The Archaeology of Refuge and Recourse: Coast Miwok Resilience and Indigenous Hinterlands in Colonial California

Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interactions in the Americas

by Tsim D. Schneider

The Archaeology of Refuge and Recourse explores the dual practices of refuge and recourse among Indigenous peoples of California. From the eighteenth to the twentieth century, Indigenous Coast Miwok communities in California persisted throughout multiple waves of colonial intrusion. But to what ends?

Applying theories of place and landscape, social memory, and mobility to the analysis of six archaeological sites, Tsim D. Schneider argues for a new direction in the archaeology of colonialism. This book offers insight about the critical and ongoing relationships Indigenous people maintained to their homelands despite colonization and systematic destruction of their cultural sites.

Schneider is a citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the sovereign and federally recognized tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people whose ancestral homelands and homewaters are the central focus of The Archaeology of Refuge and Recourse. Viewing this colonial narrative from an Indigenous perspective, Schneider focuses on the nearly one quarter of Coast Miwok people who survived the missions and created outlets within and beyond colonial settlements to resist and endure colonialism.

Fleeing these colonial missions and other establishments and taking refuge around the San Francisco Bay Area, Coast Miwok people sought to protect their identities by remaining connected to culturally and historically significant places. Mobility and a sense of place further enabled Coast Miwok people to find recourse and make decisions about their future through selective participation in colonial projects. In this book, Tsim D. Schneider argues that these distancing and familiarizing efforts contribute to the resilience of Coast Miwok communities and a sense of relevance and belonging to stolen lands and waters. Facing death, violence, and the pervading uncertainty of change, Indigenous people of the Marin Peninsula balanced the pull and persistence of place against the unknown possibilities of a dynamic colonial landscape and the forward-thinking required to survive. History, change, and the future can be read in the story of Coast Miwok people.

 

232 pages, Hardcover

Published October 19, 2021

Reviews

[Gwyneth Chilcoat · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book. Every sentence is laden with deep wisdom. I recommend reading it slowly to let it sink in.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well researched and enlightening book. I happen to live in the general area that the author highlights, so it was really interesting to learn more about the indigenous history. I really appreciate his perspective and how he reframes the more common narrative that the indigenous people were all subservient and that their cultural traditions are all just history now.
I did feel it is written more as a textbook for anthropology/archeology students than the lay reader, but then the author is a professor (as well as a local tribal member).

[Kaitlin Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, eye-opening book that dives into the historical erasure of Indigenous places and how Native communities endured. It focuses on shell mounds using cutting-edge archaeological research techniques mixed with stories of real people who navigated colonialism and Indigenous epistemologies.