Panich 2013

ARCHAEOLOGIES OF PERSISTENCE: RECONSIDERING THE LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM IN
NATIVE NORTH AMERICA

Author(s): Lee M. Panich
Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 78, No. 1 (January 2013), pp. 105-122
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23486387
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ARCHAEOLOGIES OF PERSISTENCE: RECONSIDERING THE
LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM IN NATIVE NORTH AMERICA
Lee M. Panich
This article seeks to define common ground from which to build a more integrated approach to the persistence of indige
nous societies in North America. Three concepts are discussed—identity, practice, and context—that may prove useful for
the development of archaeologies of persistence by allowing us to counter terminal narratives and essentialist concepts of
cultural identity that are deeply ingrained in scholarly and popular thinking about Native American societies. The use of
these concepts is illustrated in an example that shows how current archaeological research is challenging long-held schol
arly and popular beliefs about the effects of colonialism in coastal California, where the policies of Spanish colonial mis
sionaries have long been thought to have driven local native peoples to cultural extinction. By exploring how the sometimes
dramatic changes of the colonial period were internally structured and are just one part of long and dynamic native histo
ries, archaeologies of persistence may help to bring about a shift in how the archaeology of colonialism presents the his
tories of native peoples in North America—one that can make archaeology more relevant to descendant communities.
Este artículo define los puntos comunes para construir un enfoque integral sobre la persistencia de sociedades indígenas en
Norteamérica. Tres conceptos son discutidos—la identidad, la práctica, y el contexto—que puede resultar útil para el desa
rrollo de las arqueologías de persistencia, permitiéndonos contradecir las narrativas terminales y el esencialismo de identi
dad cultural que son inculcadas profundamente en el pensamiento arqueológico y popular sobre sociedades indígenas
americanas. Para ilustrar el uso de dichos conceptos, este artículo examina las maneras en cómo las presentes investigacio
nes arqueológicas están desafiando las creencias populares y antropológicas acerca de los efectos del colonialismo en la costa
de California, donde se ha pensado que las políticas de misioneros coloniales españoles exterminaron las culturas nativas
locales. Explorando cómo los cambios dramáticos del período colonial fueron estructurados internamente y el hecho de que
son solamente una parte de historias nativas, dinámicas y largas, las arqueologías de persistencia pueden ayudar a producir
un cambio en cómo la arqueología del colonialismo presenta las historias de pueblos nativos en Norteamérica—uno que puede
hacer la arqueología más pertinente para comunidades indígenas actuales y futuras.
have negotiated Euro-American colonialism, extinction, by examining how changes in native so

In considering howon theNative
archaeologists often focus American
topic of cieties groups
were internally structured seen
and how in
such terms of demographic collapse and cultural
change, whether it is cultural, demographic, or en- transformations may have in fact facilitated conti
vironmental. Yet hundreds of Native American nuity. I call these frameworks archaeologies of
communities have persisted into the present despite persistence.
repeated popular and academic claims of their im- As the plural form archaeologies suggests, ar
minent demise (McGuire 1997). By examining chaeologists interested in such questions come
multiple scales of analysis—daily practices as well from diverse theoretical and professional back
as long-term processes—archaeologists can pro- grounds. This article seeks to establish common
vide important insights into the interconnected na- ground from which we may move toward a more
ture of continuity and change in indigenous polities integrated approach to the study of how indige
and identities. Current archaeological research di- nous peoples in North America, and elsewhere,
rectly challenges conventional wisdom about the negotiated the constraints and opportunities of
legacies of colonialism in North America, often colonialism. I review recent developments in
Lee M. Panich ■ Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California
95053 (lpanich@scu.edu)
American Antiquity 78(1), 2013, pp. 105-122

Copyright ©2013 by the Society for American Archaeology
105
106 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 78, No. 1,2013
three primary areas of current archaeologic

theory—identity, practice, and context—th
particularly well suited to archaeological stu
of indigenous persistence. I then offer an e
of why persistence matters in archaeology. U
the anthropological and archaeological study
Spanish colonialism in California as an illu
tion, I explore how anthropology helped per
uate the myth of Indian extinction, the effec
had for various native groups, and how an a
chaeological focus on persistence might help
rectify the problem. I close by offering s
thoughts on the potentials and challenges of
chaeologies of persistence to advance our un
standing of colonialism, as well as to benefi
those whose pasts we are studying. er
Anthropological interest in the relations
between pre- and postcontact native culture
deep historical roots, but the renewed focus
persistence of Native American societies can
seen to stem from three watershed develop
which taken together have great implication
archaeological studies of colonialism in Nort
America: the passage of the Native Amer
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NA
PRA) in 1990, the growing archaeological in
est in colonialism surrounding the Colum
Quincentenary in 1992, and the developmen
indigenous archaeologies. Each has force
chaeologists to grapple with the diverse pro
of change and persistence that have unfol
indigenous communities over the past five c
turies and therefore represents an opportuni
archaeologists to challenge the myth of India
tinction that has so pervasively dominated m
public and scholarly thinking about the enco
between indigenous societies and various for
of European colonialism. Indeed, archaeologi
and popular thought on Native Americans is
steeped in narratives that focus not on persis
but on conquest, disease, assimilation, and lo
(Ferris 2009; Mitchell and Scheiber 2010;
man 2010), what Wilcox (2009:11-15) refers
"terminal narratives." discussion h
Archaeology has tended to reinforce termi
narratives through research agendas explicitl
cused on the demographic, cultural, and tec
logical changes of the colonial period (Ramen
sky 1991) and related, essentialist analyti
frameworks like acculturation that tether i
Panich] ARCHAEOLOGIES OF PERSISTENCE 107
yet dynamic cultural values to negotiate the

nial period. These approaches, I contend, ha
potential to advance the goal of an integrat
chaeological approach to native histories
foot 1995) and may provide further stimulu
the collaboration between archaeologists an
digenous groups. disjunctures of colonialism within the long-term
history of indigenous groups and to understand
Archaeologies of Persistence their significance for native communities
Persistence, in common usage, refers to a con- Identity

tinuation of existence in the face of opposition. As Identity is at the core of many recent studie
a general observation, this definition works well digenous persistence in North America.
for describing those indigenous groups that in- ologists have largely rejected acculturatio
tentionally maintained identities distinct from els that rely on a unilinear evolutio
Euro-American colonists and settlers. But persis- "Indian" to "European" and instead
tence should not imply stasis or passivity, as in panded their investigations to include que
many cases indigenous identities were reinter- about hybridity, ethnogenesis, and the flu
preted and transformed even as they were per- identity in colonial settings. Recent work
petuated. Any concept of persistence must there- amines indigenous peoples' negotiations
fore also deal with change and adjustment, colonial period often draws from notions
leaving room for the active negotiation of the tity that treat it as socially constructed th
various forms of opposition—warfare, disease, both self-definition and external categoriz
dislocation, and policies of assimilation, to name (Barth 1969; Jenkins 1996). Linking this
but a few—native peoples have encountered in tion of identity to practice through B
the past five centuries. Persistence, then, ac- concept of habitus, Jones (1997) sugg
knowledges the physical and symbolic violence of we can see the cohesion of collective ide
colonialism but also allows for a continuum of stemming from the recognition of shared
processes that encapsulates various forms of per- dispositions, which themselves are shap
severance, ranging from intentional resistance or daily practice. These constructivist app
ethnogenesis to more subtle shifts in political or- offer a way around the restrictive analyt
ganization and group identity that draw on and are egories inherent in essentialist framew
structured by dynamic cultural values and prac- equate indigenous identity with the rete
tices. The key to understanding this definition as particular cultural elements. Identity the
applied to the archaeology of native North Amer- seen as strategic and relatively fluid, but
ica is the recognition that persistence can accom- rooted in history through practice,
modate change—indeed, it may often require it. Constructivism thus works well fo
In the following section, I address three crucial standing how identity was negotiated in
theoretical developments, drawn from contem- contexts in which "Indian" identity was r
porary debate, that I argue are useful for the ar- even as it was open to reinterpretation. Be
ticulation of diverse archaeologies of persistence: onset of colonialism and the application of
1. Identity. Recent research on identity sug- such as Indian or Indio to indigenous peop
gests that it is not tied to essentialist traits but, tive individuals and families likely expe
rather, is constructed socially. In this sense, iden- their collective identities very different
tities can be transmitted across generations despite haps through their connections to a p
far-reaching changes in other aspects of life. place or membership in a certain socia
2. Practice. The application of practice theory group. The term Indian, in contrast, can
in archaeology allows us to examine how the so- as a word used to denote otherness, an ar
cial world is constructed. When we apply it to the colonialism that has been used to essen
archaeology of colonialism, we can use it to see digenous peoples as static and primitive (D
2004; Thomas 2000). In focusing on differenc

between Indian and European artifacts, we p
petuate a flawed, colonial distinction that m
variation and sets up problematic expectat
for what native identities will look like arch
logically (Silliman 2009). Instead, it may be m
fruitful to examine how native peoples activ
constructed their identities socially over tim
both before and after the onset of coloniali
Identity, however, is multiple and overlapp
As with constructivist notions of identity m
broadly, archaeological applications usually rely
Practice
concepts of ethnic identity developed by Ba
(1969) and others (see Wilcox 2009:56-68). Et
nic affiliation is but one aspect of an indivi
social being, however, and we should therefo
attentive to the differential participation of
or individuals based on age, gender, or status
a particular Native American society. Group
ilies, and individuals all have different histo
motivations that may be reflected in the ar
logical record (Frink 2010; Rubertone
2000:431-432). For developing archaeologies o
persistence, one of the most useful findings o
lier acculturation research may be that signif
variation existed within native societies in re
to the negotiation of colonialism. Members
particular group were often seen as constitut
"conservative" factions that maintained stro
ties to precontact ways of life or "progre
groups that more eagerly adopted aspects of
American culture (Linton 1940). Although ea
case will vary, we must take such differential m
tivations and participation into account in
about how and why cultural identities are tr
formed and/or perpetuated over time
Ethnogenesis, in particular, has been emplo
as a framework for understanding the presen
myriad Indian identities in the Americas. A
chaeologists studying ethnogenesis in the co
period have focused on instances of identity
ation and transformation, in which groups
to be internally defined and/or externally re
nized due to shared practices, experiences, o
goals. In this way, ethnogenesis can be seen
process, or even an intentional strategy, of
digenous resistance or persistence in certa
texts (Hill 1996; Preucel 2010; Weik 2009
Wilcox 2009). As Voss suggests, the wide acc
tance of ethnogenesis in the social sciences h
simply as one of European domination. In p

individual or collective action at the center
concept of persistence, however, we must a
recognize the potential for divergent motiv
understandings within a particular group o
ety (Lightfoot and Martinez 1995; Sahli
A focus on practice is necessarily conte
and in this way can also help us to interpret
term trends on a more human scale. Sillima
(2009), for example, notes that in understa
dynamic cultural practices, we cannot simp
the late precontact period as a baseline for c
From a practice perspective, we might v
peoples in the early colonial period as car
with them cultural dispositions attuned to
contact lifeways, as well as simultaneousl
Context
gotiating new cultural structures (and power
lations) in the form of European colonialism
we must also recognize that such cultura
sitions are historically situated and constant
flux. We should therefore accept that indige
sites dating to decades or centuries after
contact or prolonged periods of colonialism
have few direct material referents to precon
technologies and traditions (Martindale 200
liman 2009). Archaeologists may need to inv
tigate more points or "windows" on the c
uum between ancient and recent times in ord
fully contextualize apparent changes in cul
practices reflected in the archaeological r
(Lightfoot et al. 1998:202). Ferris's (2009) co
cept of "changing continuities" eloquentl
tures the notion that persistence itself is a
namic process that takes social work and th
need to work across both long- and short-t
time scales to understand how indigenous s
eties have transformed and perpetuated
selves (Mitchell and Scheiber 2010:17
Through a focus on practice, the idea of
sistence is rooted in human agency. This is n
suggest that all examples of persistence w
essarily intentional acts (although many
but, rather, that the accumulated effects o
vidual and group choices, each structured b
past but looking to the future, also serve
slowly facilitate the persistence of native c
munities. This process, while agental, is als
achronic, as it spans generations. Thus indi
practices, like the social identities they are
up with, are always in the process of becom
110 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 78, No. 1, 2013
suggesting that contact with other group

constant of human experience" (2009:25). An
the Pacific Northwest, Tveskov (2007) consid
the enduring social importance of seasonal g
erings for local native peoples who continu
come together at certain times of the year to
share stories, and organize, even as the impet
for such occasions changed from precontact h
ing and fishing to participating in the cash
omy brought on by American colonization
Viewed this way, the colonial period—howev
defined—is just one part of indigenous peopl
long-term dynamic histories.
Of course, colonial circumstances did not
with the independence of modem nation
such as the United States, Mexico, or Cana
(Silliman 2005,2010). While the transition fro
colony to independent state had varying eff
for indigenous groups in North America,
the-ground realities of asymmetrical power r
tions, extractive economies, and cultural enta
glement often continued or even intensified
considering the persistence of indigenous co
munities and identities, we must also examin
these later periods, which can be seen as sim
more entrenched forms of colonialism from
perspective of native peoples. The archaeology
native communities living in more recent
has not garnered as much scholarly attention
early colonialism, but as archaeologists consi
the idea of persistence and the implications
colonialism within the long-term cultural tr
tories of native groups, studies of this period
become a crucial link between past and prese
(Frink 2010; Lightfoot 2006). cultur
In tracing persistence over the long term—
including precontact cultural trajectories, th
plex social realms of the early colonial period,
tire later entrenched forms of colonialism (in
ing that which has taken place within the bo
aries of our modem nation-states)—we nee
stress that native cultures were and are dynam
Until recently, many archaeological approach
Native American encounters with colonialism
cused on acculturation and depopulation, lead
certain scholars to paint modem Native Ame
"as a phenomenon of contact" derived from
nant populations of the early sixteenth cent
(Dunnell 1991:573). Such claims often ignore
broader historical context of indigenous soci
America. Separated into a plethora of midsiz

polities, they spoke between 80 and 100 dis
languages, actively managed the landsca
through purposeful burning and other mea
participated in highly developed ceremonial
tices and far-flung economic relationships (L
foot and Parrish 2009). The complex hunter
erer-fisher peoples of late precontact Cal
defied anthropological models of social orga
zation and subsistence, and today their dese
dants continue to defy conventional anthro
logical wisdom embedded in acculturation m
and proclamations of cultural extinction. T
are currently 108 federally recognized tribe
state of California, with many more una
edged groups actively petitioning for recogn
at the state or federal level. the groups ignored by Kroeber and his col
Still, the history of colonialism looms large leagues, including those who encountered t
over the scholarly and popular interpretation of in- Franciscan missionaries, indicating their c
digenous histories in California, particularly in tinued presence as distinct social groups,
those regions of the state that were colonized as Besides the gaps in the fieldwork of ea
part of the Spanish mission system that was es- Berkeley ethnographers, the legacies of colon
tablished along the coast as far north as San Fran- ism are today most easily observed cartogra
cisco Bay. By the late nineteenth century, ob- cally, in the close spatial correlation among the
servers of native California proclaimed that extent of Spanish missionization, the limits
formerly missionized Indians were so accultur- Indian survival defined by Kroeber, and the ge
ated as to be virtually extinct. In his reports from graphical distribution of federally recogni
1871 and 1872 journalist Stephen Powers ignored tribes in California (Figure 1). The process of
the descendants of mission neophytes, writing, land allotment to native Californians by the U
"Their aboriginal customs have so faded out, their government that began in the mid- to late 18
tribal organizations and languages have become followed a pattern similar to that of early anth
so hopelessly intermingled and confused, that pological investigation, leaving many former m
they can no longer be classified" (1976:16-17). sion Indians without a permanent land b
This assumption was also shared by later anthro- (Castillo 1978). When, in the early twentieth
pologists, including Alfred Kroeber and others at tury, the federal government again began to a
the University of California, Berkeley. Like Pow- cate land to California Indians, none of the gro
ers, Kroeber felt that the former mission Indians associated with the northern missions were gi
of central California had been wholly enculturated land. As detailed by Field (1999), Kroeberian
by the Franciscan missionaries and accordingly thropology provided the rationale for the distr
left these peoples out of his otherwise extensive ution of lands to particular native groups dur
fieldwork designed to document the precontact this later phase of allotment. Those groups wh
lifeways of California's indigenous groups. "The identities or very survival were questioned by
tribes that were completely devoted to mission life thropologists were left landless, while tho
are gone," wrote Kroeber (1925:888). groups that had been studied by Berkeley eth
In this way, we can see the intersection of ter- graphers were more likely to receive land allo
minal narratives and anthropological essential- tions from the federal government. In time, the
ism during the early twentieth century. The mulative effects of anthropological
methodological framework employed by Kroe- governmental assumptions about culture change
ber and his Berkeley colleagues relied on the in the colonial period became manifested in
ability of tribal elders to recall cultural prac- pattern of federal recognition that favors indig
Decrease of Indian Population 1

(after Kroeber 1925:887)
I I 0-1 percent Indians survivin
——1■ Limits of complete mission
# Federally Recognized Tribe
A
M
KM 300
Figure 1. Limits of complete missionization and low

trasted with federally recognized Indian tribes and t
their approximate historic ranchería locations.
nous groups whose ancestors were not clo

associated with the Spanish mission syst
Broad trends in twentieth-century anthro
ogy and archaeology have also contributed
minal narratives in California and elsewher
the 1960s, the demographic collapse of indi
nous societies in North America was a ma
search topic. The details of the proposed tim
cause(s) vary by region and author, but the
search of Cook (1976), Dobyns (1966), and ot
(e.g., Jackson 1994) effectively kept scholarl
bate focused on the topics of depopulation
attendant loss of cultural continuity. Accult
studies also helped buttress narratives of ch
archaeological research, particularly in the s
California mission sites where Franciscan p
In many cases, however, indigenous comm

nities in California have persisted in various
despite dramatic changes in population,
tenure, social organization, and material cu
By the 1950s, anthropologists and archaeolo
recognized that many Native American gro
had not gone extinct. Even Kroeber partiall
drew his earlier proclamations, noting that
though significant cultural knowledge had
lost due to the policies of the Franciscan mis
aries and subsequent American administrat
there were numerous native Califomians stil
ing in the mid-twentieth century who could
their ancestry to the various groups he had
declared extinct (Kroeber and Heizer 1970).
the damage had been done. The descendan
most missionized groups are today still a
the ranks of the unacknowledged tribes of
fornia, and the myth of Indian extinction r
indelible in popular and scholarly thought. In
tral California, for example, museum exhibit
commonly portrayed local native peoples as
ished and primitive cultures, while introdu
textbooks, academic monographs, and cultu
source management documents have con
to cite Kroeber's initial diagnosis of cultura
tinction (Dartt-Newton 2011; Field et al. 19
Leventhal et al. 1994; Raimundo 1995
Today, archaeologists have an opportunity
the record straight. Just as the archaeologic
of colonialism is reconsidering the interconn
nature of change and continuity more broa
rent archaeological research on colonial Calif
is challenging long-held assumptions about
cultural extinction of native Califomians. M
ing the three theoretical issues discussed ab
identity, practice, and context—the followin
sections offer examples of how archaeologi
research can further our understanding of t
sistence of indigenous polities and identitie
Baja and Alta California. For each issue, I w
fer examples from the recent archaeological
ature on coastal California as well as data fr
own studies at the site of Mission Santa Cata
northern Baja California, Mexico. sce
eral recognition, while t
Identity entered the central coast missions largely do not.
Recent archaeological research in California has Using multiple lines of evidence drawn from ar
illuminated the dynamic nature of indigenous chaeological materials, documentary sources, and
identities and the diverse ways that they were native narratives, archaeologists are particularly
well positioned to unravel the dynamic natu

identity in colonial settings. Approached fro
constructivist notions of social identity, none
the diverse groups of native Californians th
emerged from the mission period is more au
thentically "Indian" than any other. utilize wild plants and animals for certain
In neighboring Baja California, native persis- purposes—whether to augment their diets in times
tence also involved a complex mixture of popula- of shortage or for use in culturally specific meals,
tion aggregation and continued engagement in re- medicines, or other practices. This evidence can be
gional networks. At the site of Mission Santa used to show how native families and individuals
Catalina, for example, archaeological and ethno- reworked basic practices in light of new sets of
historic evidence suggests that the mission's in- constraints and opportunities,
digenous population held important connections to Lithic artifacts also offer an important glimpse
the social and physical worlds beyond the mission into how native Californians creatively employed
walls at the same time that group identity coa- long-standing cultural traditions in the colonial
lesced around the mission itself. The examination period. Lithics are commonly found at missions
of a mission census that lists individuals with their and contemporaneous sites in California (e.g.,
indigenous clan names revealed members of at Bamforth 1993), even though many explanatory
least 12 geographically distinct clans, whose mem- frameworks assume that stone tool technology
bers spoke a minimum of three languages. Au- was inferior to the metal implements brought by
tonomous clan or lineage groups likely made up the the Spanish. Here, a practice-based approach
basic social unit in late precontact times, and at might allow archaeologists to consider the context
Mission Santa Catalina it appears that the existing of how these items were being used and the social
cultural dispositions of these diverse groups— relationships they represent. Excavations at Mis
including an inferred preference for exogamy and sions Santa Clara and Santa Cruz in Alta Califor
a related acceptance of linguistic and cultural nia, for example, have unearthed significant num
diversity—facilitated the fusion of families at the bers of obsidian artifacts that can be linked through
mission into a larger and more complex social geochemical analysis to sources outside of the
group (Panich 2010a). Rather than representing a ethnographic territories of groups known to have
break with the past, this process was instead a di- been attached to the mission in question (Allen
rect outgrowth of existing cultural practices. 1998:81-82; Allen et al. 2010:176). Rather than
simply reflecting the presence of native people or
Practice the retention of traditional practices, objects like
Archaeological research on colonial California these could be used to explore how missionized
has also shed light on how native peoples and in- groups were able to rearticulate precontact social
dividuals actively negotiated colonialism in their relationships and trade networks. Throughout the
daily lives. Although popular and scholarly un- Californias, such connections were consistently re
derstandings of the Spanish mission program of- made during the colonial period, as mission neo
ten focus on the social constraints of phytes traded glass and shell beads from colonial
missionization—forced relocation, labor require- centers into the hinterland (Arkush 1993; Gamble
ments, and indoctrination into Christianity and and Zepeda 2002), presumably in exchange for
Euro-American lifeways—archaeological research materials, including obsidian, that were not avail
at mission sites has shown that native peoples able in close proximity to the missions,
continued to draw upon and reinterpret precontact At Mission Santa Catalina in Baja California,
traditions and cultural practices during more than similar archaeological patterns have been noted,
60 years of directed enculturation in the missions indicating that the process of persistence included
(e.g., Allen 1998; Skowronek 1998). Archaeolog- innovation structured by existing yet dynamic cul
ical research at mission sites, for example, has tural traditions. With regard to lithic artifacts, the
uncovered ample evidence of hunting and gather- assemblage appears to represent a general de-em
ing practices in colonial California, even though phasis of stone tools during the colonial period. To
be sure, native people at the mission cont

flake stone—and even glass and porcelain—b
aside from projectile points, formal tools ar
ceedingly rare at the mission site, and the ne
population appears to have relied primarily o
expedient lithic tool kit consisting of flakes a
shatter to complete certain tasks. Yet mission
phytes did continue to obtain obsidian —lik
from neighboring unmissionized groups—in
to make projectile points and other stone
(Panich 201 Ob). Taken together, the lithic dat
derscore the fact that the mission neophyte
worked new materials to fit within existing
schemata at the same time that they reinterp
precontact traditions of toolmaking to accom
date their new colonial social and material wo
Through the application of practice theor
can begin to understand how these patterns r
sent not just the maintenance of a static Ind
identity or the adoption of Euro-American
ways but a continuous and active reworking o
tural knowledge and practices over time.
equate persistence with u
Context
instead consider the mult
Many researchers are making links between
crowded and dynamic cultural landscapes of p
contact California and the localized ways that
five peoples made sense of Euro-American c
nialism. Even in the central coast missions,
the processes of population aggregation and
lescence were particularly marked, people ma
tained connections to places important in lo
cultural histories (Arkush 2011). Schneide
(2010), for example, traces the use of shell m
sites along San Francisco Bay from precontac
times into the colonial period, positing that
sites may have served as places of remembra
rejuvenation, and refuge from the Spanish m
system. Bernard (2008) also employs a diachr
perspective in her investigation of Chumash
refuge from and resistance to missionization
Santa Barbara region. There, inland sites prov
evidence of long-term occupation, including
adaptations to the changing economic and p
ical situation of the colonial period that dre
upon existing patterns of subsistence and
change. Studies in this vein are opening new
enues of inquiry about the role of the colon
period—and colonial sites—within broad
digenous histories (Lightfoot et al. 2009
ifornia, for example, the available evidence

a relatively healthy neophyte population ov
course of the mission's 43-year existence (P
2010a). Rather than assuming catastroph
graphic collapse as an operational paradigm i
tive California, recent work instead conside
cultural and biological responses of native g
to demographic changes in the colonial perio
2009; Kealhofer 1996). While the tragic hum
toll of the colonial period cannot and shoul
ignored, we should also seek to contextuali
impacts of such changes in the long-term hi
of native peoples. of native societies or even the creation of wholly
At Baja California's Mission Santa Catalina, new ones. Instead, the various disjunct
my ongoing research has highlighted the notion technology and social organization revea
that the colonial period—strictly defined as the chaeological research are, in many c
dates of occupation for the mission itself, rored by important continuities of prac
1797-1840—was but one relatively brief era in identity that demonstrate a dynamic yet
the history of the Paipai, the indigenous group that trajectory from precontact times through
today occupies the lands immediately surround- of the colonial period and beyond. In
ing the mission (Panich 2010a). These families charting the loss of native cultural traits,
and individuals, numbering roughly 250 in total, ologists have a unique opportunity to see
are the descendants of people who moved into the namic cultural values continued to sha
mountains of northern Baja California some 1,000 nous practices in colonial settings. By e
years ago and whose ancestors must have con- how even far-reaching changes in material
stantly negotiated their cultural identity in a dy- or social organization are culturally med
namic landscape located at the crossroads of Cal- may help to bring about a shift in how
ifornia, the Baja California peninsula, and the chaeology of colonialism presents the histo
greater Southwest. And while the mission period native peoples in North America,
brought with it a very real reconfiguration of set- Yet, for archaeologies of persistence
tlement, subsistence, and technology, it was not benefit native communities, we must m
the final chapter in their history. From the de- connection between theoretical interven
struction of the mission in 1840 to the present, na- here, in the realm of identity, pract
tive people in northern Baja California have been context—and the realities of archaeolog
involved in various ways in broader historical tice in academia and cultural resourc
moments ranging from mineral extraction and ment. By working with descendant comm
armed uprisings to the modern-day cash economy to develop archaeologies of persistence, w
and the international war on drug trafficking. The able to better contextualize the patterns
archaeological investigation of the mission, then, relationships, landscape use, trade, and
is but one window into this history and must be tence that we see archaeologically in the
carefully contextual i zed through the examination cultural and historical trajectories of th
of diverse lines of evidence including pre- and whose lives we are studying. Rather than
postcontact archaeological remains, historical uating the idea of a monolithic native
documents, ethnographic data, and collaboration working with contemporary indigenous
with contemporary community members. nities offers firsthand evidence against
ist frameworks that posit a one-to-one correlation
Discussion between the retention of precontact practices a
the maintenance of native culture or identity (cf.
This overview of anthropological and archaeo- McGhee 2008). Correcting the long-sta
logical understandings of the legacies of colo- sumptions about indigenous assimilatio
termination that form part of the foundational h

torical and anthropological literature in North b
America will take close collaboration, and like co
laborative archaeologies more generally, each case
will require its own unique protocols and goals,
However, for many regions of North Americ
where the myth of Indian extinction still permeate
both scholarly and bureaucratic approaches to r
lating to native peoples and their cultural herit
I argue that persistence offers a compelling fram
work for archaeologists and tribal groups working
to situate the colonial period within the broad
context of indigenous cultures. some of
Collaborative archaeological research centere
on issues of persistence under colonialism m
also aid indigenous groups seeking governmenta
recognition or wishing to demonstrate cultural
affiliation for the repatriation of ancestral remai
(Hantman 2004; Mrozowski et al. 2009). In the ca
united States there are differing requirements f
federal acknowledgment and repatriation of "cul
turally affiliated" remains under NAGPRA, but
general, governmental and popular acceptance of
indigenous identity often hinges upon demon- e
strable biological relationships and continuitie
categories including social and political organi- r
zation, residence in a particular geographical lo-
cation, and to a lesser degree, material culture f
(Miller 2004; Thomas 2000:225-231). Archae-
ologies of persistence may help native communi
ties to recast the apparent changes of the past i
five centuries not as cultural discontinuities but
rather, as active negotiations of colonialism. Re-
search that includes diachronic examinations of b
the creative manipulation of identity and traditio
before and after contact can demonstrate how
people transformed practices and identities whi
still maintaining historical continuity. As noted
above, constructivist notions of identity and th
ories of practice intersect to show that ethnic s
identities and cultural practices are inherently
namic and that cultural authenticity cannot ther
fore be based solely on the retention of preconta
ways of being. plications for control over cultural resources and
Nevertheless, there remains a risk that schol- other practical concerns (Erlandson et al. 1998;
ars investigating the historically situated identities Haley and Wilcoxon 1997,2005). In many cases
of the colonial period could inadvertently dele- transformations of social identity can be better
gitimize contemporary native groups through an framed as processes of persistence. The point is
adherence to strict constructivism (Gallivan et al. largely semantic, but as archaeologists studying
2011:15; Gosden 2001; Liebmann 2008). The colonialism are increasingly aware, terminology
matters (Mitchell and Scheiber 2010; Sillim

2005). In instances where indigenous cultu
practices and ethnic identities were simultan
ously perpetuated as they were transformed,
ing this flexibility as part of a broader proc
persistence may help to mitigate the tension
tween constructivist and essentialist understa
ings of identity for indigenous groups today
are seeking federal recognition and/or the r
triation of ancestral remains. plex negotiations and reinterpretations of vari
In the wake of NAGPRA and with the rise of ous indigenous identities that took place durin
indigenous archaeologies, the role of archaeolo- the colonial period. By drawing on multiple lin
gists as the sole stewards and interpreters of the of evidence, including historical documents, or
past has been challenged, as native peoples have narratives, and archaeological materials, archae
reasserted their right to control their own histories, ologists can trace the complex relationships
Certainly, the debates of recent decades have am- tween the various indigenous identities present
ply demonstrated that native peoples do not need day in North America and their histori
archaeologists to reveal their own history to them antecedents. Many archaeological approaches
(Atalay 2006b; Watkins 2003; Zimmerman 2001). persistence also focus on practice, which p
Yet, in thinking broadly about developing ar- vides a window into the daily lives of those peo
chaeologies of persistence, I believe that this ap- pie who creatively and actively negotiated conta
proach offers an area of common ground between and colonialism and thus grounds our studies o
archaeologists and descendant communities, one the long-term consequences for indigeno
that may aid in the larger goal of decolonizing our groups with actual human experiences. In t
discipline. Today there are myriad examples of ar- way, an examination of persistence challeng
chaeologists, both native and nonnative, working the myth of the vanishing Indian by recognizin
with descendant communities to examine the im- that despite the violence and directed culture
plications of colonialism for contemporary peo- change of the colonial period, it remained a co
pies (e.g., Gonzalez et al. 2006; Hantman 2004; text for native action and agency. A third comm
Panich 2007; Silliman 2009; Tveskov 2007; thread to these approaches is that they situate
Wilcox 2009). This work is in stark contrast to the chaeologies of colonialism in a diachronic pe
anthropological and archaeological research of spective. This attention to the temporal context
the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that, in colonial entanglements makes it possible to s
California and elsewhere, served to embed ter- both the changes and the continuities of the co
minal narratives and essentialist concepts of cul- nial period as arising from dynamic yet long
tural authenticity in popular consciousness and standing cultural traditions, rather than simply
governmental policy. Through collaboration with change caused by the external stimuli of Eur
descendant communities, where possible, and Americans or their diseases,
with an explicit concern for understanding the Terminal narratives and essentialist notions of
diverse processes of persistence that have un- identity may be deeply ingrained in the popular
folded in North America over the past 500 years, view of Native Americans, but it is precisely
archaeology can help to redress some of the past through archaeology's ability to explore both lo
transgressions of our discipline (Lightfoot et al. term processes and short-term practices that
this issue). can understand how the changes of the colonial pe
riod and more recent times fit within the overall
Conclusion history of a particular community or group. The
point is not to deny that changes in identity or
In focusing on the concept of persistence as an ap- practice took place but, rather, to view them as in
proach to understanding the long-term cultural herently dynamic and historically situated. The
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ARCHAEOLOGIES OF PERSISTENCE: RECONSIDERING THE LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM IN

NATIVE NORTH AMERICA

have negotiated Euro-American colonialism, extinction, by examining how changes in native so

American Antiquity 78(1), 2013, pp. 105-122

three primary areas of current archaeologic

yet dynamic cultural values to negotiate the

Archaeologies of Persistence their significance for native communities

Persistence, in common usage, refers to a con- Identity

2004; Thomas 2000). In focusing on differenc

simply as one of European domination. In p

suggesting that contact with other group

America. Separated into a plethora of midsiz

Decrease of Indian Population 1

# Federally Recognized Tribe

Figure 1. Limits of complete missionization and low

nous groups whose ancestors were not clo

In many cases, however, indigenous comm

well positioned to unravel the dynamic natu

be sure, native people at the mission cont

ifornia, for example, the available evidence

termination that form part of the foundational h

matters (Mitchell and Scheiber 2010; Sillim

Cook, Sherburne F. lenging History in the Great Lakes. University of Arizona

Hoover, Robert L. Stephen W. Silliman, pp. 272-292. Blackwell Studies in

Practices in the Indian Village

Preucel, Robert W. Skowronek, Russell K.

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