Alta California Research Articles

Three Decades of Engendering History: Selected Works of Antonia I. Castañeda ed. by Linda Heidenreich and Antonia I. Castañeda (review)

Reviewed by: Three Decades of Engendering History: Selected Works of Antonia I. Castañeda ed. by Linda Heidenreich and Antonia I. Castañeda Karla A. Lira Three Decades of Engendering History: Selected Works of Antonia I. Castañeda. Edited by Linda Heidenreich and Antonia I. Castañeda. ( Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2014. Pp. 400. Photographs, map, notes, bibliography, index.) Linda Heidenreich compiles leading Chicana historian Antonia I. Castañeda’s essays into one book featuring four thematic segments, each closed by a platica or discussion by Luz María Gordillo, in an effort to pass Chicana history and literature from one generation of scholars to the next. At the start of each section, Heidenreich includes an introduction that explains why she grouped certain essays together. The first pairs Castañeda’s essays on “The Political Economy of 19th Century Stereotypes of Californians” and “Malinche, Califa y Toypurina” to show how Mestiza and native women have been portrayed in California. Part two includes “Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History” and “Gender, Race, and Culture”, two widely used historiographical discussions of the historical debate over and critique of Chicana history. In her third part, Heidenreich includes “Sexual Violence in the Policies of Conquest” and “Engendering the History of Alta California 1769–1848.” Both essays examine sexual structure among Alta California women. Lastly, and of more significance to Texas history, Castañeda’s “Que Se Pudieran Defender, Language and Other Lethal Weapons”, “Lullabies Y Canciones de Cuna,” and “La Despedida” are essays dedicated to living in the United States as a Chicana while questioning and remaking the historic field. Essentially, the section covers Tejano families’ struggles as they migrate to Washington State. In one example, Castañeda’s mother remembers, “We worked our way north, through valleys and towns with names as familiar as our family story … to arrive in valley towns with strange new names” (312). Deena González closes the anthology con broche de oro, reminding the reader that although the number of Latinas in academia is small, progress continues to flourish. Much of the scholarly advancement could be traced to Castañeda, and the anthology is an important acknowledgement of the work of a founding madre. Gordillo’s platicas add a nakedly honest conversation with Castañeda and other influential scholars such as Latino art historian Thomas Ybarra-Fausto and Chicana history founding madres Emma Pérez and Deena González. Gordillo so thoroughly covers the platicas that the reader feels he or she is having a tacita de café and taking part of the conversation as a silent audience member. The interviews analyze the Mexican American and Chicano experience from various perspectives, from Chicanas as agents of change to the larger discussion of all women workers in agriculture. Each platica with Gordillo and other scholars complements the essay selections by Heidenreich. [End Page 232] Three Decades of Engendering Women is a well-organized book serving historians, other scholars, and general readers. The work successfully communicates the struggles that Chicanas faced throughout history and continue to confront. Initially, the book appeared to be an homage to Castañeda, but later it developed into a more comprehensive resource. With this volume, Castañeda, Heidenreich, Gordillo and other scholars remind us that we still have room for future generations of Chicana studies to grow. [End Page 233] Karla A. Lira University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Copyright © 2015 The Texas State Historical Association

Consider the Ravens

Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century foreign literature on Alta California depicts the Hispanic population as indolent and inefficient at developing the region’s natural bounty, providing a justification for conquest. California’s early representation as an island conveyed connotations of escape and undeveloped paradise. The Black Legend reinforced the laziness trope. Spanish observers were defensive on the issues of leisure and labor, while Native American Pablo Tac described the unceasing labor of the mission Indians.

Indigenous Landscapes and Spanish Missions: New Perspectives from Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Indigenous Landscapes and Spanish Missions: New Perspectives from Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Hide, Tallow and Terrapin: Gold Rush-Era Zooarchaeology at Thompson’s Cove (CA-SFR-186H), San Francisco, California

Zooarchaeological investigations at Thompson’s Cove, San Francisco, a Gold Rush-era site located on the original shoreline of Yerba Buena Cove, provide evidence of the maritime California hide and tallow trade, consumption of abundant wild game, including seasonal hunting of migratory ducks and geese, and importation of non-native species into Alta California, specifically Galapagos tortoise (Chelonoidis sp.) and sea turtle (Family Cheloniidae). This abundant and diverse assemblage (NISP = 8661, NTAXA = 50) dating primarily to the 1840s–60s allows rigorous investigations into the economic and subsistence activity of San Francisco in a stratified context encompassing the California Gold Rush-era.

Stone-by-Stone Metrics Shed New Light on a Unique Stone Alignment at the Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, Alta California

The origin of a 260-meter alignment of granite boulders at the Point Reyes National Seashore is not known. An oral tradition says that it was built during prehistoric times by the Coast Miwok, but historical and circumstantial evidence associates it with nearby ranches. Detailed measurements on 322 boulders in the alignment demonstrate that the builders placed large oblong stones parallel to the main axis of the line and small oblong stones perpendicular; similar techniques were used by the builders of New England's historic stone walls. A 10-meter gap is present in the line and there are not enough extra stones near the gap to fill it. This suggests that the gap was planned from the beginning by the builders of the line. An 1862 map shows features at the gap that could represent paddocks and gates. North of the gap, the line changes direction by 10 degrees to intercept the head of a steep ravine. The alignment resembles a nearby American period unfinished section of stone wall. The evidence indicates that the line was built by nineteenth-century ranchers as a property boundary or as a stone wall that was never finished.

A Possible Sweat Lodge at the Island Chumash Village of Nimatlala on Limuw, Santa Cruz Island, Alta California

The Chumash of the Santa Barbara Channel region built two types of semisubterranean structures used as sweat lodges: a small, semicircular ‘uqstilulu and a large, circular ‘apayik that could shelter a greater number of people and may have served as a location for conducting ceremonies. Ethnographic accounts indicate ‘uqstilulu were more common, but only one such structure has ever been documented archaeologically. Recent investigations at Nimatlala, a small contact and early historic Chumash community in the central valley of Santa Cruz Island, led to the discovery of a semicircular, semisubterranean structure. This structure is interpreted as an ‘uqstilulu, and may be the first sweat lodge to have been excavated on the Northern Channel Islands. Analysis indicates that the structure was occupied during the Late (cal A.D. 1150–1782) and Early Historic (A.D. 1782–1834) periods, but likely fell into disuse prior to site abandonment.

Prehistoric Settlement Trends on San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands, Alta California

Analysis of temporal and spatial patterns in settlement between San Clemente and San Nicolas islands suggest that the trajectory of human adaptations differed significantly. On San Clemente, site densities increased dramatically during the latter portion of the late Holocene, including numerous small-sized upland residential sites targeting terrestrial resources. In contrast, occupation of San Nicolas was intensive and constant from the latter half of the middle Holocene onward, and subsistence was more marine-oriented. These divergent trends in land use intensity and settlement organization were driven in part by modest geographic and environmental differences between the islands tied to land mass, annual rainfall, and terrestrial vegetation.

Where the Pavement Ends: An Assessment of the Near Absence of Haliotis rufescens in the Archaeological Record on Alta California's North Coast

Red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) is a common constituent in coastal middens south of San Francisco Bay and was such an important part of the diet there that red abalone middens or pavements are the most common site type in some areas at various periods in prehistory. The record north of San Francisco Bay stands in stark contrast—abalone are all but absent even in rich shell midden deposits. We explore four possible explanations for the lack of red abalone in the record, such as return rate discrepancies, competition with sea otters (Enhydra lutris), a lack of boat-based foraging, and the draw of terrestrial resources. We conclude that a combination of factors limited the appeal of red abalone for north coast foragers, including the inadequacy of boats as a platform for diving, competition with sea otters and, most importantly, enhanced terrestrial returns—including anadromous fish runs on coastal rivers—in northern California compared to southern California.

Making Friends and Converts

This article argues that cloth items played a crucial role in establishing friendships and creating Catholic converts between the sixteenth century and the end of the eighteenth century. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, cloth products served as touchstones of friendship between California Indians and Spanish mariners. As a result of these early meetings, Indians developed a taste for cloth. This taste for cloth allowed Spanish colonists in 1769 to reconnoiter Alta California without a great deal of violence because Indians saw their initial meetings as a continuation of their previous encounters. During the mission period, Franciscan missionaries could rely on cloth items to attract Indians to mission communities. After living with the Spanish, however, especially after observing the death toll of Spanish-introduced diseases and major changes in the land, California Indian people began to reject Spanish ways, and they communicated their political views by rejecting Spanish-introduced clothing.

9,000 Years of Settlement in the Carrington Point Area of Santa Rosa Island, Alta California

Systematic radiocarbon dating of coastal shell middens is a useful method for obtaining basic chronological information about archaeological sites that are threatened by coastal erosion, or for conducting reconnaissance in an area where little is known about the settlement history. This study focuses on radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites across the marine terrace adjacent to Carrington Point, Santa Rosa Island, California. This area has seen limited archaeological research compared to other portions of the island. Results suggest that settlement of this area was not constrained by known environmental or cultural patterns. When compared to other areas where similar systematic radiocarbon dating has been performed, no single factor can explain settlement decisions throughout the Northern Channel Islands. Although resource use at a single site may be heavily determined by environmental factors and regional settlement patterns are influenced by broad cultural trends, mid-scale patterns may also be contingent on historical patterns or nearby land use. Settlement of marginal areas such as the Carrington Point terrace represents a steady, consistent background to land use in more productive parts of the Northern Channel Islands.

The Great Unknown

In diplomacy as in epistemology, there are “known knowns,” as Donald Rumsfeld famously quipped on the eve of the Iraq War, and there are “known unknowns.” But in ways that even the mightiest empires often fail to anticipate, there are also “unknown unknowns.” As Paul Mapp’s perceptive new book about the colonial struggle for mastery of western North America reminds us, the most important (and destabilizing) facts of all are often the ones that “we do not know we don’t know.”1 For Europe’s leading eighteenth-century powers—Britain, France, and Spain—one of the eighteenth century’s greatest unknowns was the vast region that Mapp aptly refers to as the “elusive West.” By this, he means the western two-thirds of North America, including the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains north of New Mexico, Alta California, and the lands west of Hudson Bay, as well as large stretches of the Pacific Ocean. During the half century between the Peace of Utrecht (1713) and the Peace of Paris (1763), all three European empires devoted considerable resources to mapping and exploring this terraqueous space, yet as late as the end of the Seven Years’ War, when British, French, and Spanish peace commissioners crafted new borders for all of North America, the things that Europeans knew about the region’s lands and waters (and the people who inhabited and used them) paled in comparison to the things about which they were ignorant. As a result, writes Mapp, the West during the first half of the eighteenth century was—and would continue to be for nearly a century to come—a place of “uncharted waters” and “imagined lands,” one that Europeans understood through “rumor and imagination rather than … reliable information” (pp. 5 and 102).

Assessing the Diversity of Mission Populations through the Comparison of Native American Residences at Mission Santa Clara de Asís

Mission establishments in Alta California and elsewhere were home to complex, pluralistic communities in which native peoples actively but differentially negotiated aspects of colonialism through daily practice and the reinterpretation of identity. To explore these issues, we compare the archaeological evidence from two different indigenous dwellings at California’s Mission Santa Clara de Asis: an adobe barracks and a native-style thatched house. In particular, we consider possible differences between the dwellings’ inhabitants in terms of relative status, ethnolinguistic affiliation, and re-articulation of indigenous traditions.

Continuity in Any Language

This article analyzes the memories of pre-1848 Alta California recounted in the 1870s to Hubert Howe Bancroft’s agent Thomas Savage by a multiethnic group of men and women. The narrators, regardless of ethnic origin, overwhelmingly told stories that insisted on continuity between Alta California in the 1830s and 1840s and the US state birthed in the late 1840s. Even if they had been on opposing sides of political upheavals, they all insisted that their altruistic efforts had helped to transition California peacefully from Mexican rule to home rule and from home rule to US control while preserving both California’s people and California’s culture. This multicultural memory of continuity was later supplanted by rupture-based Anglo Californian creation myths.

Acculturation of Chilean Miners in the Sierra Nevada, Alta California

Chilean miners were among the first foreigners to arrive in California during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s. They were quickly subjected to violent ethnic conflicts with Euroamerican miners that forced many to withdraw from California. Those who chose to stay made adjustments to their material culture and cultural practices in order to ease tensions and gain acceptance into Euroamerican society. This article presents a three-stage acculturation model for the Chilean population during this time. This model is supported by the historic record and a Chilean archaeological site known as the Black Diamond Mine. The mine was claimed by Chileans in 1856, placing it within stage three of the acculturation model, and reflects adjustments made by the miners for acceptance into Euroamerican society.

Linking the Artifact to the Activity: Tarring Pebble Classification and Use of Asphaltum on San Nicolas Island, Alta California

Tarring pebbles have been used by Native Americans of southern California for thousands of years to melt, apply, and spread asphaltum. Although tarring pebbles are frequently observed in the archaeological record, they are seldom analyzed. In this study, we use size to construct a classification and typology of tarring pebbles found at three archaeological sites on San Nicolas Island, California. Three separate tarring pebble clusters exhibit particular characteristics that are distinct from one another. Our research suggests that tarring pebbles with specific attributes were being targeted for distinct purposes, allowing us to construct a classification based on pebble size.

Identifying, Dating, and Explaining Fire-Affected Rock Features in the Western Colorado Desert, Alta California

Many hundreds of small features composed of fire-affected rock (FAR), often with no other cultural remains in proximity to them, have been documented along or within a few kilometers of the maximum +12-m shoreline of ancient Lake Cahuilla in southwestern Imperial County. Issues to be addressed in interpreting these features include confirming their cultural rather than natural origin, placing them within the prehistoric chronology of the region, and attempting to determine the functions they served.

"A Woman of Genius is but a Heavenly Lunatic": Stoddard's Subversive Use of Music in The Morgesons

"A Woman of Genius is but a Heavenly Lunatic":Stoddard's Subversive Use of Music in The Morgesons Doris Davis (bio) I respect the mosquito; he is apparently an insignificance, but he sings and stings satanically. I am but a small bit myself; so I admire power in smallness. —Elizabeth Stoddard, August 20, 18551 In an early chapter of Elizabeth Stoddard's 1862 novel, The Morgesons, three vivacious old ladies assert in unison: "Miss Cassy don't play [the piano]. . . . Miss Verry's sun puts out her fire" (62).2 Their enthusiastic assessment of Verry's musical performance, rendered in metaphor, underscores a duality in the novel and points to musical skill as one basis of comparison. Stoddard offers here two distinct delineations of female musicianship: that of Cassy (or Cassandra), the novel's protagonist and narrator, in the form of the publicly sanctioned performer and singer in the parlor; and that of Verry (or Veronica), her younger sister, in the form of privately realized musical genius. Although music plays an integral role in the work, with almost forty references in the text, little critical analysis has been offered concerning its importance. Scholars have not considered this difficult novel in light of nineteenth-century attitudes toward female musical performance, composition, or genius. This paper discusses these conceptualizations and considers how Stoddard uses them in depicting her female characters' search for agency and self-expression. Additionally, it examines how the text's musical references contribute to its strikingly proto-modernist style. Often subversive in her use of music, Stoddard, like the mosquito referenced in the opening epigraph, both sings and stings throughout her self-styled recitative. Best known in her lifetime for nearly fifty short stories and poetry printed in various periodicals as well as a newspaper column in the Daily Alta California, Stoddard also published three novels in the 1860s. All but disappearing from the American literary scene for nearly a century, she was brought into public view once more by Lawrence Buell and Sandra A. Zagarell's 1984 critical edition of The Morgesons, followed by the inclusion of her story "Lemorne versus Huell" in several anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of American Literature, in which she is described by the editors as being "[s]omewhat ahead of her time" (Levine and Krupat 2524). Indeed, of mid-nineteenth-century American writers, few produced works as enigmatic and baffling as those conceived by Stoddard. Marked by [End Page 19] irony, cryptic dialogue, elliptical phrasing, and abrupt shifts in narrative, her fiction contains stylistic features most evocative of Emily Dickinson's poetry and of the later movement of modernism. In a now well-known comment made after he visited Dickinson in Amherst, Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote his wife that she could fathom Dickinson's home life if she had read Stoddard's work (Buell and Zagarell xii). As Higginson's comment suggests, Dickinson and Stoddard share a number of parallels. Both were products of well-educated, prominent New England families living in small but established towns and both attended female seminaries, rejected evangelical Protestantism, and evinced a certain rebelliousness in work marked by an ironic façade. Although Dickinson demanded a secluded world and Stoddard a public arena, both incorporate music—particularly piano music—into their work in intriguing ways.3 Such inclusion in an era that considered piano study a valuable part of a young woman's upbringing is understandable; however, each suggests a departure from nineteenth-century acceptable patterns. Much of Dickinson's musical imagery suggests the power of music to shock. Music "stun[s]" us "With Bolts of Melody!" ("Poem 505," 23-24). Music, in the intensity of its beauty as either Robin song or piano, may be too much to bear. "I thought," Dickinson's persona reasons, "if I could only live / Till that first Shout got by - / Not all Pianos in the Woods / Had power to mangle me—" ("Poem 348," 5-8). Despite its beauty, or perhaps because of it, the piano is a potential instrument of torture. Stoddard presents the piano in an equally ambivalent manner. In "Lemorne versus Huell," protagonist Margaret Huell seems compromised by her musical expertise as a piano teacher, both economically...

The Evolution of Political Practices in Mexican Alta California and the Rise of the Diputados

The Evolution of Political Practices in Mexican Alta California and the Rise of the Diputados

Shell-bead money and the mission period economy of Alta California

This article investigates basic economic categories that are presupposed by archaeologists to connect archaeological data and to explain the sociocultural patterns and processes of change in past societies. Its topical foci are the concepts of exchange, value, and money; its societal focus is the mission period of Alta California; its goal is to use Marx’s concepts of value and money to articulate the concrete archaeological and historical evidence we use to understand the complicated economy of this era.

Island Specialists: Shared Flora of the Alta and Baja California Pacific Islands

The floristic connection between the mediterranean region of Baja California and the Pacific islands of Alta and Baja California provides insight into the history and origin of the California Floristic Province. We present updated species lists for all California Floristic Province islands and demonstrate the disjunct distributions of 26 taxa between the Baja California and the California Channel Islands. These 26 plant taxa are found among the 16 Pacific islands without occurring on the intervening mainland of Alta California. Separate species lists for each island group (8 California Channel Islands and 8 Baja California Islands) were compiled. These lists were compared to the mainland California flora to identify species that occur on the California Islands and either the Baja California Pacific Islands or the mediterranean region of the Baja California Peninsula, but not the mainland of Alta California. This first compilation of the flora of the Baja California Islands and nomenclatural updates for the Channel Islands provide a platform for future research and conservation planning.