Yokuts Trade Networks and Native Culture Change in Central and Eastern California

Unpacking the Bead: Exploring a Glass Bead Assemblage from Mission Santa Cruz, California, Using LA–ICP–MS

“…It also appears to be the case that white beads were most likely first brought to Mission Santa Cruz by Ohlone peoples who acquired them before 1800. This interpretation is partly supported by twentieth-century ethnographic descriptions of Yokuts peoples, who accorded special value to blue faceted and polychrome (red-on-white and red-on-green) glass beads rather than white beads (see Arkush 1993:625). Future work on the other bead types analyzed with LA-ICP-MS could advance this argument and utilize previous typological (Francis 1988) and chemical work (Billeck 2008).…”

“…Were they Indigenous Ohlone peoples who, by 1791, when Mission Santa Cruz was founded, carried firsthand knowledge of the devastation wrought by missions and also expertise in accommodating missions as sources of beads and other resources for their persistent economies (Panich 2014; Panich and Schneider 2015)? Or, does the Lost Adobe represent one node in a far-reaching Yokuts network that took shape beginning in the early 1800s and eventually transected the modern state of California from the Pacific Coast to the Sierra Nevada mountains and beyond (Arkush 1993; Rizzo 2016)?…”

“…Of these, more than three-quarters were removed from interior rooms of the mission adobe, presumably occupied by Native families (Allen 1992, 1998:70). Glass beads were also conveyed—often with shell ( Olivella and clam) beads—to near and distant communities (e.g., Arkush 1993; Gamble and Zepeda 2002; Hull 2009:207–208; Panich and Schneider 2015).…”

Expanding mission archaeology: A landscape approach to indigenous autonomy in colonial California

“…These groups integrated the horse into their economic repertoire (Fig. 5), which quickly expanded to include frequent raiding of coastal missions and other colonial establishments (Arkush, 1993;Phillips, 1993). Fearing that the region would become another ''Apachería'' where mounted native raiders could flourish outside of colonial control, many Franciscans advocated for the founding of additional missions in San Joaquin Valley (Cutter, 1995:171;Hackel, 2005:338-339).…”

“…Second, different types of shell beads produced in distant coastal regions also circulated throughout California's vast interior during the mission period. The large quantity of historic-era beads (both glass and shell) in the Central Valley suggests that Yokuts raiders and traders served to convey diverse materials along the length of their valley homelands and back and forth across the colonial frontier (Arkush, 1993).…”