Building a Working Class Archaeology

25 Pages·2006·0.43 MB·English

11
Building a Working
Class Archaeology
The Colorado Coal Field War Project
Randall H. McGuire
and Paul Reckner
INTRODUCTION
The problem with archaeology is that too often we are speaking only
to ourselves or to a small audience of aficionados who share our
sometimes-arcane interests. This is a problem in part because public
monies,primarilyinthecontextofheritagepreservation,largelyfund
archaeology in modern industrial states. Many archaeologists have
pointed this fact out and challenged archaeologists to reach out to a
general public. Most of these calls assume that archaeologists as the
expertsshoulddefinewhatisofinterestinthepastandthattheprob-
lemofreachingageneralpublicissimplyoneofpopularizingwhatthe
archaeologists know. In the Colorado Coal Field War Project we have
adoptedadifferentphilosophyandtakenadifferentapproachtobroad-
eningtheaudienceforarchaeology.Weseearchaeologyasacraftthat
canbeputtotheusesofmanydifferentcommunities.Inthisapproach
thequestionsandwhatisimportantaboutthepastisdecidedthrougha
dialoguebetweenthearchaeologistandthecommunitiesthatweserve.
The Colorado Coal Field War of 1913–1914 was one of the most
significant events in U.S. labor history. On the morning of April 20,
1914,ColoradoNationalGuardtroopsengagedinapitchedbattlewith
armed strikers at a tent colony of 1,200 striking families at Ludlow,
Colorado. The shooting continued until late afternoon, and then the
troops swept through the camp looting it and setting it aflame. When
the smoke cleared, 20 of the camp’s inhabitants were dead including
RandallH.McGuireandPaulReckner • DepartmentofAnthropology,Binghamton
UniversityBinghamton,NY13902-6000
217
218 RandallH.McGuireandPaulReckner
two women, and 12 children. The Ludlow massacre is the most vio-
lentandthebest-knownincidentsofthe1913–1914ColoradoCoalField
War, but its significance goes far beyond this struggle. The killing of
womenandchildrenatLudlowoutragedtheAmericanpublicandpop-
ularopinionsoonturnedagainstviolentconfrontationswithstrikers.It
marksapivotalpointinU.S.historywhenlaborrelationsbegantomove
fromclasswarfaretocorporateandgovernmentpoliciesofnegotiation,
co-option, and regulated strikes. Today the United Mine Workers of
Americamaintainthesiteofthemassacreasashrineanddescendants
of the strikers and union members make regular pilgrimages to the
site.
The Colorado Coal Field War project consists of faculty and
students from the University of Denver in Colorado, and Binghamton
UniversityinNewYork,andhasincludedstudentsfromseveralother
institutions, including the University of Manchester. The Colorado
Historical Society has funded our work using public monies that
were generated from taxes on casino gambling (The Colorado State
HistoricalFund).Webeginwiththeassumptionthatourworkshould
and does serve multiple communities (Shanks and McGuire, 1996).
Thesecommunitiesincludethescholarlycommunityofarchaeologists
andhistorians,aswellasthetraditional,middle-class,publicaudience
for archaeology. But, the primary community that we wish to address
isunionizedlaborintheUnitedStates.Wearebuildinganarchaeology
oftheAmericanworking-classthatspeakstoaworking-classaudience
aboutworking-classhistoryandexperience.Wearedoingthisthrough
an ongoing dialogue with both the descendants of the participants in
the Colorado Coal Field War and with unionized workers in southern
Colorado.
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC
Therelationshipofarchaeologyandthepublicisusuallyframedin
termsofanoppositionbetweenconveyingfindingwithinthediscipline
andcommunicatingwithageneralpublic.Aconsumeristmodelliesat
theheartofmostofoureffortstocommunicatewiththepublic.Inthis
model the archaeologist produces a product, usually a dumbed-down
version of the academic edition and sells it to a “general public.” This
approachassumesthatarchaeologistsastheexpertshavetheauthority,
the knowledge, the skill, and the right to determine what questions
we should ask about the past and what the answer to those questions
shouldbe.Theproblemthenbecomesoneofhowtocommunicateorsell
11. BuildingaWorkingClassArchaeology 219
our agenda and interpretation to the “general public.” Or put another
way,howdoweconvincethemtoseetheworldourway?
Wehavetakenadifferentapproachtotheproblem.Wealsorecog-
nize that society is made up of varied social groups with distinct and
often conflicting interests, and that the undifferentiated general pub-
lic is a myth. Craft archaeology enters into a dialogue with specific
communities in order to define what pasts to study, what questions to
ask about those pasts, and what conclusions to draw from those ques-
tions. We have entered into a dialogue with the academic community
of archaeology through articles like this one and through papers pre-
sentedatmeetings.Wehavealsoenteredintoadialoguewiththetradi-
tionalmiddle-classpublicaudienceforarchaeologythrougheducation
andinterpretiveprograms.However,theprimarycommunitythatthe
Colorado Coal Field War Project seeks to serve is unionized labor in
Coloradoandbeyond.
Archaeology as a discipline serves class interests and those inter-
estsarefrequentlycontrarytotheinterestoftheworking-classinthe
UnitedStates.IntheUnitedStatesbothscholarsandthegeneralpub-
licfrequentlyconfuseclasswitheconomicstatusandtheydefineclass
intermsofincomelevels.Thisfocusonincomeobscuresthestructural
realities of class in the United States (Wurst, 1999). The class struc-
ture of the modern United States minimally includes three positions:
1) a Bourgeoisie that owns or controls the means of production, 2) a
working-class that labors for wages, and 3) a middle-class of adminis-
trators,professionalsandsmallbusinessownerswhomediatebetween
thesetwoclasses.Theseclassesdonotformuniformmassesandwecan
defineclassfractionsrootedinregional,racial,andculturaldifferences
(Patterson,1995).
Archaeology has typically served middle-class interests. It is part
oftheintellectualapparatus(thingssuchasschools,books,magazines,
organizations,andarts)thatproducesthesymboliccapital(thingssuch
asesotericknowledge,sharedexperience,certification,andsocialskills)
thatindividualsneedtobepartofthemiddle-classes.Thisapparatus,
includingarchaeology,developedaspartofthehistoricalstrugglesthat
created the Capitalist middle-classes (Trigger, 1989; Patterson, 1995).
Because it is set in the middle-class, archaeology attracts primarily
a middle-class following, and often does not appeal to working-class
audiences(SennettandCobb,1972;Frykman,1990,Potter,1994:148–
149,McGuireandWalker,1999).
Wefeelthatarchaeologycanbemobilizedtoaddresstheinterests
of more than just the middle-classes. We seek to fuse our scholarly la-
bor with working-class interests. We have entered into the developing
220 RandallH.McGuireandPaulReckner
dialogue between organized labor and scholars in the United States.
TheelectionofJohnSweenyaspresidentoftheAFL-CIOin1995has
leadtoarevitalizationoftheorganizationasabroad-basedsocialinter-
estmovement.Aspartofthismovementajointlabor/academicteach-
in was held at Columbia University on October 3–4, 1996 with over
2,500peopleinattendance(Tomasky,1997).Thisalliancehasmorere-
centlymanifesteditselfinbroadbasedanti-corporate-led-globalization
actionssuchasinSeattlein2000andintherecentadoption,bymanyla-
borunions,ofstatementsopposingU.S.militaryactionagainstIraq.We
arecontributingtotheseeffortsbystudyingahistorythathasmeaning
for working people and addressing their interests in this history. The
Colorado Coal Field War of 1913–1914 is not exotic or ancient history.
It is familiar, close to home, relevant, and concerns issues that still
confrontworkerstoday.
THE 1913–1914 COLORADO COAL FIELD WAR
In1913Coloradowastheeighthlargestcoalproducingstateinthe
UnitedStates(McGovernandGuttridge,1972:5).Mostofthisproduc-
tioncenteredonthebituminouscoalfieldsinHuerfanoandLasAnimas
countiesnorthofTrinidad,Colorado.Theseminesprimarilyproduced
coke for the steel mills at Pueblo, Colorado. The largest company
miningcoalinthisregionwastheRockefeller-controlledColoradoFuel
and Iron Company (CF&I). This company employed approximately
14,000 miners in 1913, 70% of whom were immigrants. Most of these
immigrantscamefromSouthernEurope(principallyItalyandGreece)
and Eastern Europe (primarily Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Russia)
with some Welsh, Irish, African-Americans, Mexicans, and Japanese.
Unionorganizersestimatedthattheminersspokeatleast24different
languages.
The isolated mining communities were uniformly made up of
working-class families with a handful of managers and professionals.
Themembersoftheworking-classdidnotallexperienceday-to-daylife
intheSouthernColoradominingcommunitythesame.Thelivesofmen
and women were quite different and power relations and exploitation
existedwithinworking-classhouseholds.Eachethnicgroupalsoformed
itsowncommunity,bothintermsofpatternsofresidenceandthrough
social institutions such as churches, ethnic associations, and frater-
nal organizations. Racial discrimination existed, with Euro-American
workers discriminating against African-American and Chicano work-
ers, and with the handful of Japanese in the camps being totally
11. BuildingaWorkingClassArchaeology 221
excluded from union activities. The Anglo-Americans of local rural
agricultural communities regarded the miners as inferior foreigners,
andmanyoftheminingcompanies’privateguardswerehiredfromthe
ranksoftheruralworking-class.Theruralbourgeoisbyandlargesided
with management against the strikers with the exception of a small,
primarilyethnicbased,pettybourgeoisofshopownersandtradespeo-
plewhoidentifiedwiththeminerswhoweretheircustomers.
The conditions of the mines, and of miners’ lives, were ap-
palling (Beshoar, 1957:1–17; McGovern and Guttridge, 1972:20–54;
Papanikolas,1982:61–78).In1912theaccidentrateforColoradomines
wastriplethenationalaverage(Whiteside,1990).Theminesinsouth-
ern Colorado operated in flagrant violation of several state laws that
regulatedsafetyandthefaircompensationofminers.Theminerslived
in rude, isolated coal camps owned by the companies. Companies con-
trolled the housing, the store, the medical facilities, the town saloon,
andallrecreationalfacilities.Companyguardsactedaspoliceandreg-
ulated who could enter or leave the communities. The companies also
dominatedmostofthelocalpoliticalstructureandinstructedtheirem-
ployeesonhowtovote.Contemporaryaccountsdescribedthesituation
asfeudal(Seligman,1914a,1914b).
In1913theUnitedMineWorkersofAmerica(UMWA)launcheda
massiveorganizingcampaigninsouthernColoradoandcalledastrike
in the fall of that year (Beshoar, 1957:42; McGovern and Guttridge,
1972:17; Papanikolas, 1982:79). The strikers demanded the right to
unionize, higher pay, and that existing Colorado mining laws be en-
forced. Simultaneously, the companies brought in the Baldwin Feltz
detective agency to violently suppress the organizing efforts and later
thestrike.OnSeptember23,1913,over90%oftheminerslefttheshafts
to begin the strike. The companies forced people out of their company
ownedhousingandseveralthousandpeoplemovedintotentcampsset
up by the UMWA. Ludlow, with approximately 150 tents and about
1,200residents,wasthelargestofthesecampsandtheUMWA’sstrike
headquarters for Las Animas County (Figure 1). Each of these camps
contained a mix of nationalities including Italians, Greeks, Eastern
Europeans,Mexicans,AfricanAmericans,andWelsh.
Violence characterized the strike from the very beginning, with
both sides committing assaults, shootings, and murders (Beshoar,
1957:62–76; McGovern and Guttridge, 1972:109–110; Papanikolas,
1982:76–106). In October the governor of Colorado called out the Na-
tionalGuard.Overthewinterof1913–1914relationsbetweenthestrik-
ers and the guard deteriorated, especially in April when the governor
removed the regular troops and the mining companies replaced them
222 RandallH.McGuireandPaulReckner
Figure1. TheLudlowTentColonyBeforetheMassacre.(PhotocourtesyoftheDenver
PublicLibrary)
with their own employees under the command of Colorado National
Guardofficers.InLudlowthestrikersdugcellarsundertheirtentsas
refugesforwomenandchildren.
OnApril20,1914theguardattackedthetentcampatLudlow.At
about 9:00 that morning the guard commander ordered Louis Tikas,
the leader of the colony, to meet him at Ludlow Station. Fearing that
thismightbeapretextforanattack,armedstrikerstookupaposition
in a railroad cut over looking the station. The National Guard had
positioned a machine gun on a hill one mile to the south of the tent
colony. Someone fired and the guardsmen began firing the machine-
gun into the tent camp. As the day progressed, up to 200 guardsmen
joinedthefightandasecondmachine-gunwasaddedtothefirst.After
afewhoursoffiringthetentsweresofullofholesthattheylookedlike
lace (Thomas, 1971:144). The armed strikers engaged the guard and
triedtodrawtheirfireawayfromthecamp.
In the camp there was pandemonium. Some people sought refuge
in a large walk-in well, and many people huddled in the cellars under
11. BuildingaWorkingClassArchaeology 223
theirtents.Thecamp’sleadersworkedalldaytryingtogetpeopletoa
dry creek bed north of the camp. In the early afternoon a 12-year-old
namedWilliamSnydercameupoutofacellartogetsomefoodandwas
shotdead.
As dusk gathered a train stopped in front of the machine-guns
and blocked their line of fire. With a brief respite from the machine-
gunfire,themajorityofthestrikerswhohadbeenpinneddowninthe
colony were able to flee along with the armed strikers struggling to
hold off the National Guard. The guardsmen swept through the camp
lootingandburningthetents.Fourwomenand11childreninacellar
belowtent58huddledinfearwhiletheflamesconsumedthetentabove
them. The guardsmen seized Louis Tikas and two other camp leaders
andsummarilyexecutedthem.Whenmorningdawnedthecampwasa
smokingruinandinthedarkholebelowtent58twoofthewomenand
all11childrenweredead(Figure2).
Following the attack, strikers throughout southern Colorado took
uparmsandtookcontroloftheminingdistrict.Thestrikersdestroyed
several company towns and killed company employees. Finally, after
tendaysofopenwar,PresidentWilsonsentfederaltroopstoTrinidad
Figure 2. The Tent Colony After the Massacre. (Photo courtesy of the Denver Public
Library)
224 RandallH.McGuireandPaulReckner
to restore order. The strike continued until December of 1914 when a
bankruptUMWAhadtocallitoff.
The killing of women and children at Ludlow shocked the nation
(Gitelman, 1988). Prominent progressives such as Upton Sinclair and
John Reed used the events to demonize John D. Rockefeller Jr. The
United States Commission on Industrial Relations investigated the
events of the strike, and issued a 1,200-page report (U.S. Congress,
Senate 1916). In response to this national attention Rockefeller hired
the first corporate public relations firm and instituted a series of re-
formsintheminesofsouthernColorado.Itisnotclearwhatpractical
impacts these reforms had on the lives of miners and their families
but throughout the 1920s the district was embroiled in strikes. Union
recognitioninsouthernColoradoonlycamewiththeNewDealreforms
ofthe1930s(McGovernandGuttridge,1972).
HOW CAN ARCHAEOLOGY ENHANCE
UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE COLORADO COAL
FIELD WAR?
The documentary record of primary texts, photographs, and oral
historiesfortheColoradoCoalFieldWarisincrediblyrobustandleaves
fewmajorissuesunexamined.Asarchaeologists,webringtothetable
a craft that allows us to glimpse the material conditions of day-to-day
lives in the coal camps and tent colonies of southern Colorado. These
conditionsshapedthelivesofminersandtheirfamiliesandthecourse
ofthe1913–14strike,butitispreciselythesemundaneaspectsoflife
that,inthedocumentaryrecord,areobscuredbyafocusonlarge-scale,
high-profilepoliticalresponsestotheconflict.
Several major historical works on the strike have mined the rich
archival record of documents and photos related to the Colorado Coal
FieldWar(Beshoar,1957;McGovernandGuttridge,1972;Papanikolas,
1982).Thesestudieshavefocusedontheevents,thestrikeleaders,and
the organizational work of the UMWA. They have tended to empha-
size the male miner and the commonalties of the work experience as
thesourceofthesocialconsciousnessthatunitedethnicallyandracially
diverseminers.Thehistoriesusuallyimply,andsometimesassert,that
theminerssharedacommonlivedexperienceatworkbutthenreturned
to ethnically different home lives. In this way they accept a very tra-
ditional hypothesis of labor action that emphasizes the agency of men
anddownplaystheroleofwomen.Thishypothesistendstoequateclass
11. BuildingaWorkingClassArchaeology 225
andclassstrugglewithactivemenintheworkplace,andethnicityand
traditionwithpassivewomeninthehome.
We, and many others, are skeptical of this traditional view
(Long,1985:63–65,1991;BeaudryandMrozowski,1988;McGaw,1989;
Cameron,1993;Shackel,1994,1996;Mrozowskiet.al.,1996).Weagree
that ethnic identities cross-cut class in southern Colorado and that
theyhinderedtheformationofclassconsciousness,butwequestionthe
equationofclass=workplace=male,andethnicity=home=female.
Alternativelywewouldproposethatclassandethnicitycross-cutboth
workplace and home, male and female. We would thus expect to find
that working-class men in the mines and working-class women in the
homessharedacommonday-to-daylivedexperiencethatresultedfrom
their class position and that ethnic differences divided them in both
contexts.
We can demonstrate from existing analyses that ethnic divisions
existedintheworkplace.InsouthernColoradotheminersworkedasin-
dependent contractors and formed their own work gangs. These work
gangs were routinely ethnically based (Long, 1991:24–51). Historical
and industrial archaeologists have also demonstrated in many other
cases that 19th and early-20th century workplaces were ethnically
structured (Hardesty, 1988; Bassett, 1994; Wegars, 1991). In the tra-
ditional hypothesis it is the commonality of the work experience that
overcomestheseethnicdivisionsintheworkplaceandinanethnically
basedhomelifetocreateaclassconsciousness.
Theideathatthereexistedacommonalityoflivedexperienceinthe
homethatalsoaidedintheformationofacommonclassconsciousness
ishardertodemonstratefromexistinganalyses.Thehistoriesallagree
thattheday-to-daylivesofminers’familieswerehard,buttheyprovide
little more than anecdotal evidence of the reality of these conditions.
ThehistorianPriscillaLong(1985:81),inananalysisthatsupportsour
alternativehypothesis,hasdemonstratedthatwomenintheColorado
coalfields shared a common experience of sexual exploitation, but she
also lacks detailed data on the realities of day-to-day lived experience
inthehome.
Ouralternativehypothesisstressestheimportanceofthehomein
the creation of class consciousness. We seek to prove that the day-to-
day material conditions of home life crosscut ethnic divisions, before,
during,andafterthestrike.Ifthisisthecasethenwewillarguethat
women and children were active agents, with male miners, in formu-
latingasocialconsciousnesstounifyforthestrike.Alternatively,ifour
analysesshowthateachethnicgrouphaddistinctiveday-to-daymate-
rial conditions of home life then we will accept the traditional notion
226 RandallH.McGuireandPaulReckner
thatfamiliesfollowedtheleadofmaleminerswhoacquiredacommon
classidentityintheshafts.
Historicalarchaeologyoffersaveryproductivearenaforarchaeol-
ogists to examine the relationship between social consciousness, lived
experience, and material conditions to cultural change (Orser, 1996;
Shackel,1996).Inhistoricperiodsthearchaeologistcanintegratedoc-
umentsandmaterialculturetocaptureboththeconsciousnessandma-
terialconditionsthatformlivedexperience(Beaudry,1988;Leoneand
Potter,1988;Little,1992;Leone,1995;DeCunzoandHerman,1996).In
the documents, people speak to us about their consciousness, their in-
terests,andtheirstruggles,butnotallpeoplesspeakinthedocuments
withthesameforceorpresence.Also,theyrarelyspeaktousindetail
abouttheirday-to-daylives.People,however,createthearchaeological
record from the accumulation of the small actions that make up their
lived experience. Thus the archaeological record consists primarily of
the remains of people’s mundane lives and all people leave traces in
thismaterialrecord.
Archaeologicalresearchprovidesonemeanstogainaricher,more
detailed, and more systematic understanding of the everyday experi-
ence of Colorado mining families. These families unknowingly left a
recordofthatexperienceintheground.Archaeologistscanrecaptureit
intheburnedremainsoftheirtents,inthelayoutofcamps,inthecon-
tentsoftheirlatrines,andbyshiftingthroughthegarbagethattheyleft
behind. Linking this information with documentary and photographic
sources gives us a useful way to reconstruct that experience. By ap-
plyingthesemethodstocompanytownsoccupiedbeforethestrike,the
strikerstentcamps,andtothecompanycampsreopenedafterthestrike
wecantestourpropositions.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK
With the help of our fieldschool students, we have completed five
years of excavations both at Ludlow and at the CF&I-owned company
town of Berwind. The massacre site itself represents a near perfect
archaeologicalcontext.Itwasoccupiedforaveryshortperiodandwas
destroyedbyfire.Subsequentuseoftheareahashadlittleimpactonthe
archaeologicalremains.InBerwind,thestreets,foundations,latrines,
andtrashpitsremainvisibleonthesurface.
At Ludlow we have conducted controlled surface collections in or-
der to get a sense of the extent and general layout of the camp. The