1901: UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology founded
The Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley, opened on September 10, 1901, with three faculty members and a secretary. The idea to establish the department stemmed from the desire of three founders. University Regent and principal patron Phoebe Hearst wanted to create a museum that could house the antiquities she had gathered in Europe; world-renowned anthropologist Franz Boas wanted to document the ethnography of the American West; and Zelia Nuttall, famous for her research in ancient codices, wanted to combine their desires into a coherent vision. The department’s first professor was Alfred L. Kroeber, whose research on California Indian cultures would long shape how anthropology as a field viewed California Indians. Kroeber’s essentialist ideas meant that he understood as authentic only those native identities that had remained relatively unchanged by colonial contact. Which tribes the US government negotiated treaties with early in the twentieth century was heavily influenced by Kroeber and his colleagues’ beliefs. The presence or absence of treaties has had long-term consequences, as those peoples who Kroeber and his colleagues deemed no longer “truly” Indian are struggling to gain federal recognition today.
1902: American Anthropological Association founded
The American Anthropological Association was founded by Franz Boas to unify scholars working in the field.
1906: American Antiquities Act passed
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/legal/american-antiquities-act-of-1906.htm
1906: Congress purchases lands for non-reservation California Indians
The Northern California Indian Association was formed as a division of the Women's National Indian Association, a California missionary organization. Under the direction of C.E. Kelsey, a survey project to document the non-reservation Indians populating Northern California was launched. A larger number of Indians than expected were revealed, so the federal government allocated $150,000 to establish land holdings for the overlooked tribes. This initiative largely excluded the Indian groups of Southern California due to the work of early anthropologists, like Alfred Kroeber, who held focus on the northern part of the state.
1907–1950s: J. P. Harrington conducts ethnographic research in California
As a field ethnologist for the Bureau of American Ethnology for four decades, John Peabody Harrington interviewed many Native Californian people, gathering rich oral histories and documenting (and audio recording) endangered languages. Among the many recordings Harrington gathered is that of a Chumash man who had learned the Toki Toki Song as a child; the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island sang this when she arrived in Santa Barbara in 1853, more than a half century earlier. J. P. Harrington’s ethnographic interview notes include a number of Chumash and Gabrielino people talking about on the Lone Woman.
1911: Ishi becomes media sensation
A native Yahi man walked into Oroville, California, in 1911, following the devastation of his community at the hands of white settlers. Ishi had struggled to sustain himself alone for a period of years before walking into Oroville near starvation. Initially jailed, he was removed by University of California anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Thomas Waterman, who recognized him as Yahi and gave him the name “Ishi,” the word for ‘man’ in his language. Ishi became a kind of living museum exhibit/specimen at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He died of tuberculosis in 1916.
1924: Indian Citizenship Act passed
The Indian Citizenship Act granted US citizenship to all indigenous peoples born within US territories. The bill was part of larger strategies of assimilation begun with the General Allotment Act of 1887. It was also a natural outgrowth of native people’s military service during World War I. Prior to 1924, Indian citizenship was granted piecemeal, with some indigenous peoples gaining it through marriage, military service, or assimilation. Even after passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, native people remained barred from full expression of those rights, including voting, in some states.
1925: Handbook of the Indians of California published
Handbook of the Indians of California, Alfred Kroeber's comprehensive volume of ethnography, is published. Organized by tribe, the book discusses the culture and practices of numerous peoples. A section on the San Nicoleño Indians is included in a larger chapter on the Gabrieliño.
1928: DAR plaque honoring George Nidever and Lone Woman dedicated
On February 27, 1928, the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) unveiled a plaque commemorating the life and death of the California Indian now commonly known as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island; the plaque was dedicated at Mission Santa Barbara nearly 75 years after her death in 1853. The DAR is an organization of women who are direct descendants of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution; membership was historically coveted for its exclusivity and, until recent years, was entirely white. The DAR plaque at Mission Santa Barbara reads, “Juana Maria / Indian Woman abandoned on / San Nicolas Island eighteen years / found and brought to / Santa Barbara / by / Capt. George Nidever / in 1853...” The plaque calls the Lone Woman Juana María, her baptismal name. As its language indicates, the DAR wanted to celebrate Nidever’s act of bringing the Lone Woman from San Nicolas Island to Santa Barbara as much as it wanted to commemorate the Lone Woman’s death.
1947: American Anthropological Association issues statement on human rights
The American Anthropological Association submitted to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights a statement rejecting ethnocentrism. The report, published in American Anthropologist, makes clear that the human rights of the people anthropologists study take precedence over any academic interests of the researchers.
1948: Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California established
University of California anthropologist Frederic Putnam conducted the Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California. This survey emphasized the study of traditional customs rather than contemporary native practices forged as a result of contact and exchange with Europeans. This research bias, then standard in the field, led to disinterest in the study of Mission Indian groups.
1953: Termination Era begins
Passage of the House Concurrent Resolution 108 launched a period of termination, abolishing the guardian-ward relationship that previously defined interactions between indigenous tribes and the federal government. The Bureau of Indian Affairs withdrew all state services and a number of Indian reservations across the United States were closed, their tribal governments dismantled. The 1950s and 60s saw the migration of native peoples to urban settings, where job training and housing assistance was provided to encourage assimilation. The Era of Termination continued until 1968, when federal Indian policy shifted again.
1957: Scott O’Dell publishes Country of the Sun, Southern California: An Informal History and Guide
Scott O’Dell published Country of the Sun, Southern California: An Informal History and Guide while working as an editor for the Los Angeles Daily News. This travel guide included a brief synopsis of the captivating tale of the “Lone Woman” of San Nicolas Island. O’Dell later developed this brief retelling into a full-length children’s book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1960. Scott O’Dell was born and raised in Southern California.
1960: Island of the Blue Dolphins published
Scott O'Dell wrote his first children's book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, which went on to win the Newbery Medal.
1961: Ishi in the Two Worlds published
Theodora Kroeber published Ishi in the Two Worlds, a biography of “the last Yahi Indian.” The wife of Alfred Kroeber, the author knew Ishi intimately. Her book has sold more than one million copies.
1964: Island of the Blue Dolphins film released
On September 10, 1964, Universal Studios' film Island of the Blue Dolphins premiered. Produced by Robert B. Radnitz, the feature starred Celia Kaye and numerous animals, most notably her dog Rontu, trained by Frank Weatherwax, the well-known animal trainer in Lassie Come Home. Kashaya Pomo people serve as extras, playing, for example, the people of Karana’s community. The 93-minute film adheres fairly closely to Scott O’Dell’s novel, telling the story of the Lone Woman’s years alone on San Nicolas Island. In O’Dell’s novel and in historical reality, however, the Lone Woman and her people were Gabrielino whereas in the film they are presented as Chumash. Moreover, while the producer incorporated historically accurate details, he shot the film 500 miles north of the southern Channel Islands that comprise the Island Gabrielinos’ homeland. Island of the Blue Dolphins was marketed as a family film but box office reviewers deemed it better for children than adults. Despite demand for a modern remake, Universal has not relinquished the rights, nor has it released the film on DVD.
1968: American Indian Movement (AIM) established
The American Indian Movement was founded in Minneapolis in 1968 as a pan-Indian organization seeking to promote solidarity among all indigenous peoples and advocate for native rights. The group, which emerged as part of the larger mid-century Civil Rights Movement, tackled a range of issues (e.g., revitalization of culture, sovereignty, economic independence, police brutality). Its form of protest, for example, the occupation of federal lands at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, match those of contemporaneous Red Power organizations. The AIM is still active today.
1968: Indian Civil Rights Act signed
The Indian Civil Rights Act granted individual American Indians most of the guarantees in the US Bill of Rights with the understanding that the federal government would not intervene in the decisions of tribal governments. The 1968 act coincided with and ushered in new federal Indian policy that sought to uphold tribal self-determination.
1969: Custer Died for Your Sins published
While in law school at the University of Colorado, Vine Deloria, Jr. published Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. A collection of essays that analyzes mainstream American society through a native lens, the book became a bestseller. Deloria went on to become an important intellectual voice of the 1960s and beyond. Among Deloria’s many critiques was that anthropologists who engaged in the academic study of indigenous peoples did nothing to practically benefit the communities they studied.
1969: Occupation of Alcatraz Island takes place
http://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/we-hold-the-rock.htm
1971: American Indian Movement occupies Southwest Museum in LA
The American Indian Movement occupied the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, drawing attention to ancestral remains held in its collections. The Southwest Museum contains numerous artifacts and ethnographic objects from San Nicolas Island.
1972: Indian Education Act passed
In 1972, the Indian Education Act was passed. The federal government recognized, with this law, the "unique needs" of native students and formatted a plan to meet them. This included the creation of the Office of Indian Education and the National Advisory Council on Indian Education, as well as the establishment of a grant program for indigenous schools.
1989: Scott O'Dell dies
Scott O’Dell died at the age of 91 on October 15, 1989, in Mount Kisco, NY. He had written twenty-six books for children, as well as five for adults. O’Dell is best known for his Newbery Medal children’s novel Island of the Blue Dolphins, but the last book he wrote before his death was My Name Is Not Angelica, about an 18th-century slave revolt in the West Indies.
1990: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) signed
https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/laws/nagpra.htm
The Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley, opened on September 10, 1901, with three faculty members and a secretary. The idea to establish the department stemmed from the desire of three founders. University Regent and principal patron Phoebe Hearst wanted to create a museum that could house the antiquities she had gathered in Europe; world-renowned anthropologist Franz Boas wanted to document the ethnography of the American West; and Zelia Nuttall, famous for her research in ancient codices, wanted to combine their desires into a coherent vision. The department’s first professor was Alfred L. Kroeber, whose research on California Indian cultures would long shape how anthropology as a field viewed California Indians. Kroeber’s essentialist ideas meant that he understood as authentic only those native identities that had remained relatively unchanged by colonial contact. Which tribes the US government negotiated treaties with early in the twentieth century was heavily influenced by Kroeber and his colleagues’ beliefs. The presence or absence of treaties has had long-term consequences, as those peoples who Kroeber and his colleagues deemed no longer “truly” Indian are struggling to gain federal recognition today.
1902: American Anthropological Association founded
The American Anthropological Association was founded by Franz Boas to unify scholars working in the field.
1906: American Antiquities Act passed
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/legal/american-antiquities-act-of-1906.htm
1906: Congress purchases lands for non-reservation California Indians
The Northern California Indian Association was formed as a division of the Women's National Indian Association, a California missionary organization. Under the direction of C.E. Kelsey, a survey project to document the non-reservation Indians populating Northern California was launched. A larger number of Indians than expected were revealed, so the federal government allocated $150,000 to establish land holdings for the overlooked tribes. This initiative largely excluded the Indian groups of Southern California due to the work of early anthropologists, like Alfred Kroeber, who held focus on the northern part of the state.
1907–1950s: J. P. Harrington conducts ethnographic research in California
As a field ethnologist for the Bureau of American Ethnology for four decades, John Peabody Harrington interviewed many Native Californian people, gathering rich oral histories and documenting (and audio recording) endangered languages. Among the many recordings Harrington gathered is that of a Chumash man who had learned the Toki Toki Song as a child; the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island sang this when she arrived in Santa Barbara in 1853, more than a half century earlier. J. P. Harrington’s ethnographic interview notes include a number of Chumash and Gabrielino people talking about on the Lone Woman.
1911: Ishi becomes media sensation
A native Yahi man walked into Oroville, California, in 1911, following the devastation of his community at the hands of white settlers. Ishi had struggled to sustain himself alone for a period of years before walking into Oroville near starvation. Initially jailed, he was removed by University of California anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Thomas Waterman, who recognized him as Yahi and gave him the name “Ishi,” the word for ‘man’ in his language. Ishi became a kind of living museum exhibit/specimen at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He died of tuberculosis in 1916.
1924: Indian Citizenship Act passed
The Indian Citizenship Act granted US citizenship to all indigenous peoples born within US territories. The bill was part of larger strategies of assimilation begun with the General Allotment Act of 1887. It was also a natural outgrowth of native people’s military service during World War I. Prior to 1924, Indian citizenship was granted piecemeal, with some indigenous peoples gaining it through marriage, military service, or assimilation. Even after passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, native people remained barred from full expression of those rights, including voting, in some states.
1925: Handbook of the Indians of California published
Handbook of the Indians of California, Alfred Kroeber's comprehensive volume of ethnography, is published. Organized by tribe, the book discusses the culture and practices of numerous peoples. A section on the San Nicoleño Indians is included in a larger chapter on the Gabrieliño.
1928: DAR plaque honoring George Nidever and Lone Woman dedicated
On February 27, 1928, the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) unveiled a plaque commemorating the life and death of the California Indian now commonly known as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island; the plaque was dedicated at Mission Santa Barbara nearly 75 years after her death in 1853. The DAR is an organization of women who are direct descendants of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution; membership was historically coveted for its exclusivity and, until recent years, was entirely white. The DAR plaque at Mission Santa Barbara reads, “Juana Maria / Indian Woman abandoned on / San Nicolas Island eighteen years / found and brought to / Santa Barbara / by / Capt. George Nidever / in 1853...” The plaque calls the Lone Woman Juana María, her baptismal name. As its language indicates, the DAR wanted to celebrate Nidever’s act of bringing the Lone Woman from San Nicolas Island to Santa Barbara as much as it wanted to commemorate the Lone Woman’s death.
1947: American Anthropological Association issues statement on human rights
The American Anthropological Association submitted to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights a statement rejecting ethnocentrism. The report, published in American Anthropologist, makes clear that the human rights of the people anthropologists study take precedence over any academic interests of the researchers.
1948: Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California established
University of California anthropologist Frederic Putnam conducted the Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California. This survey emphasized the study of traditional customs rather than contemporary native practices forged as a result of contact and exchange with Europeans. This research bias, then standard in the field, led to disinterest in the study of Mission Indian groups.
1953: Termination Era begins
Passage of the House Concurrent Resolution 108 launched a period of termination, abolishing the guardian-ward relationship that previously defined interactions between indigenous tribes and the federal government. The Bureau of Indian Affairs withdrew all state services and a number of Indian reservations across the United States were closed, their tribal governments dismantled. The 1950s and 60s saw the migration of native peoples to urban settings, where job training and housing assistance was provided to encourage assimilation. The Era of Termination continued until 1968, when federal Indian policy shifted again.
1957: Scott O’Dell publishes Country of the Sun, Southern California: An Informal History and Guide
Scott O’Dell published Country of the Sun, Southern California: An Informal History and Guide while working as an editor for the Los Angeles Daily News. This travel guide included a brief synopsis of the captivating tale of the “Lone Woman” of San Nicolas Island. O’Dell later developed this brief retelling into a full-length children’s book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1960. Scott O’Dell was born and raised in Southern California.
1960: Island of the Blue Dolphins published
Scott O'Dell wrote his first children's book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, which went on to win the Newbery Medal.
1961: Ishi in the Two Worlds published
Theodora Kroeber published Ishi in the Two Worlds, a biography of “the last Yahi Indian.” The wife of Alfred Kroeber, the author knew Ishi intimately. Her book has sold more than one million copies.
1964: Island of the Blue Dolphins film released
On September 10, 1964, Universal Studios' film Island of the Blue Dolphins premiered. Produced by Robert B. Radnitz, the feature starred Celia Kaye and numerous animals, most notably her dog Rontu, trained by Frank Weatherwax, the well-known animal trainer in Lassie Come Home. Kashaya Pomo people serve as extras, playing, for example, the people of Karana’s community. The 93-minute film adheres fairly closely to Scott O’Dell’s novel, telling the story of the Lone Woman’s years alone on San Nicolas Island. In O’Dell’s novel and in historical reality, however, the Lone Woman and her people were Gabrielino whereas in the film they are presented as Chumash. Moreover, while the producer incorporated historically accurate details, he shot the film 500 miles north of the southern Channel Islands that comprise the Island Gabrielinos’ homeland. Island of the Blue Dolphins was marketed as a family film but box office reviewers deemed it better for children than adults. Despite demand for a modern remake, Universal has not relinquished the rights, nor has it released the film on DVD.
1968: American Indian Movement (AIM) established
The American Indian Movement was founded in Minneapolis in 1968 as a pan-Indian organization seeking to promote solidarity among all indigenous peoples and advocate for native rights. The group, which emerged as part of the larger mid-century Civil Rights Movement, tackled a range of issues (e.g., revitalization of culture, sovereignty, economic independence, police brutality). Its form of protest, for example, the occupation of federal lands at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, match those of contemporaneous Red Power organizations. The AIM is still active today.
1968: Indian Civil Rights Act signed
The Indian Civil Rights Act granted individual American Indians most of the guarantees in the US Bill of Rights with the understanding that the federal government would not intervene in the decisions of tribal governments. The 1968 act coincided with and ushered in new federal Indian policy that sought to uphold tribal self-determination.
1969: Custer Died for Your Sins published
While in law school at the University of Colorado, Vine Deloria, Jr. published Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. A collection of essays that analyzes mainstream American society through a native lens, the book became a bestseller. Deloria went on to become an important intellectual voice of the 1960s and beyond. Among Deloria’s many critiques was that anthropologists who engaged in the academic study of indigenous peoples did nothing to practically benefit the communities they studied.
1969: Occupation of Alcatraz Island takes place
http://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/we-hold-the-rock.htm
1971: American Indian Movement occupies Southwest Museum in LA
The American Indian Movement occupied the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, drawing attention to ancestral remains held in its collections. The Southwest Museum contains numerous artifacts and ethnographic objects from San Nicolas Island.
1972: Indian Education Act passed
In 1972, the Indian Education Act was passed. The federal government recognized, with this law, the "unique needs" of native students and formatted a plan to meet them. This included the creation of the Office of Indian Education and the National Advisory Council on Indian Education, as well as the establishment of a grant program for indigenous schools.
1989: Scott O'Dell dies
Scott O’Dell died at the age of 91 on October 15, 1989, in Mount Kisco, NY. He had written twenty-six books for children, as well as five for adults. O’Dell is best known for his Newbery Medal children’s novel Island of the Blue Dolphins, but the last book he wrote before his death was My Name Is Not Angelica, about an 18th-century slave revolt in the West Indies.
1990: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) signed
https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/laws/nagpra.htm
Last updated: November 17, 2018