UC Merced Journal of and Anthropology

Title Lee: Walking Where We Lived: Memoirs of a Mono Indian Family

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3sm3r36w

Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 22(2)

ISSN 0191-3557

Author Dick Bissonnette, Linda E.

Publication Date 2000-07-01

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California 394 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY generally assumed. Greenwood (1972) argued 1804. Ph.D. dissertation. University of this position nearly 30 years ago based on find­ California, Davis. ings from Diablo Canyon, 40 km. north of Van- 1990 The Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for denberg. Social System Maintenance in the Santa Certainly the discovery of a single typological Barbara Channel Region Before A. D. specimen would never resolve this issue conclu­ 1804. New York: Garland Publishing. sively, but I think it unformnate that the Santa Leventhal , Alan Barbara sequence was seen as so intractable that 1992 A Reinterpretationof Some Bay Area Shell its revision in this or other instances was not con­ Mounds: A View from the Mortuary Com­ plex, ALA-329. Master's thesis, San Jose sidered. Such criticism notwithstanding, the State University. Vandenberg Project represents a significant, if Warren, Claude N. not remarkable, contribution to California coastal 1964 Cultural Change and Continuity on the San archaeology and this monograph should be con­ Diego Coast. Ph.D. dissertation. Univer­ sulted by anyone investigating prehistoric mari­ sity of California, Los Angeles. time societies along the west coast of North America.

REFERENCES Bennyhoff, James A., and Richard E. Hughes 1987 Shell Bead and Ornament Exchange Net­ works Between California and the Western Great Basin. American Museum of Natu­ ral History Anthropological Papers 64(2). Erlandson, Jon M. 1994 Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast. New York: Plenum Press. Greenwood, Roberta Walking Where We Lived: Memoirs of a Mono 1972 9000 Years of Prehistory at Diablo Can­ Indian Family. Gaylen D. Lee. Norman: Uni­ yon, San Luis Obispo County, California. versity of Oklahoma Press, 1998, vi + 208 San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society Occasional Papers 2. pp., 30 black and white photographs, 2 maps, $23.95 (hard cover), $10.95 (paper). Holson, John, Robert Gargett, Susan Anton, Lori Ha- ger, Randall Milliken, Thomas L. Jackson, James A. Bennyhoff, Susan Goddard, Robert Orlins, Earl Alex­ Reviewed by: ander, Kenneth W. Gobalet, Dwight D. Simons, Eliz­ LINDA E. DICK BISSONNETTE abeth Skinner, and Peter Ainsworth California Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Calaveras 2000 Data Recovery Excavations for the Wildcat District, 22708 Broadway St., Columbia, CA 95310. and San Pablo Creeks Flood Control and Water Resource Project at CA-CCO-269, Walking Where We Lived is a personal history -270, -600, and -601, Contra Costa Coun­ ty, California. Report on file at the Cen­ of a Nim (North Fork Mono) family. It is the tral Coast Information Center of the Histor­ first published account of this Sierra trib­ ical Resources Information System, Sono­ al group written by one of its members. Gaylen ma State University, Rolmert Park. Lee, in collaboration with his mother, Ruby Po­ King, Chester D. mona, provides an insider's perspective on West­ 1982 The Evolution of Chumash Society: A ern Mono culture organized around seasonal Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa activities, childhood memories, and historical Barbara Channel Region Before A.D. events. Very appropriately, die book begins and REVIEWS 395 ends with springtime, moving in a circle from the Chapter 3 is a revised account of the Nim's Pomona family's version of the Nim origin story first encounters with Spanish and Mexican invad­ to a statement about cultural survival. ers, including Moraga's expedition and reports of In the foreword, Mark Q. Sutton mentions the a previous encounter in the mid-1700s. In an un­ new generation of anthropologists doing research fortunate overstatement, Lee writes that "women with the Mono people. I am honored to be were a valuable trade item" (p. 20) before the among this group. When I visited Ruby Pomona early 1800s, and were stolen on periodic raids. and some of die odier "Nim ladies" last spring, He qualifies this comment by saying that it it was very heartening to sense the positive self- "wasn't stealing in the modern sense of the esteem in their heritage preservation efforts. The word" (p. 21), and that they only took women Mono Nation has an articulate declaration of trib­ from enemy groups, never from friends or al sovereignty. Like a warm Mono wind, their strangers. Thoughtfiil readers might look to leadership brings a notable change in the political Bruhns and Stothert's recent volume. Women in climate. Strengthened federal mandates for Na­ Ancient America (1999), to contexmalize Lee's tive American participation are helping to im­ statement and consider individual men's social prove communication between native peoples and strategies and the effects of warfare on internal public agencies. Sierra National Forest tribal li­ and external social relations. aison Lorrie Planas' many years of diplomacy In Chapter 4, Lee discusses Nim social orga­ contribute greatiy to the co-management trend. nization and religion, clarifying the "two sides" In Chapter 1, Lee describes his extended fam­ of their traditional society as Kwi'na and ily, the linguistic and other culmral traditions Isha, Eagle and Coyote (p. 31). He reiterates his learned from his grandparents, and the closeness authority as a fifth generation Kwi'na, and he feels to his ancestral homeland near the upper descendant of bohenabs, translated as leaders. . Lee confirms the "ancient and Here Lee cites his grandmother, who said the unbroken relationship to [dieir] indigenous home­ bohenab, whether man or woman, "led ceremo­ land" and their relative isolation as the main rea­ nies, settled disputes, and guided decisions" (p. sons for their culmral survival (cf. Dick Bisson- 32). He or she "seeks guidance from others, es­ nette 1997). Ironically, by intentionally exclud­ pecially the older people. That is why we call ing "puberty concepts" and "individual's 'medi­ him a leader, not a chief (p. 32). It is also note­ cine' experiences" from his accounts, calling it worthy that the ana yagan and other traditional "no one else's business," he lets outsiders know ceremonies outiived governmental and missionary that secret-sacred knowledge continues to be attempts to "civilize" the Indians. passed down in "chiefly" families (p. 11). Chapter 5 chronicles the devastation of the Chapter 2 is a sketch of the rugged beauty of Gold Rush in die central-southern the Nim homeland in die high Sierra, life before from the Nim point of view. Lee's account of die "government caught up with them" (Dick- the Mariposa Indian War includes oral history Bissonnette n.d.), and a description of his fami­ from his elders who said, for example, that ly's physical features. The latter are idealized, "[James] Savage was a bad man" (p. 48). These especially when he writes that the men were recollections are supported by careful documen­ "invariably tall, usually six feet or more" (p. 15), tary research and geographic knowledge, recount­ and when he repeats his grandfather's boast that ing the chain of events and their long-lasting ef­ die Nim defeated the Wowa (Chukchansi) in bat- fects. Lee acknowledges his wife Judy Barras tie near Oakhurst and "sent them home crying" Lee's historical research that is most evident in (p. 18). this important chapter. 396 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

Chapters 6 and 7 describe hunting, gadiering, 1997 Foodiill Yokoch, Mono, and Miwok Wom­ and fishing practices, games, and lessons. There en: An Andiropological Perspective. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Califomia, Santa is not much new information here, but it is more Barbara. engaging to read it from a personal perspective Kroeber, A. L. than from a normative ethnography. One of the 1925 Handbook of the Indians of Califomia. Bu­ hardest lessons for Euroamerican researchers to reau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78. accept, but one that is found in many traditional, small-scale societies, is "not to ask too many questions but to listen and follow by example" (p. 107). Chapter 8 tells of ranchers, lumbermen, min­ ers, and settiers who came to the mountains in the late 1800s and the changes they introduced. Chapter 9 describes the annual acorn harvest, un­ der story burning, and cooking practices. Chapter 10 deals with missionaries, schools, and the For­ est Service. Chapter 11 concerns the activities of Rock Art Studies in the Great Basin. Eric W. winter, such as storytelling, games, basketry, and Ritter, ed. Salinas, CA: Coyote Press Ar­ beadwork. The epilogue summarizes the major chives of Great Basin Prehistory, No. 1, changes in the homeland and culture of the Nim, 1998, 124 pp., 50 figs., 11 tables, references, but concludes with words that echo a reaffirming $15.00 (paper). prayer; "all of my ancestors are always widi me" (p. 179; Kroeber 1925:511). Reviewed by: One of the contributions of Lee's book will be ALANAH WOODY the orthography for Nim words that he and Evan Nevada State Museum, 600 N. Carson St., Carson City, NY 89701. Norris devised. Family and group differences in pronunciation and word use continue to challenge Rock art research is currentiy enjoying some- attempts to codify California Indian languages, diing of a boom, so the publication of six papers but the message here is that simple phonetic (out of 18) presented at die 1990 Great Basin spelling, if that is possible, is preferable to Conference is not surprising. Including more of linguistic symbols that are difficult to read and to the rock art papers presented at the same confer­ reproduce. ence, however, would have provided a more bal­ Gaylen Lee's timely book belongs on every anced view of the current state of Great Basin Californianist's reading list, along with classic rock art sttidies. In addition, it would have fat­ and contemporary anthropological works on the tened up the volume, which at some 74 pages of Nim. text (excluding the 50 pages of figures), seems REFERENCES rather diin. That aside, this volume has some­ thing to offer rock art specialists and interested Bruhns, Karen Olsen, and Karen E. Stothert archaeologists alike, as it provides an insight into 1999 Women in Ancient America. Norman: Uni­ some current developments in this field. versity of Oklahoma Press. For the nonspecialist, Ritter and Hatoff's Dick Bissonnette, Linda E. n.d. Unpublished Interview Notes from Auber- chapter will perhaps be of most interest, since ry, Califomia, 1993, in possession of die their discussion of scratched rock art at Nevada's author. Pistone site in the Wassuk Range reviews current