Peopling the Post-contact Landscape in Central California: A Pragmatic Approach

Summary

A cornerstone of recent pragmatic approaches to archaeology is the notion that our efforts can be judged by their practical outcomes. This may take the form of illuminating historical silences, and for those archaeologists working in post-contact or colonial contexts this often means working with indigenous groups seeking governmental or popular recognition. In this paper, we explore our collaborative efforts to discover and characterize archaeological sites dating to the early historic era in the territory of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people in central California. Approved by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, this research is explicitly designed to counter prevailing misunderstandings about the impacts of the Spanish mission system and subsequent iterations of settler colonialism, which are usually viewed as projects that eliminated native landholdings and cultural knowledge. Through the use of historic documents, early maps, ethnographic data, and targeted archaeological fieldwork, we are illuminating a complex refugium along Tomales Bay that sustained native people during the first century after the arrival of Europeans to the region. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities of our research in light of the emerging concern for pragmatism in archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21063