archaeology career in Detroit
Thomas Killion helps to expand
WSUanthropology department,
increase interest in Detroit history
By DAVID HALL | The South End
Updated: 10/20/11 6:19pm
Thomas Killion’s interest in anthropology ignited at an early age when he and his family moved to the Caribbean island of St. Croix.
After graduating from New Mexico University with a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology in 1987, Killion worked with the Smithsonian Office of Repatriation between 1989 and 2000.
Killion and Tamara Bray, a fellow Wayne State anthropology professor, were the first to work in the Smithsonian Department of Anthropology’s Repatriation office. Bray and Killion were recruited to establish the office as part of the National Museum of American Indian Act of 1989 (NMAIA), and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). These laws made museums return excavated human remains to their place of origin.
“It was tricky at the time, since the museums didn’t want to give up their exhibits,” Bray said.
Their work together resulted in the 1994 book “Reckoning with the Dead,” edited by Bray and Killion. “Reckoning with the Dead” addresses one of the early repatriation cases where human skeletal remains, excavated in the 1930s, were returned in the early 1990s to Kodiak Island off the south Coast of Alaska. According to Bray, she and Killion were among the first anthropologists to work with repatriation. They founded and developed a model for other museums to follow in implementing the new laws.
On sabbatical during the 2011 fall and winter semesters, Killion is writing a book on human remains repatriation tentatively named “Agency of the Dead: The Cave Valley Mummies of Chihuahua.”
A year before coming to WSU in 2000, Killion became involved in a research project sponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). His task was to locate the appropriate site , and to locate any living descendants of the Cave Valley mummies. Drawing from his work and research at the NMAI, Killion aims to rework his reports into a book.
Wayne State recruited Killion as department chair in 2001. Killion said that much of his time was spent on administration duties. In the summer of 2006, Killion received a call from Timothy McKay of the Greater Corktown Development Corporation (GCDC). McKay wanted Killion and the WSU department of anthropology for an archaeological survey of Corktown neighborhoods.
“Our department had been very active in Detroit history and archaeology back in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. There had been a sort of hiatus. This [Corktown excavation] was something that we in the department wanted to promote. We thought of that as a good place to start,” Killion said.
Killion wasted no time digging into the 2006 fall semester.
“I became interested in doing something to fulfill a long term objective of the anthropology department to rekindle research in Detroit itself. These were very small-scale operations, anywhere from eight to 12 students involved. We collaborated with the honors college in 2008, and they supported a class at the Worker’s Row house that summer,” Killion said.
Economic Development Director of the GCDC, Timothy McKay described the historic area as subdivided French Strip farms.
“These Corktown neighborhoods were basically the first subdivisions,” said Liam Collins, a Senior Undergraduate of anthropology, “We found artifacts from about 1834 up to the post-Civil War era.”
The student field school was a success, and led to further excavations of Corktown.
In 2009, the State Historic Preservation Office selected WSU department of anthropology and the GCDC for the 2009 Historic Preservation Award. Since then, Killion’s Corktown excavations have led to expansion of WSU’s anthropology department and an increase in professional interest of anthropological history in Detroit.
“Since we had a good idea of one particular house, we wanted to broaden our perspective of Corktown. We decided to start a backyard survey of the whole historic district of Corktown. That’s what we’ve done in the past two summers.” Killion said.
Last summer, Killion and his WSU field school started a new survey of Corktown’s Roosevelt Park by the Michigan Central Station. Roosevelt Park was a neighborhood that 150 families vacated between 1913 and 1918 to make way for the railway staion.
Daniel Harrison, a WSU graduate student in archaeology, worked with Killion during the summer excavations of Roosevelt Park.
“It was a great opportunity to do dry land field work in historical archaeology,” Harrison said. “It’s an area that’s traditionally ignored and we are bringing attention to its existence.”
Killion relates Roosevelt Park to the preservation of the archaeological site of Pompeii, which was preserved beneath volcanic ash.
“It’s very well preserved because they just put a layer of top soil over the neighborhood,” Killion said.
Assistant professor Krysta Ryzewski, who has only been with WSU for a month, already has plans to survey different historical areas of Detroit with her students.
“The Roosevelt Park neighborhood was part of the city before the automotive age – the city before the Motor City – and we don’t know much about that period of time,” Ryzewski said.
As for Killion, he looks toward the future of Detroit historical anthropology with optimistic enthusiasm.
“In a very general way, we’re interested in building out more historic archaeology in Detroit. We’re trying to get people living in the city interested as well. There’s great potential for that here in Detroit,” Killion said.
Published October 20, 2011 in Features
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