Remembering and Forgetting Colonial Violence at Shamrock Ranch, Laytonville, California

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Mendocino War, an 1850s genocidal campaign against Native peoples in northern Mendocino County, California, was especially fervent in Long Valley. Here, unauthorized paramilitaries freely murdered hundreds of Yuki and Cahto people between 1856 and 1860. The extreme loss of Native life and forced removal of survivors to reservations have paradoxically allowed sanitization of this time in present-day white communities, even as they live among Native descendants. Archaeological survey findings at Shamrock Ranch near Laytonville provide a context in which to interpret the experience of Native people in the area during the Mendocino War, as well as the way this time is used to create local identity and discuss the American West in the present.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow