Indigenous Refusals of Settler Territoriality: A Case from the Tolay Valley in Central California

Summary

Spanish, Mexican and American waves of colonialism in Central California changed the lives of California Indian peoples in very drastic ways. California Indians were removed from their homes, forced to perform labor, and were moved into poor living conditions that contributed to declines in health and the loss of many California Indian lives. The physical removal of California Indians from their homes was also an attempt by Spanish missionaries and soldiers to re-imagine the indigenous world. Under Mexican rule, California Indians were transferred to ranchos to perform labor in similarly poor conditions. And during the early years of California statehood in the 1860s, so-called "vagrant" laws enabled white settlers to enslave California Indians who were found "idle" on their lands. Despite these hardships necessitating great change in traditional lifeways, California Indians remained immersed in and connected to a broader Indigenous world in which colonial places and institutions were only one part. That is, California Indians refused to wholly accept settler boundaries, ownership, and ways of using traditional lands by trespassing on settler-designated private property to hold ceremonies and collect traditional resources. A case from the Tolay Valley in Southern Sonoma County, California, during the nineteenth century will be presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21210