OCTOBER 2018
NEWS & RECENT EVENTS
PCAS logo
PCAS QUARTERLY
Stephen O'Neil, Cultural Resources Manager at UltraSystems Environmental, Inc., published his article on a unique, marine-oriented artifact from the Goff's Island Site in Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly Volume 54, Number 2. This issue contains three articles covering Baja and Alta California archaeology. Read O'Neil's abstract below and read the entire article at PCAS Quarterly on their website!
UPCOMING WEBINAR: CELESTIAL THUNDER
Alan G. Gold, Cultural Consultant at UltraSystems Environmental, Inc., will be facilitating a training webinar on weather shamanism and the Ghost Dance in the Far West on Wednesday, 10/24 at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm PT. This unique training webinar provides an insiders view of breakthrough research on weather shamanism. Read more information below and register for the webinar here.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS
Alan G. Gold and Genevieve Von Petzinger contributed their knowledge of Coso rock art on National Geographic Kid's channel "The Truth Behind" series.

SCA ANNUAL MEETING 2018
Stephen O'Neil's Presentation in Mission Register Research at the 2018 Society for California Archaeology Annual Meeting, San Diego
Steve O’Neil gave a presentation in the Symposium Inspired by the Work of Randy Milliken at the March 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society for California Archaeology held in San Diego. A major professional interest of Milliken’s concerned the study of population and tribal/village location of California’s aboriginal nations. O’Neil was invited to present his study utilizing Milliken’s early hypothesis on how to utilize the Franciscan mission sacramental registers to address these questions.
Finding the Rancherias of Mission San Juan Capistrano: Re-Testing a Location Prediction Method

Baptismal registers of Mission San Juan Capistrano are used to collect Acjachemen rancheria names to determine conversion counts indicating the initial and peak reduccion years for rancherias posited to represent villages.  A model suggesting a relative-distance placement from the mission according to their appearance in the register was used to chart the rancherias .  Results are compared to known village locations to evaluate the model’s efficacy.  Initially tested in 1982, with 25 village examples, the model generally matches distance with register appearance.  In the intervening 35 years, refined data on village locations, with 18 additional examples, confirm predictions using this model.

SARM PUBLIC PLANTING EVENT
After - 7-24-18
AFTER - Plant growth one month after planting. July 24, 2018.
Santa Ana River Mitigation Project
Habitat restoration along disturbed stretches of the Santa Ana River under US Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction has been an on-going multi-year and multi-phase effort to remove, abate and control the spread of non-native vegetation affecting riparian and floodplain habitats and re-establish native vegetation. This is the Santa Ana River Mitigation (SARM) Project which UltraSystems Environmental’s biologists have been conducting since 2015. Portions of the SAR watershed have been restored little-by-little over the past two decades, including approximately 465 acres administered by UltraSystems.

The 1.2 acre Corydon restoration site, located on the east bank of the Santa River in the City of Norco, is part of this effort to restore the SAR watershed. On May 12 this year UltraSystems hosted a Community Volunteer Restoration Day event to educate the public about the river habitat and its restoration. Volunteers were primarily youths and their parents from local elementary and high schools and the Boy Scouts. Information booths from the Army Corps, Fish and Wildlife and a local equestrian organization were present, and the City of Norco provided lunch. Nine UltraSystems staff, directed by Mina Rouhi and Michelle Tollett, were there to guide volunteers to the planting area, dig the holes and provide equipment, and set up the booth tents. As seen in the before and after photos, the Corydon restoration was not only a successful native plant revegetation project, it involved the community through planting, education, and experiential learning.
Before - day of planting 5-12-18
BEFORE - Day of the event/planting. May 12, 2018.
RECENT & UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS
Fig from SO'Neil's PCAS article 9-2018
A Grooved Abrader Stone from the Goff’s Island Site (CA-ORA-08/108/110): A Multipurpose, Marine-Oriented Tool
Stephen O'Neil
Abstract: A wedge-shaped stone with grooves at both ends of the long axis was surface collected by Harold Wilson several years before the 1939 Works Progress Administration excavation at the Goff’s Island site (CA-ORA-08/108/110), Laguna Beach, California. The artifact is made of fossil whale bone and is probably from the site’s Culture II level, now identified with the late Intermediate horizon. It was utilized both as a drag or gill net sinker and as a soapstone abrader. This intriguing artifact is from an avocationalist’s collection.

California Rock Art Foundation Research Monograph No. 1
CRAF has published the first of a series of Research Monographs.  This first issue is a n examination of a well-known Chumash rock art site informed by Chumash cosmology as revealed in myths and stories as recorded by John Peabody Harrington from the last Chumash speakers whose lives and interactions spanned the time between the first Spanish contact and the end of the mission period.

UPCOMING EVENTS
CELESTIAL THUNDER: WEATHER SHAMANISM AND GHOST DANCE THEOLOGY IN NATIVE CALIFORNIA AND THE GREAT BASIN
This hour-long presentation provides an extensive and intensive review of the subject of rain shamanism in the Far West throughout California and the Great Basin. It also includes an hour-long, open-ended question and answer period. The presentation highlights working hypotheses that weather shamans ritually create various elements of weather through homeopathic and sympathetic magic directed at creating sacred wind, clouds, rain, and thunder.

Seminar topics include: weather deities and sacred narrative in world perspective, Great Basin Cosmology, Ghost Dance cosmology and rock paintings, profiles of California and Great Basin Native American Rain Doctors, and more.

Wednesday October 24, 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
California Rock Art Foundation still has open spots for November field trips to Little Petroglyph Canyo n on the China Lake Naval Weapons Station, Ridgecrest. Visit the largest known concentration of petroglyphs in the Western Hemisphere located in Lower Renegade Canyon (also known as Little Petroglyph Canyon).  Tuesday 10/23 is the last day to sign up for tours on Saturday 11/17 and Sunday 11/18!

If you missed the sign-up for the New Moon Great Murals Pack Trip in Baja California, Mexico, register for the waiting list! If there is enough interest, CRAF may plan a second trip around the same time.

Saturday November 17 and Sunday November 18
RESOURCES/LINKS
JOIN US ON A ROCK ART TOUR!

Join CRAF for a visit to sites such as Little Lake, Tomo-Kahni, Rocky Hill, and Little Petroglyph Canyon!

Read more
www.carockart.org
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society

Become a member of the PCAS!

Read more
www.pcas.org