Remote Places As Post-Contact Refugia

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe arrival of Europeans, and later Americans, to California in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to complex social and economic turmoil for Native Americans. Throughout this period, Native Americans found myriad ways of resisting colonial influence and maintaining traditional ways. In this article, we explore how two places considered “remote” by colonial powers (San Clemente Island and the Coso Range in the Mojave Desert) served as ideal locations for those seeking to remove themselves from the colonial system. Although local cultural and economic circumstances were different, both locations were less desirable to Euroamerican settlers until relatively late in time. Using the ideal free distribution model as a theoretical framework, this article argues that the remoteness of these areas allowed Native cultures to continue in traditional ways until the 1850s on the Channel Islands and the 1870s in the Coso Range.