Publication Date

7-1-2010

Abstract

Long considered extinct,' in 1992 the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation (OCEN) began its bid to achieve federal acknowledgment as an American Indian tribe. This dissertation is a study of the history of the Native peoples of the Monterey Bay region and the current recognition efforts of OCEN. Using ethnographic and ethnohistorical methodologies and the fieldnotes of John Peabody Harrington as a key archive, it focuses on social and cultural aspects of identity change and community persistence, particularly in relation to land and place. It explores contemporary understandings of precontact political organization as they presently affect the Esselen Nation in the context of Cultural Resource Management archaeology. Histories of land tenure and labor under Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization are reviewed to better understand the Esselen Nation's current federally unacknowledged status. This dissertation looks closely at Native place-names and place-worlds and the ways in which they change. Theoretical concerns regarding anthropology, Indian identity, and federal acknowledgment are explored. Further described are residential communities and cultural practices along with difficulties the Esselen Nation experienced while organizing for recognition and negotiating the petition process.'

Keywords

Indians of North America, California, Monterey Bay, Ohlone-Costanoan-Esselen Nation, Federal Acknowledgment, John Peabody Harrington, Ethnohistory, Place, Identity, Land tenure, Place-names, Colonization, Archaeology, Ethnography, Cultural Resource Management, Cultural Anthropology, Government relations, Esselen, Costanoan, Ohlone, Spanish Period, Mexican Period, History, Cultural geography, Isabel Meadows, Rudy Rosales, Mission San Carlos, Carmel, Monterey, Carmel Valley, Big Sur

Project Sponsors

The Whatcom Museum Society and the University of Washington, the Jacobs Research Fund; the American Philosophical Society, Phillips Fund for Native American Research; the University of New Mexico, Department of Anthropology, the Frank J. Broilio, Harry W. and Margaret Baseheart Memorial Endowment Scholarship; the Office of Graduate Studies, Research, Project, and Travel Grant; the Graduate and Professional Student Association, Student Research Allocations Committee.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Field, Les W.

Second Committee Member

Rodriguez, Sylvia

Third Committee Member

Dinwoodie, David W.

Fourth Committee Member

Connell-Szasz, Margaret

Fifth Committee Member

Leventhal, Alan M.

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