An Ethnohistory of Native American Land and Resource Use at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

Project ID: P15AC01754

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Partner Institution: Portland State University

Fiscal Year: 2015

Initial Funding: $95,331

Total Funding: $95,331

Project Type: Research

Project Disciplines: Cultural

National Park: Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

Principal Investigator: Deur, Doug

Agreement Technical Representative: Denniston, Sean

Abstract: This project is a collaborative effort to conduct research and develop an ethnohistory of the Native American communities associated with Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (WHIS), with particular attention to how they have valued lands and resources now managed by the National Park Service. Pnor studies, as well as the accounts of modem tribal members, suggest that the lands and resources of the Whiskeytown area were occupied, used, managed, and valued by Native Americans prior to Euro-American settlement in northern California. Following t1h9 century non-native settlement, the area was transformed by Euro-American settlers with logging, mining, and ranching interests, as well as changes in tribal culture, belief, and economy. The current study will identify and fill gaps in the existing documentation of Native American land and resource use patterns as they existed and changed over the span of the 19 and 120h centuries, and will involve archival research and the input of tribal members, Objectives include the development of a detailed research prospectus based on a review of existing literatures, producing an archive of materials addressing study themes, and producing an ethnohistory report that addresses dynamic relationships between WHIS and traditionally associated groups as well as systematically evaluating the cultural functions of sites and resources associated with that history.