
in archaeology, stating:
These two views were inspiring to the direction that the new processual archaeology
began to take in the 1960s
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
. He was born in Newton, Kansas
Newton, Kansas
Newton is a city in and the county seat of Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 19,132. Newton is located north of Wichita and is included in the Wichita metropolitan statistical area...
to a family of Mennonites. In 1939 he married Mildred Mott, a fellow archaeologist and ethnohistorian. Wedel died in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
just shy of one year after Mildred’s death.
Education
Wedel began studying at Bethel CollegeBethel College (Kansas)
Bethel College is a private college affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is located on the edge of the Flint Hills and the vast wheat fields of south central Kansas in the town of North Newton...
in Newton, Kansas. In 1928, he transferred to the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
to study under archaeologist Byron Cummings and visiting professor William Morris Davis
William Morris Davis
William Morris Davis was an American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist, and meteorologist, often called the "father of American geography"....
. In 1930 he received his BA from the University of Arizona. He then transferred to the University of Nebraska for a M.A. degree and studied under William Duncan Strong
William Duncan Strong
William Duncan Strong was an American archaeologist and anthropologist noted for his application of the direct historical approach to the study of indigenous peoples of North and South America....
. In 1931 Wedel received his M.A. degree. His thesis utilized Strong’s direct historical approach
Direct historical approach
The direct historical approach was an archaeological and anthropological technique developed and promoted by such American scholars as William Duncan Strong, Waldo Wedel, and others during the 1920s and 1930s....
to studying Pawnee archaeological materials. During the next four field seasons he was involved with excavations under the University of Nebraska and the Nebraska State Historical Society
Nebraska State Historical Society
The Nebraska State Historical Society is a Nebraska state agency, founded in 1878 to "encourage historical research and inquiry, spread historical information .....
. In 1934, he published his first report on the Medicine Creek site, under Nebraska State Historical Society archaeologist A. T. Hill
A. T. Hill
Asa Thomas Hill , generally known as A. T. Hill, was an American businessman and archaeologist. His work on sites in and around Nebraska, with such collaborators as William Duncan Strong and Waldo Wedel, was instrumental in the development of Great Plains archaeology.-Early life and career:Hill...
.
In 1932 Wedel went to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
for his Ph.D. He studied under Strong’s mentor Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
. While at Berkeley, Kroeber steered Wedel into conducting ethnographic research with the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
. Wedel’s interest at the time, however, was leaning toward studying the effects that climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
had on prehistoric populations. He was influenced by the fact that the dust bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
was occurring in the Midwest. In particular, he was interested in studying the effects of similar droughts on prehistoric people. Kroeber discouraged this subject, so Wedel pursued his interests under geographer Carl Sauer. In 1936 Wedel was the first person to receive a Ph.D. in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
with a specialization in archaeology from Berkeley.
Career
After receiving his Ph.D., Wedel moved back to NebraskaNebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
and worked as an archaeologist for the Nebraska State Historical Society for one field season. In August 1936, he began his career with the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. His original position was Assistant Curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of Archaeology. Over the next 29 years, Wedel held numerous positions at the Smithsonian until his ultimate position of Senior Archaeologist. In 1976 Wedel retired from the Smithsonian but continued to remain active in research as Archaeologist Emeritus for the Institution.
In the 1930s, Wedel, William Duncan Strong
William Duncan Strong
William Duncan Strong was an American archaeologist and anthropologist noted for his application of the direct historical approach to the study of indigenous peoples of North and South America....
and A. T. Hill
A. T. Hill
Asa Thomas Hill , generally known as A. T. Hill, was an American businessman and archaeologist. His work on sites in and around Nebraska, with such collaborators as William Duncan Strong and Waldo Wedel, was instrumental in the development of Great Plains archaeology.-Early life and career:Hill...
found archaeological evidence in Nebraska were different from the prehistoric Central Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
and Woodland
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
traditions. The evidence was attributed to a new culture called the Dismal River culture
Dismal River culture
The Dismal River culture refers to a set of cultural attributes first seen in the Dismal River area of Nebraska in the 1930s by archaeologists William Duncan Strong, Waldo Rudolph Wedel and A. T. Hill...
, or Dismal River aspect, for its location on the Dismal River basin
Dismal River (Nebraska)
The Dismal River is a winding river in the state of Nebraska. It is formed by the confluence of two forks, one of which has its origins in Grant County and the other in Hooker County. The forks meet near Nebraska Highway 97 between Mullen and Tryon. From here the Dismal River flows...
, dated between 1650-1750 A.D.
Among the positions that Wedel held was that of Field Director and Party Chief for the Smithsonian Missouri River Basin Surveys Project. The Missouri Basin Project was a separate division of the Smithsonian that existed for nearly 24 years beginning in 1946. The goal of the project was to survey the roughly 500000 square miles (1,294,994.1 km²) of the Missouri River Basin for archaeological remains that were to be impacted by the construction of federal reservoirs. Although the project was technically a division of the Smithsonian, it was funded by a cooperative agreement between federal agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. During its time, the Interagency Archeological Salvage Program accomplished more archaeological recovery than any other river basin in the nation. The River Basin Project was eventually transferred to the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
and led to the development of the Midwest Archeological Center.
Wedel remains a key figure in archaeological studies. Because he never held an academic position he is important for shaping the image of the professional federal archaeologist. He has been referred to as “the professor without a classroom”.
Influences on Archaeology
Wedel was influential to the study of prehistory for numerous reasons. Due to his experience with the Missouri Basin Project he developed a chronology of the Great Plains prehistoric cultural groups. One of his most used publications was Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains, which was widely read by both professional and amateur archaeologists.Wedel has also been cited as a central figure in the utilization of the direct historical approach for archaeology. This approach in archaeology focused on identifying cultural links between modern native groups with complexes found in the material record. Wedel explains his project:
“Here the task becomes one of linking the archaeological record with the documentary, of correlating late material culture complexes with the various tribal units known or thought to have inhabited certain localities”.
This tool for archaeologists has become especially important in recent times as a result of the effect of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
, which requires the identification of cultural affinity for repatriation of remains.
Wedel undoubtedly had an impact on archaeological theory
Archaeological theory
Archaeological theory refers to the various intellectual frameworks through which archaeologists interpret archaeological data. There is no one singular theory of archaeology, but many, with different archaeologists believing that information should be interpreted in different ways...
due to his focus on Plains ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and human history. In “Primitive Man in the Boulder Area” Wedel discussed the need to study archaeological materials from a multidisciplinary approach. He cited archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, climatology
Climatology
Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time, and is a branch of the atmospheric sciences...
, and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
as useful disciplines for explaining the past in a more comprehensive and insightful manor than typically practiced. He also was a long advocate for the use of the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
in archaeology, stating:
…I hold that, whatever its ultimate goal, archaeology can progress surely only as its practitioners adhere to the method and attitude of science – in essence, the acceptance of observed and verifiable facts, the eschewing of unsupported speculations and personal dicta, and a circumspect tolerance of that for which the observational, experimental, or experiential evidence is not immediately at hand.
These two views were inspiring to the direction that the new processual archaeology
Processual archaeology
Processual archaeology is a form of archaeological theory that had its genesis in 1958 with Willey and Phillips' work Method and Theory in American Archeology, in which the pair stated that "American archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing" , a rephrasing of Frederic William Maitland's...
began to take in the 1960s
Awards
- 1991 Plains Anthropological Society—first Distinguished Service Award to Waldo and Mildred Mott Wedel
- 1986 Society for American Archaeology—Distinguished Service Award
- 1985 Kansas State UniversityKansas State UniversityKansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
—Honorary Sc.D. degree - 1972 University of Nebraska—Honorary Sc.D. degree
- 1971 Bethel College—Distinguished Alumnus Award
- 1947 Washington Academy of Sciences—Award for Distinguished Service in Biological Sciences