num_pages: 355
description: Californias earliest European colonistsRussian merchants and Spanish missionariesdepended heavily on Native Americans for labor to build and maintain their colonies but they did so in very different ways. This richly detailed book brings together disparate skeins of the pastincluding little-known oral histories native texts ethnohistory and archaeological excavationsto present a vivid new view of how native cultures fared under these two colonial systems. Kent Lightfoots innovative work which incorporates the holistic methods of historical anthropology explores the surprising ramifications of these long-ago encounters for the present-day political status of native people in California.Lightfoot weaves the results of his own significant archaeological research at Fort Ross a major Russian mercantile colony into a cross-cultural comparison showing how these two colonial venturesone primarily mercantile and one primarily religiouscontributed to the development of new kinds of native identities social forms and tribal relationships. His lively account includes personal anecdotes from the field and a provocative discussion of the role played by early ethnographers such as Alfred Kroeber in influencing which tribes would eventually receive federal recognition. Indians Missionaries and Merchants takes a fascinating yet troubling look at Californias past and its role in shaping the state today.
language: English
title: Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial Encounters on the California Frontiers
publisher: University of California Press