Overview
Speaker Series May 18: Presented by Dave Stuart
Dave is an archeologist/anthropologist and has spoken to us a few times in the past. He began his career at Caswell State Park on then lower Stanislaus River, where he helped indigenous women gather basketry materials. His interest stirred, Dave studied anthropology and biology at Modesto JC, Fresno State, and the University of Colorado. He did fieldwork – primarily CRM surveys-in the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada from Tahoe to Tehachapi. Dave was the first Assistant State Archeologist not Colorado. He was an archeologist/cultural resource specialist/planner for the National Park Service, working primarily in Florida, Louisiana, and the Southwest. Dave returned to California and developed museums and programs for the city of Ventura, then he directed the Sacramento Science Center (now MoSAC), the Sacramento History Museum on Old Sacramento, and the San Joaquin County Historical museum in Micke Grove Regional Park near Lodi. Since retiring 7 years ago, he has coauthored a book, assisted planning of the new Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area, and written several articles on Native cultures and the history of the Bay-Delta region – the book he is now researching.
“Indigenous Peoples of California’s Bay Delta Region”
Dave will touch on Native languages of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the adjacent Central Valley heartland (“Bay-Delta”) region and will summarize migration and the spread of indigenous ancestors throughput the area. He will describe the traditional lifeways of the California Native American’s from our region, including their care for local habitats to sustainably support a population that was among then highest in pre-colonial North America. Then he will discuss the colonial period and highlight the impact these regional Native people had on California’s colonial history.
Bay-Delta Native nations were disrupted by the missionaries and soldiers that invaded the Bay Area on behalf of the Spanish monarchy. The Delta was initially a barrier to Spanish incursions into the interior heartland, became a refuge that helped Native cultures and autonomy, then became a base for indigenous armed resistance. Disease and depredations eroded the strength of heartland nations and many people went to Mission San Jose and other missions. Baptized Native Americans were turned out by the missions in the Mexican-era to become “serfs” for early settler/barons such as John Marsh, Johann Sutter, and Charles Weber. Indigenous people directly and indirectly assisted the USA victory over Mexico, only to suffer state-and federal-genocide during and after the Gold Rush, Nevertheless, California Natives survived and continent to be nourished neighbors.