Figure - available from: International Journal of Historical Archaeology
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James Deetz’s (1963) archaeological investigation with Rooms 1–7. Rooms 1 and 2 are in the background, and Room 7 is in the foreground
Source publication
Previous archaeological investigations at Mission La Purísima Concepción unearthed a concentration of glass and ceramic vessels under a floor within a room in adobe barracks where Chumash families resided. Early interpretations suggested a person of European ancestry lived there; however, we argue they were Indigenous to California. We propose that...
Citations
... Addressing an array of themes-from enduring cultural entanglements to Indigenous negotiations in successive waves of colonialism, and from expansive colonial landscapes to persistence studiestheir contributions played a pivotal role in dismantling antiquated assimilation-based tropes that previously defined perceptions of California missions. Mission La Purísima Concepción offered the opportunity to use this recent wave of research and explore, challenge, and critique prevailing narratives from previous archaeological investigations (Brown and Liguori 2024). Publicly engaged, fieldbased work can also counter terminal narratives through active engagement with the local community. ...
This article introduces a model that harnesses praxis as a powerful tool for critique, knowledge, and action within the realm of public archaeology. The adopted framework focuses on persistence as a middle-range methodology that bridges the material past to activist and collaborative-based projects. Recent research at Mission La Purísima Concepción in Lompoc, California, shows the effectiveness of this model and its real-world application. Visitors to California missions encounter the pervasive “Mission Myth”—a narrative that systematically overlooks and marginalizes Indigenous presence while perpetuating ideas of White hegemony and Eurocentrism. Archaeological excavations in the Native rancheria and collaboration with members of the Chumash community help resist notions of Indigenous erasure. By activating notions of persistence through public archaeology, this study contributes to dismantling entrenched terminal narratives, paving the way for a more accurate representation of the past and fostering a more inclusive archaeological practice.
Archaeologists in North America and elsewhere are increasingly examining long-term Indigenous presence across multiple colonial systems, despite lingering conceptual and methodological challenges. We examine this issue in California, where archaeologists and others have traditionally overlooked Native persistence in the years between the official closing of the region's Franciscan missions in the 1830s and the onset of United States settler colonialism in the late 1840s. In particular, we advocate for the judicious use of the documentary record to ask new questions of Indigenous life during this short but critical period, when many Native Californians were freed from the missions and sought new lives in their homelands or in emerging urban areas. We offer examples from our individual and collective research-undertaken in collaboration with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe-regarding long-term Native persistence in the San Francisco Bay Area to demonstrate how archival evidence can illuminate four interrelated areas of daily life that could be investigated archaeologically, including resistance, freedom, servitude, and personal adornment. By using the written record to regain a sense of subjective time, these topics and others could stimulate new, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research that more firmly accounts for Indigenous people's enduring presence across successive waves of Euro-American colonialism.
