Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Social Sciences
Advisor 1
Steven A. Walton
Committee Member 1
Sarah F. Scarlett
Committee Member 2
Timothy J. Scarlett
Abstract
This thesis explores how the perspectives, biases, and values of Euro-Americans regarding the copper mining industry have shaped a mythology which centers Lake Superior copper in an imagined pre-Columbian global trade network. Notably, many iterations of this mythology are rooted in a rejection of Indigenous agency in the creation of these sites, ascribing them instead to a ‘vanished race’ which had surely once occupied the region. The core of this thesis is formed around a set of semi-structured interviews with representatives of regional heritage institutions and avocationalists which were conducted with the goal of identifying how and why these stories still resonate with people today. Supporting these interviews with historical research and field observations, this study demonstrates that the myth of the ‘vanished race’ exists as a means by which proponents redefine their own Euro-American, Judeo-Christian, and (in rare cases) Indigenous identities, as well as the identities of post-industrial communities in the Lake Superior region.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Murphy, Donovan C., ""An Ancient Vanished Race:" Industrial Mythistory and the Alternative Archaeology of Lake Superior Copper", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2025.
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Folklore Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons