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

9. Points of Refuge in the South Central California Colonial Hinterlands

154 9 Points of Refuge in the South Central California Colonial Hinterlands Julienne Bernard, David Robinson, and Fraser Sturt Colonial-era research, especially in the past two decades, has revealed the complexity and diversity of indigenous–Spanish interactions and the range of active, resistive, and dynamic responses to this period of enormous cultural and sociopolitical upheaval. As several papers in this collection reveal, Spanish colonialism affected indigenous populations far beyond the mission walls. The wake of the Spanish presence and all of its correlates spread throughout the indigenous landscape, affecting even populations whose contact with the Spanish was rare or even indirect. In California, changes in trade and economic systems, environments, and demographics affected nearly all indigenous groups to some degree, including those in the interior who were connected to coastal populations through exchange and other forms of social and political interaction. Archaeological research in these “colonial hinterlands” is beginning to reveal new histories of change spurred by colonial events (e.g., Hull 2009) and their impacts on indigenous environments (see, e.g., chapter 8, this volume). In some cases, it provides us with a glimpse of the paths taken by indigenous people who rejected mission life and forged new lives as runaways or refugees. Archaeological and anthropological research into refuge sites has revealed the immense potential of studying such communities. Conquergood (1988) highlights the unique and compelling aspects of the refugee experience for anthropological consideration, discussing the creation of refugee “‘camp culture’ that is part affirmation of the past and part adaptive response to the exigencies of the present” (Harrell-Bond and Voutira 1992:8). Our task as anthropologists is to explore how people and their cultures survive in such conditions, Refuge in the Central California Hinterlands 155 given that there are always choices in the everyday means one uses to adapt, and thus multiple ways in which adaptation can be achieved. Thus, such contexts are crucial to our examination of culture change, particularly in colonial situations. Aided by historical sources, researchers in the American Southwest (e.g., Liebmann et al. 2005; Preucel 2002) and in the Caribbean region and its environs (e.g., Orser and Funari 2001; Weik 2004) have been some of the most successful in identifying and studying the refuge sites of resisting indigenous and enslaved populations. Such studies reveal that the nature of refuge sites and our ability to study them are situated within particular cultural and geographic contexts, and thus there are no universal qualities shared by all refuge sites. Refuge sites, then, can be difficult to identify conclusively, and in California , this has proven particularly challenging. Though many are likely to have existed, they were likely occupied only ephemerally by a small number of people, thus leaving a sparse archaeological record. Further, the assemblages found at such sites may not be clearly distinguishable from other colonial (or even precolonial) sites occupied by indigenous groups that were never directly subjugated by colonials. Our collective research in the Emigdiano Chumash region has revealed three sites that were occupied in the precolonial era but also seem to have been points of refuge for Chumash and perhaps other indigenous groups during and after the mission era. This interpretation is based on physical/geographic aspects of the sites, shifts in the material signatures of their assemblages, and the likely symbolic importance of these sites in the precolonial era and beyond. While there may be other viable interpretations of the sites discussed here, exploring the likelihood that these sites were loci for runaways, refugees, or others who wished to escape contact with the Spanish provides a meaningful path for understanding why cultural adaptations changed in the way they did during this era. Emigdiano Chumash and Colonial-Era Flight into the Interior The Emigdiano Chumash are one of the lesser known of the Chumash groups, occupying the mountainous, interior portion of the Chumash range (Grant 1978) (figure 9.1). Few ethnographic and linguistic data are available for occupants of this region, with Grant (1978:530, 534) describing them as “virtually unknown” and estimating their population at just a few hundred. Because this region contains some of the most impressive and best-preserved 156 Outside the Mission Walls rock art in North America, much of the earliest research focused on the identification , recording, interpretation, and conservation of pictographs (Grant 1965; Robinson 2006). Since 2004, however, renewed interest in the area and improvements in accessibility to Emigdiano sites have fostered...