California Cultural Landscapes
More than just a beautiful landscape: Field School students learn to attend to the complexities of landscape both as places with geological and ecological characteristics that shape human use, and as cultural constructions which are themselves framed by and altered through human interpretation and activity. Detailed exploration of chosen landscapes allows better understanding of the processes involved. The essence of the field school is experiential learning. In a field school the role of social memory, individual experience and cultural politics in determining land use and landscape interpret can be explored most directly through a focused project. In the 2003 field school this was the creation of a documentary film which would attempt to capture a sense of this developing understanding.. Here Glamorgan students are looking out over the land of a private preserve towards the public lands beyond. They have just been part of a discussion of local land stewardship issues and the history and environmental and cultural heritage of this landscape.
Twelve action packed days of camping and exploration in some less known corners of California have just come to an end and now the period of reflection, write up and tall tale telling begins. We were out to look at contested cultural landscapes. Areas with active fault lines in cultural, political and economic terms, All are clustered around the peripheries of urban growth in southern California. The 23 staff and students were warmly welcomed by local people while buffeted by a full range of the weather conditions which California can provide in the spring. From blizzards and sandstorms to torrential downpours and sunshine, the group sampled all weathers with sociological rigour while maintaining productivity in both field work and campfire management.
The field school was organized and directed by Dr. Teri Brewer from the University o f Glamorgan. Dr. .Felicia Hughes-Freeland from Swansea University acted as assistant director. Glamorgan’s Reader in Sociology Dr. Susan Hutson, accompanied by her husband, retired anthropologist John Hutson helped escort the group. Adjunct faculty member and postgraduate student David Robinson of Cambridge University accompanied us and assisted with teaching during the second part of the field school. Twelve Glamorgan students, both undergraduate and postgraduate were joined by six Swansea undergraduates to complete the group.
We were also out to learn something about the articulations of environment and ideology, of how cultural politics of place play out on the ground and how decisions about emphasis in cultural interpretation are made by agencies and individuals who have responsibility for re- presenting the culture of place. Representation can be for a variety of purposes, both educational and political of course, and local background is needed to understand how these fit together. We had some background before arriving and quickly developed more as we travelled. We were able to substantiate or disprove our initial impressions and begin to see patterns appearing as we looked at these issues in several adjoining landscapes. Our core project revolved around the production of an ethnographic film which would reflect what we found. In addition individual students had their own special interests which were also being researched alongside the main project. These interests ranged widely and included such topics as the comparative exploration of private and public rental housing, the social consequences of living in a fire adapted ecology, the revival of tradition, and problems in historical and cultural interpretation or issues in contemporary Native American politics.
Our campsite during four days at Sycamore Canyon in Pt Mugu State Park. This was the site of our initial film training as well as of an interesting experiment in campground ethnography thanks to camp neighbors such as Buck, Victoria, Jesus and others.
This field school was designed as a road trip, but we used three base camps; Sycamore Canyon at Pt Mugu State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, Saddleback Butte State Park in the Antelope Valley and finally the Wind Wolves Reserve in the San Emigdio Canyon which opens onto the floor of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Previous field schools have been on fixed sites, but our subject lent itself to this approach and although it made the logistics a little complex, the moves allowed us to take ideas and interpretive themes across several different landscapes successfully. Training in techniques of visual anthropology during the trip was handled by Felicia Hughes-Freeland who organized a really memorable workshop and a set of skill building exercises which got the whole group producing very acceptable documentary footage within a few days..
To give a sense of the field school, a short outline of some of the experiences we had:
Santa Monica Mountains – now designated as a National Recreational Area, the Santa Monica Mountains include wild and settled lands, threatened plant and animal communities, areas of archaeological and historical importance, a fire adapted ecology and a popular get away destination for camping, hiking, mountain biking, surfing and other activities both social and anti social. They abut a densely populated urban area with more than 10 million inhabitants and the SMNRSA is developing use plans to encourage a more broadly based demographics of use. We gathered information from the head of Interpretation for the National Park Service regional office, from National and State Park rangers, a traditional healer from the local Indian tribe and a variety of park users who talked to us about how they see the local lands
National Park Service Ranger Jack Gilhooly shares his knowledge of history and ecology at Satwiwa Native American Cultural Center in SMNRA.
Antelope Valley- ancient trade routes, prehistoric hunting grounds, hopeful farming community, failed utopia, aerospace industry focal point and Hollywood back lot, as well as carrier of the great California Aqueduct. Where to start in Antelope Valley? At Piute Butte with the Antelope Valley Indian Museum. After starting with a behind the scenes tour of the museum and discussion of changing styles in interpretation we looked at the surrounding area for several days. We then organized a focused community seminar around the presentation of aspects of Native American and local culture at the Antelope Valley Indian Museum. AVIM Curator Edra Moore and Cindy Alvitre, Gabrieleno/Tongva tribal member and postgraduate student in Folklore Studies at UCLA joined Teri Brewer in making the opening presentation for the seminar. Field school students and members of the audience then did a reading of a scene from a 1934 pageant written by museum founder Howard Arden Edwards to provoke conversation before breaking our audience up into focus groups under the direction of Susan Hutson for further . The whole occasion was recorded on videotape by our student film makers for further analysis in the post field period.
The seminar was attended by more than 50 members of the local community . Our participants were of all ages and backgrounds and we were also joined by 7 people from the broader Native American community in southern California. Our seminar encouraged a dialogue within the local community which is reported to have continued constructively since we left. It also became the basis of planning for new exhibitions to be developed at the museum as well as provoking some planned further events within the Native American community using the model we developed.
A focus group in progress during the community seminar in Lancaster on April 5, 2003. Two field school students are recording the discussion of local residents sitting around them. Glamorgan postgraduate student Donna Waite (front right) helps guide the discussion.
Tehachapi , the Carrizo Plain and the Southern San Joaquin- We had the privilege of visiting Tomo Kahni- a limited access historic landscape- the former “winter home” and refuge of the Kawaiisu/ Nuuah people of the Tehachapi area now under the care of the California State Park System. The hike into the hidden landscape of Tomo Kahni was made memorable both by the enthusiastic and learned cultural interpretations of our guides State Park Ranger Randy Burt, and Tehachapi Museum volunteers Jerry and Robert, but also by the snow storm which began as we left the great rockshelter and ancient pictographs, the mountain lion tracks and the spring wildfowers to seek shelter, hot coffee and cinnamon rolls while watching the freight trains whistling and rumbling through town back in Tehachapi. This whole area is very interesting and could well form the subject of a field school on its own.
Snow clouds moving towards Tomo Kahni, site of the field school’s most popular hike.
Painted Rock, a spectacular Chumash and Yokuts Indian rock art site in the Carrizo Plain has been suggested for World Heritage Site status and has been the subject of experimental conservation measures by an international team under the auspices of the Getty Museum. Sadly today the site records the result of two centuries of vandalism as much as it reflects the original and continuing use of this site as a sacred place by Native Americans. Painted Rock is the best known cultural heritage site in the Carrizo Plain, but with the recent acquisition of National Monument status for the valley other aspects of its history and environmental heritage are now being prepared for presentation to the public. Damage to the great rock art panels of Painted Rock obscure the original fine work. The freight trains of Tehachapi coming round the Tehachapi Loop where a feat of nineteenth cenury engineering is still vital to the movement of freight on a daily basis. Studying each train come through in itself is an economics lesson about California.
Cuyama Valley- ranchers and oilfield workers share the quiet and beautiful little Cuyama valley, something any casual traveller through the valley might notice. Field School students are not casual traveller, however, and were by now prepared for some of the complex underlying issues we found on a day trip through the valley led by David Robinson together with local archaeologist Bonnie Webster and Pam Dorian. owner of Spanish Ranch.
Lamar’s Room (left) is a mini museum based on the personal belongings of a valley pioneer. Today it forms part of the Buckhorn Café, a important local gathering place. Una Harnett (right) introduces Welsh students to her lifelong collection of local artefacts and fossils at the Chumash Room in Cuyama- her private backyard museum.
The politics of land, fire, water and oil, and tales of rebellion and historical resistance to the mission system by local tribes are all part of the story of the Cuyama valley. We heard about the different systems of land tenure and ownership under successive Indian, Spanish, Mexican and American occupation and their present day ramifications of these changes. Archaeological controversy and public and private land management policies and planning, native grass restoration and cattle herd management were some of our topics while enjoying hospitality, the cool of a traditional adobe ranch house and some spectacular views at Spanish Ranch, as well as in the small but astonishing backyard museum of an old Cuyama family.
_______________________________________
Climbing to the top of a hill on Spanish Ranch in the Cuyama valley we were able to compare a copy of the original “diseno”, the Spanish title map, to the landscape today two centuries later . More has changed than meets the eye, as we found in discussion with the rancher, Pam Dorian, who outlined some of these changes and introduced us to the up to date and environmentally conscientious practices that are now being applied to the restoration of the ranch.
Santa Barbara- At the end of the field school we had a short stay in the coastal city of Santa Barbara. We got out from under canvas- dried out and used libraries and museum facilities to finish up background research for the group and individual projects. Santa Barbara was for perspective, for tying things together- decompressing and relaxing but we also had a really excellent session with Dr. John Johnson, curator of Anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. John introduced us to the museum’s collections, the work of the anthropology department and its archives generally and – especially to the John Peabody Harrington Archive which the museum holds. This legendary anthropologist worked in many of the areas we had visited nearly a century ago, and one of the Glamorgan third year students , Katherine Williams, took the opportunity to spend a day immersed in Harrington’s field notes trying to puzzle through a problem she had been working on. Others ranged out to various libraries, botanical gardens and missions . All of us appreciated the availability of mains electricity at last, allowing us to get together and view the rushes from the film project. Field notes came in for a closer look and ideas germinated rapidly, but on Thursday morning April 10 it was time to pack our expedition vehicles one last time and head down the coast to end the field school.
The students scattered to their planes or further plans. The staff split up to explore new territory. Felicia hit another corner of the desert to visit friends but quickly found potential for making a short documentary film next year. Sue and John headed west for new cactus species and a visit to Grand Canyon. David went to excavate a prehistoric cave site. Teri was joined by Glamorgan graduate Liz Coviello, who is now based in California. They retrieved the field school tents at Wind Wolves and dried them on the way to Sacramento for the joint conference of the California Folklore Society and the California American Studies Association .
Field School Participants and friends in front of Antelope Valley Indian Museum : (Front to Back) (photo by Geraint Bundy)
Row 1: Natalie Howland, Katie Tuite Dalton
Row 2: Will Bundy, Arlette Teetsun, Samantha Strong, Emma Owen, Jennifer Venables, Hannah Underwood, Babatunde Sodeke
Row 3: Charlene Keohane, Hannah Sanders, Sarah Persaud, Jennifer Hughes, Amanda O’Hara
Row 4: Liz Coviello (standing) Donna Waite. Sharon Graham, Kathryn Williams, Rhian Powell
Row 5: Dr. Teri Brewer (director)
Row 6: Dr. John Hutson, Dr. Felicia Hughes-Freeland, Griff Taylor, Dr. Susan Hutson
Field School Outcomes
The undergraduates who went have specific papers in preparation based at least in part on the field school project or related research.
A documentary film on the topic of the field school will be produced by TFB and FHF with student editors
Project archives will be added to existing Glamorgan field school archives
Findings paper in MTLSN series (TFB)
Community Seminar in Lancaster California (TFB)
Edited pageant manuscript for Crimson Arrow 1934 (TFB)
Article on H. Arden Edwards (TFB)
Paper at American Folklore Society Meetings 2003 (TFB)
Possible funded exchange for Native American and Welsh students proposed in California
Further collaboration with SMNRA
Further collaboration with Carrizo Plain National Monument
Further collaboration with California State Parks and AVIM
At least two dissertation proposals, several postgraduate projects, possible career directions and other long term outcomes have already been discussed. One prospective Glamorgan postgrad student has found a research topic on this trip
Most of all, the process of thinking through their own cultural landscapes and regional politics of land use in relation to what they learned on the field school was already beginning for most of the participants. Doubtless there will be other outcomes which we cannot anticipate, but as an intermediate goal we would like to propose that we follow this project up by repeating it next year (subject to student interest) perhaps opening it to students from Lampeter , Cardiff and Newport as well.
Field School students Charlene Keohane, Hannah Sanders, Arlette Teetsun and Sarah
Persaud working on field notes in Antelope Valley Indian Museum.
Preliminary Comments and Feedback
“I have to tell you, I have not seen so much enthusiastic and positive response among our volunteers and community members who attended in years. It has actually started a spark… and was given a link by … your’s, Cindi’s, and your students” interaction which gives a whole new perspective for reconciliation of, and interpretive approach to, historic and cultural components here. Now we are enthusiastic about creating wall displays in Joshua Cottage, using our archival photos and documents (including the pageant scripts. I can’t thank you enough, Teri, for your vision, professionalism, and hard work. Everyone here is still talking about how wonderful your visit was, and I feel it is extremely important to consider another session next year. It is so well worth the effort !
-Edra Moore
Curator
Antelope Valley Indian Museum
“Although you can read an account of a people or an area that is written with great style and flair, to actually be there and experience the culture and the landscape brings the issues into sharp focus and is an opportunity not to be missed.”
-Kathryn Williams
(University of Glamorgan)
“Having had a week to think about the wonders of the field school I can now see very clearly what a special experience it was for all of us who took part I feel I have achieved an enormous amount from the trip, not just in cultural knowledge learned en route but also in the personal stakes.
I would like to say how much I appreciate being given the opportunity to participate in such an endeavour and I thank you for your own personal sacrifice and hard work that went into making the trip such a memorable one.”
-Amanda O Hara
(University of Glamorgan graduate)
“I just wanted you to know I had a really good time with the field school and thought it was a great experience for all parties. If it wasn’t for your efforts, these kinds of quality experiences just wouldnt’ happen for the students. Nice job.”
David Robinson
St John’s College
Cambridge
i had a great time on the field trip to California, and i have learnt a lot, thanx very much.
– Arlette Teetsun
University of Glamorgan
“I had a brilliant and interesting time on the field school and THANK YOU very much for putting so much effort into it..”
-Katie Tuite-Dalton
(Swansea University)
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Any field school incurs debts of gratitude both at home during the period of organization and abroad both before and during the field school itself. The debts are particularly deep and wide on this one.
First and foremost of course we thank the people who gave us support at the three universities concerned.
At the University of Glamorgan Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Michael Connolly and Vice Chancellor Sir Adrian Webb, Assistant Heads of School Maggie McNorton and Alan Jones were all instrumental in approving the original concept of this more than usually complex field school . Encouragement and further id eas from Phillip Mitchell, Glenn Jordan, Penny Byrne, Hannah McNorton and John Beynon were much appreciated. Gareth Eaves, Anna Jenkins and Gill Jones helped ease the logistics on this side of the Atlantic.
Dr. Susan Hutson displayed her talent for asking the questions no one else thought of, supported students working on individual projects and developed the methodologies to be used in our community seminar with imagination and skill. Dr. John Hutson was lured from a quiet retirement to add his outdoor skills and knowledge of agricultural anthropology to our toolkit. His enthusiasm for camp life was infectious.
A field school web site has been and put up with the assistance of Peter Wilcox and Alan Williams.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tfbrewer/California/
Support from Swansea University Head of School Professor Michael Sullivan and Head of Sociology and Anthropology Professor Reg Byron made possible the participation of our assistant director Dr. Felicia Hughes-Freeland and the six Swansea students who joined us. Their role is gratefully acknowledged and we hope to expand on the collaboration in the future.
Dr. Felicia Hughes-Freeland put her very considerable talents and energies into planning and directing the visual anthropology project which was central to this field school. She deserves enormous credit for this contribution as well as to her work in California in assisting in all the logistical arrangements and practical issues of field school management. For Felicia the task does not end here- for editing of the field school video will take place over the next few months.
We had substantial support from CSAP the subject center for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics which is part of the NTLSN and it was under the encouragement of David Mills, subject coordinator for anthropology that we found a way to bring three universities together in this field school, as well as finding a venue to share ideas and experiences on field schools which was organized by Teri Brewer in May 2002.
We thank Dr Christopher Chippendale at Cambridge University for his encouragment and support for David Robinson’s participation.
David Robinson from Cambridge University deserves special thanks for planning much of the detail for part of the field school .
And for keeping great surprises up his sleeve. He generously shared the insights and developing information from his own doctoral research and introduced us to special places which we would not have had access to without him.
Finally, but not least, we would like to pay tribute to the students from both Glamorgan and Swansea. Your unique viewpoints and individual talents brought this field school to life and we know that it will live on in your memories, in your notebooks, in your visual work and maybe in your future work and involvements. You were all a delight to travel with on this great road trip.
In California the list of debts is long and this brief listing can never adequately repay the generous hospitality, the fellowship, engagement and support of all those who gave time and energy to make this project work.
Chumash traditional healer Cecelia Garcia jump-started the field school with her singular vision and her potent white sage.
Edra Moore, the visionary and dedicated curator of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum so encouraged the original concept of this field school. And then suggested and facilitated . our seminar in Antelope Valley. FAVIM, the docent and support group from the museum were wonderfully supportive about the idea of the seminar and played a vital role in the success of this project. While museum founders Arden Edwards and Grace Oliver are often discussed, it is the friends and volunteers who work with the curator and State Park personnel to make this museum tick with the syncopated swing that it has. Their recent work in putting the museum collections on line is unique and precious and will benefit everyone.
National Park Service Interpretive Specialist Debbie Conway,. Dr. John Johnson at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, BLM Regional archaeologist Duane Christian, Wind Wolves Reserve Manager David Clendenen, Gabrieleno/Tongva tribe member and folklorist Cindi Alvitre , as well as ethnographic filmmaker Jenny Cool at USC all deserve the highest praise for sharing their views and ideas playing varied roles in making this field school not just happen, but thrive.
Glamorgan graduates Liz Coviello and Geraint Bundy now live in California, They came out to visit us with their sons Will and Matthew, bringing good cheer, hot tea and unique hot water bottles just when most needed on a cold, wet and windy night. Liz helped with the aftermath of the field school, too- especially the thousand mile tent drying project.
My father Richard Brewer and my brother Mike Brewer helped deal with gear, stored luggage, made a home away from home for the field school staff before the trip started and after it ended and provided great encouragement and general logistical support to all of us in Santa Monica.
Neighbor and Universal Aunt Betsy Lester Roberti has been the fairy godmother of the two Glamorgan field schools in California. Ideas, contacts, festive lasagne dinners, ice chests, staff shelter in Santa Barbara- we owe it all to Betsy!
National Park Rangers such as Jack Gilhooly shared their love and knowledge of special places with us. State Park Rangers such as Randy Burt and Tim Evans did the same for us on their turf.
Karen Roswell, ___________ and Liz Rubel made our planned visit to Rancho Camulos a reality and a pleasure.
David Beard shared archaeological insight into San Emigdio Canyon. Mollie was an archaeological guide extraordinaire in Cuyama as was BLM archaeologist Duane Christian on the Carrizo Plain.
Una Harnett invited us to visit her unique Chumash Room and shared her recollections of collecting over many years with us..
Pam Dorian welcomed us to visit with her at Spanish Ranch and explained so much about the Cuyama Valley it could make a whole module.