wednesday, october 19, 12:00pm soc sci i, 261 nathan acebo · soc sci i, 261 nathan acebo graduate...

Arch/Phys Lunch Talk

Wednesday, October 19, 12:00pm Soc Sci I, 261

Nathan Acebo Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology Stanford University

Reassembling the Black

Star Canyon Village

Located in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County California, The Black Star CanyonVillage (CA-ORA-132) is popularly associated with the event of the “Battle of Black StarCanyon”,inwhichanambiguousgroupofNativeAmericanswereaccusedofstealinghorsesandweresubsequentlykilledin1831byAmericanfurtrappers.Althoughthemassacrewasasignificanthistoricalevent,thesitealsocontainstheremainsofanextensivelateprehistoricalvillage. The interpretations by local historians and archaeologists have dichotomouslycharacterized the village as “a wild colonial frontier site” and as “a limited resourceexploitationlocal”,howeverthematerialandsocialhistoriesofindigenouscommunities,pastandpresent,areossifiedwhilelegaciesofSpanish,MexicanandAmericancolonialsocietyareboth solidified and continued. This paper seeks to complicate the disunion the moderncharacterizations of the Black Star village by exploring how protohistoric and colonial eramaterialitiesof themountainafforded localandnon-local indigenouspracticesofsocialand economic autonomy during thetransition from the protohistoric into theeras of colonialism. In addition to analysesofhistorical,lithicandceramicassemblages,the research is focused on a collaborativeapproach incorporating the perspectives ofthedescendentindigenouscommunities.