DINOSAURS AND INDIANS: PALEONTOLOGY RESOURCE DISPOSSESSION FROM SIOUX LANDS 1847 TO 1899

The emergence of vertebrate paleontology as an established, scientific discipline can in part be attributed to large vertebrate fossils found on land dispossessed from indigenous populations from around the world. Specifically, geographic locations of the North American continental interior are known to yield fossiliferous stratigraphic sequences. The Great Sioux Nation's boundaries were defined in a series of treaties with the United States Government beginning in 1851 and reaffirmed again in 1868. I argue that vertebrate fossils are another natural resource dispossessed from the subjugated Native peoples within the central plains of the United States. Founding fathers of American paleontology have to some degree built their careers with fossils collected within treaty boundaries. Let us examine evidence of this fossil dispossession from the years of 1847 through 1899.