SUMMER FIELD PROGRAM: KASHAYA POMO INTERPRETIVE TRAIL
A
field school program at the Fort Ross State Historic Park from May 31 to June
25, 2004 will explore the feasibility of creating an interpretive trail
detailing the culture history of the Kashaya Pomo tribe and their encounters
with European and American colonists. The
proposed trail will be designed to complement and expand the Guided Walk
currently being developed in the park. The
trail will take park visitors beyond the Fort Ross stockade walls to view the
spectacular cultural landscape of the Kashaya Pomo.
By emphasizing a flow of history, the proposed trail will feature the
rich archaeological record of Kashaya
Pomo prehistory and allow visitors to walk in the hinterland of the Russian
colony to view the places where the Kashaya Pomo, Native Alaskans, Creoles, and
working-class Russians lived and labored.
Participants
in the summer field program will include archaeologists, interpretive
specialists, and native scholars from California State Parks, the Kashaya Pomo
tribe, Caltrans, San Francisco State University, and UC Berkeley.
Graduate and undergraduate students from the Anthropology Department at
UC Berkeley will also participate. The
program is funded, in part, by grants from the California Council for the
Humanities, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, and Pacific Legacy.
The
goals of the summer work are threefold. The
first is to examine various issues involving the interpretation of
archaeological remains in the state park. How
can the archaeological materials be interpreted to the public and also
protected? What are the most
effective mediums (panels, posts and pamphlets, web sites, etc.) for presenting
information to the public? How
difficult and costly will it be to construct and maintain a trail system? Finally, what are some of the challenges of presenting
alternative perspectives of colonial history derived from native oral
traditions, archaeology, and historical documents.
The
second goal is to undertake limited archaeological investigations of several
critical sites that may be included in the interpretive trail program.
The plan is to carefully craft the route of the trail to view pertinent
archaeological sites, but to minimize adverse impacts by
keeping the trail outside site boundaries.
The
final goal is to interview Kashaya Pomo elders and tribal scholars about their
culture history and specifically about their families’ experiences and
interactions with Russian, Mexican, and Anglo-American colonists over the last
two centuries. Outside of Robert
Oswalt’s pioneering work in the 1950s, few of these stories have been recorded
and transcribed. Our goal is to
integrate and weave Kashaya Pomo stories into the interpretation of
archaeological sites and places along the trail system. This component of the
project will be directed by Otis Parrish.
The
public and FRIA members are invited to participate in the field program.
Specifically, we will sponsor “Public Archaeology Days” at the Fort
Ross State Historic Park, which will consist of free guided tours of
archaeological sites along the proposed trail system.
The proposed schedule of tours during the Public Archaeology Days are:
June 9
(Wed)
Tours at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
June 11 (Friday)
Tours at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
June 16 (Wed)
Tours at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30
p.m.
June 18 (Friday)
Tours at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
June 23 (Wed.)
Tours at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
June 25 (Friday)
Tour at 10:30
a.m.
In
addition, the summer field school program will sponsor a lecture series at the
Visitors Center in the Fort Ross State Historic Park.
Public presentations will be delivered about the proposed interpretive
trail, new developments in the creation of outdoor museums and interpretive
programs, and new findings on the archaeology of the Kashaya Pomo and their
encounters with European and American colonists.
KASHAYA POMO INTERPRETATIVE TRAIL LECTURE SERIES
Lectures
Held at the Fort Ross Visitors Center at 7:00 pm
All Lectures are free and open to the public
June
1
Katherine Dowdall, Associate
Archaeologist, State of California, Dept. of Transportation.
“An Archaeology of Ancestral Kashaya Landscapes”
June
3
Edward Luby, Museum Studies Program, San Francisco State University.
“Outdoor Museums: The Current Trends”
June
8
Kent Lightfoot, Dept. of Anthropology, UC Berkeley.
“An Introduction to the Kashaya Pomo Interpretive Trail Project”
June
10
Breck
Parkman, California State Parks
“Interpreting Fort Ross as a Global Village”
June
15
Otis Parrish, Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley.
June
17
Glenn Farris, California State Parks
“Interpreting Historical Events at Fort Ross using
Kashaya Stories
as EthNographic Literature”
June
22
Melissa Nelson, Native American Dept., San Francisco State University.
“Native Ecology -- Revitalizing Storyscapes Through
Environmental Restoration and Language Preservation”
June
24
Roundtable Discussion: The Kashaya Pomo Interpretive Trail.