The next two weeks of Archaeology at Home will center on the Native Peoples of the Bay Area.
Friday June 12: Pt 1, Indigenous History in the Bay Area with Mark Hylkema and the Peninsula Open Space Trust
About: For thousands of years, the Bay Area has been the home of many, diverse groups of Indigenous Peoples with complex cultures and relationships to the land. Join Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and California State Parks for a three-part webinar series delivered by Mark Hylkema, California State Parks Archaeologist and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Foothill College. Mark will draw from over 40 years of experience studying the history of California native people, focusing on Indigenous cultures of the Peninsula and the South Bay.
Explore the Bay Area Equity Atlas, recognizing the Bay Area’s Indigenous populations, past and present. On that site, you will find links to resources such as the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, about which Kent Lightfoot and Rob Cuthrell have spoken in past talks at the ARF (such as this video with Kent Lightfoot, starting at 50:30), as well as the Native Land Digital Mapping Tool.
If you weren't able to attend the ARF's fall lecture last October, you can get a taste of Café Ohlone in this 5 minute video.
More on food can be found in episodes on the "Native Seed Pod" podcast, now in their second season discussing native seeds, soils, and Indigenous foods. There are too many to choose one, so I'm including a link to Episode 6, again featuring our friends at Café Ohlone, Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino. From that link, you can see other podcasts with the keyword "Ohlone".
All of this focus on Café Ohlone may make you want to visit them. They are located at 2423 Bancroft Way, right down the street from the ARF. Although the cafe is temporarily closed to reduce the spread of COVID-19, you can still support them by making a donation or buying a gift card to use for a future visit.
Finally, learn about basketmaking from Ohlone Basket Weaver - Linda Yamane in a 6-minute video.
Check out this short video by KQED TrulyCA: In the Land of My Ancestors, with Ohlone elder Anne Marie Sayer
About: In the Land of My Ancestors celebrates the legacy of beloved Ohlone elder Ann-Marie Sayers. Sayers has devoted her life to preserving the stories and culture of her Indigenous ancestors. This documentary challenges viewers to consider the perilous impact of colonization on the Ohlone people in the Bay Area. It also follows Sayers as she provides a refuge in the sacred Indian Canyon for Indigenous people to reclaim their culture, spirituality, and heritage.
Beyond Recognition is a 24-minute video telling "the inspiring story of women creating opportunities amid a system that fractures Native communities across the nation."
See the trailer at the link above and follow links to view the film from there. You can also view it on Kanopy with your public library membership.
Here is a short clip for the film Shellmound, which "examines the decisions made during the recent toxic cleanup, excavation, and construction of the Bay Street mall through the eyes of the city of Emeryville, the developer, the archaeologists, and the native Californians who worked on the site." While the film itself is not available for free viewing, you can read more about the West Berkeley Shellmound at SacredLand.org, which also contains links to many other resources on this topic, including Our Story Lives Forever, a film released this year documenting a 2018 event in which artifacts from the West Berkeley Shellmound and Emeryville Shellmound were removed from storage at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum and, for the first time ever, shown to the general public at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive.
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