Culture Contact Studies in California

The second volume in the series on the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California was published this year by the Archaeological Research Facility. The 18 chapter volume, co-edited by Kent Lightfoot, Ann Schiff and Thomas Wake, explores the processes of cultural transformation and continuity in inter-ethnic households of Native Alaskan and Native Californian workers in an ethnic neighborhood of the early 19th century Russian outpost of Fort Ross in northern California. The Native Alaskan Neighborhood: A Multiethnic Community at Colony Ross, details the results of excavations in the Fort Ross State Historic Park undertaken by State Park and U.C. Berkeley archaeologists in the summers of 1988, 1989, 1991, and 1992. It includes chapters written by current or former U.C. Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students (Lisa Holm, Antoinette Martinez, Peter Mills, Heather Price, Stephen Silliman, Andre Tschan, and Thomas Wake), other scholars and research affiliates of the ARF, (Glenn Farris, Breck Parkman, Lester Ross, and Ann Schiff) associated with the Fort Ross Archaeological Project, and related specialists (Kenneth Gobalet, and Dwight Simons).

Kent Lightfoot is currently working on a book with Anthropology Professor William Simmons(Dean of Social Sciences Division) for U.C. Press, that is examining the nature and consequences of Native encounters with early European explorers and colonists in California. Specifically, they are employing relevant ethnohistoric sources, ethnographic reports, archaeological investigations, and Native oral traditions to explore varied Native responses to Spanish and English voyagers, Spanish missionaries and soldiers, Mexican ranchers, Russian fur trade merchants, and Anglo-European settlers.

Prof. Lightfoot is currently involved in two field/museum projects. First, he continues to direct the Fort Ross Archaeological Project in close collaboration with Glenn Farris, Dan Murley, and Breck Parkman of the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Next summer he and graduate student/Kashaya scholar Otis Parrish, will teach a field school course that will focus on the archaeological investigation of the Kashaya Pomo village of Metini. In partnership with tribal elders and scholars of the Kashaya Pomo, they will begin to map, surface collect, and undertake geophysical survey and limited testing at this important village that played a critical role in structuring Russian and Kashaya relations at Fort Ross. Field crews will also continue the search for the Kostromitinov Ranch which is supposedly located on State Park property near the confluence of Willow Creek and the Russian River. The Ranch was established in the early 1830s to increase the productivity of wheat and beef as part of the greater Fort Ross colony. The location of the Ranch has been "lost" since it was abandoned in 1841. If the Kostromitinov Ranch can be found, then members of the Fort Ross Archaeological Project will compare the spatial organization of the settlement and treatment of Kashaya Pomo and Native Alaskan workers at this Russian enterprise with nearby contemporaneous Mexican ranchos. Specifically, the Kostromitinov Ranch will be compared to the Petaluma Rancho that was administered by General M. Vallejo and Mexican foremen in the 1830s and 1840s. The Petaluma Rancho is currently being investigated by archaeologists from U.C. Berkeley and State Parks under the direction of Grad Student Stephen Silliman, and his dissertation advisors, Professors Meg Conkey and Kent Lightfoot.

The second project involves the study of prehistoric and protohistoric shell mounds in the greater San Francisco Bay. In collaboration with Dr. Edward Luby of the Phoebe Hearst Museum and ARF affiliate, the initial stages of a museum/field project are underway that will examine in detail one or two of the great shell mounds that once ringed the bay. They are identifying collections from previously excavated mounds (e.g., Ellis Landing, Emeryville) in the Hearst Museum with excellent research potential. They are proposing to re-analyze museum collections and to undertake limited excavations of deposits of extant mounds employing U.C. Berkeley students.

Recent Publications

Native Responses to the Russian Mercantile Colony of Fort Ross, Northern California . Kent Lightfoot, Thomas Wake and Ann Schiff. Journal of Field Archaeology, 20: 1993 pp. 159-175.

Long-Term Developments in Complex Hunter-Gatherer Societies: Recent Perspectives from the Pacific Coast of North America.. Kent Lightfoot. Journal of Archaeological Research 1(3): 1993 pp. 167-201.

Culture Contact Studies: Redefining the Relationships between Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology. Kent Lightfoot. American Antiquity 60: 1995 pp. 199-217.

Last modified 6 November 1999.