The First Californians

Use of Mussel Casts from Archaeological Sites as Paleoecological Indicators: An Example from CA-MRN-254, Marin County, Alta California

“…Studies by ASC archaeologist Suzanne Stewart indicate that the mounds were not identified until a bayshore survey and excavations were conducted between 1906and 1910by N. C. Nelson (Nelson 1907, 1909, 1910Slaymaker 1971a). This was followed a few decades later by a site investigation and excavation between 1955 and 1958 by Adan Treganza of California State University, San Francisco, that was part of a program to identify the A.D. 1579 landing place of Sir Francis Drake (Moratto 1984;Treganza 1955Treganza , 1958. Treganza's trench was situated southwest of the upper mound ( Figure 3; Bieling 1998).…”

“…This program was in response to a development plan proposal to build a 2 Mary McGann et al gymnasium and parking lot in the vicinity of this prehistoric shellmound. Previous excavations at the site reported that it had been inhabited by the Coast Miwok (Moratto 1984;Nelson 1910;Slaymaker 1971aSlaymaker , 1971bTreganza 1958), who followed a subsistence cycle geared towards the pursuit of seasonally available resources such as acorns, seeds, nuts, salmon, and migratory birds (Barrett 1908;Kelly 1978;Kroeber 1925). Other foods were available yearround, including deer, rabbit, small game, crabs, some fish, and various shellfish.…”

Gains in relative cortical area during growth and their relationship to nutrition, body size, and physical activity

“…California Amerindians in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river valleys subsisted by fishing, intensive acorn exploitation, and hunting for deer, elk, and antelope. Their counterparts near the San Francisco Bay relied on similar resources supplemented with shellfish collection (Moratto, 1984). Indian Knoll is an Archaic Period shell-midden site located on the Green River in Kentucky.…”

An Ethnobiological Approach to Reconstructing Indigenous Fire Regimes in the Foothill Chaparral of the Western Sierra Nevada

“…When missionary Pedro Font first spotted and recorded the Sierra Nevada in his diary on April 2, 1772, there were approximately nine ethno-linguistic groups living in the foothills of the western Sierra Nevada: 1) the Mountain Maidu; 2) the Konkow; 3) the Nisenan; 4) the Northern Miwok; 5) the Central Miwok; 6) the Southern Sierra Miwok; 7) the Foothill Yokuts; 8) the Western Mono; and 9) the Tubatulabal (Figure 1). The ancestors of at least some of these Native people had been living in the western Sierra Nevada foothills since the early Holocene (Moratto 1984;Moratto et al 1988;Rosenthal 2011;Rosenthal and Meyer 2004), moving to higher elevations seasonally (e.g., Davis and Shutler 1969;McGuire et al 2008;Peak and Neuenschwander 1991). Archaeological evidence for Native occupation beginning perhaps 5000 years ago is ubiquitous from the foothills to the subalpine forests, suggesting that the Sierra Nevada was widely settled (Moratto 1984;Rosenthal 2011Rosenthal , 2012.…”

“…The ancestors of at least some of these Native people had been living in the western Sierra Nevada foothills since the early Holocene (Moratto 1984;Moratto et al 1988;Rosenthal 2011;Rosenthal and Meyer 2004), moving to higher elevations seasonally (e.g., Davis and Shutler 1969;McGuire et al 2008;Peak and Neuenschwander 1991). Archaeological evidence for Native occupation beginning perhaps 5000 years ago is ubiquitous from the foothills to the subalpine forests, suggesting that the Sierra Nevada was widely settled (Moratto 1984;Rosenthal 2011Rosenthal , 2012. In most parts of this region, archaeological residues dating back as much as 500 to 600 years ago closely resemble the material culture of Native groups occupying this region at historic contact.…”