CALIFORNIA'S NATIVE PEOPLE

Book RESOURCES

Also, there is an excellent bibliography for Northern and Central California groups available through the California Indian Library Collection at Berkeley. However, you need not go to Berkeley, since these are now available at most county libraries. And should you not want to go to the library, then you can access them on the Web.

In addition to the books listed below, anyone interested in Native Californians should consult News From Native California, a quarterly periodical from Heyday Books (Malcolm Margolin, publisher). Its many features and columns explore the continuing traditions and current issues in which California Indians are involved.

• Anderson, George E.; W. H. Ellison; and Robert F. Heizer. Treaty Making and Treaty Rejection by the Federal Government in California, 1850-1852. Ballena Press Publications in Archaeology, Ethnology, and History, no. 9. Socorro, N. Mex.: Ballena Press, 1978.
  
• Asisara, Lorenzo. Personal Narrative of a Former Neophyte Born at Santa Cruz Mission in 1819. In History of Santa Cruz County, California, Edmund Stanford Harrison, pp. 45-48. San Francisco: Pacific Press Pub. Co.
  
• Bancroft, Hubert Howe.History of California . 7 vols. San Francisco: History Co., 1884-89.
  This is essential an American history of California, but there is a good deal of information on Native Californians, although it is seen through the lense of a white historian.
  
• Baumhoff, Martin A. Ecological Determinants of Aboriginal California Population . University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology:49, pt. 2, pp. 155-236. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1956.
  
• Bean, Lowell John. Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1972.
  The Cahuilla present (as do so many California Native Peoples) an intriguing exception to the usual generalizations about gathering-hunting societies. Among other things, they possessed an elaborate kinship system and firm concepts of land ownership along with hierarchical access to resources. In this descriptive ethnography, Dr. Bean combines an "insider" view with a functional/ecological approach to the study of Cahuilla culture. Dr. Bean blends together material from a variety of sources (history, geology, botany, geography, anthropology), including his own extensive archival research and extensive fieldwork. He interweaves his descriptions with a careful look at the adaptive significance of the particular aspect of culture under scrutiny. His presentation is consistently knowledgeable and sensitive and his treatment of women's roles is thoughtful and full.
  
• Bean, Lowell John, ed. California Indian Shamanism. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 39. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press, 1992.
  This volume is a collection of papers originally presented at the California Indian Shamanism Scholars Conference, held at California State University, Hayward in May 1990. It is the only volume of its kind concerning indigenous California Indians. The nine papers included cover a variety of tribes and regions: the Sierra Miwok, the Kumeyaay, the Ohlone, and the Yurok among them. The authors of the papers have had close relationships to the communities about which they write; authors Jack Norton, Floyd Buckskin, and Frank LaPena are California Indians.
  
• Bean, Lowell John, and Thomas C. Blackburn, eds. Native Californians: A Theoretical Retrospective. Ramona, Calif.: Ballena Press, 1976.
  This book, intended primarily for classroom use, presents a series of essays examining the complex dynamics of aboriginal life in California, with an emphasis on cultural ecology and evolutionary processes.
  
• Bean, Lowell John, and Sylvia Brakke Vane. California Indians: Primary Resources . Socorro, N. Mex.: Ballena Press, 1977.
  
• Carrico, Richard L. Strangers in a Stolen Land: American Indians in San Diego 1850-1880 . Newcastle, Calif.: Sierra Oaks Pub. Co., 1987.
  
• Caughey, John W. The Indians of Southern California in 1852: The B. D. Wilson Report and a Selection of Contemporary Comment . Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1995.
  B. D. Wilson, one of the first American settlers in Southern California, became a prosperous rancher, the mayor of the then small Los Angeles, and a special friend of the Indians of Southern California. In 1852, when the Indians were on the edge of catastrophe, Wilson was appointed their subagent and his great contribution was to appraise the Indians' problems and urge their settlement on land set aside for them. This report was instrumental in creating the reservation system.
  
• Chartkoff, Joseph L.; and Kerry Kona Chartkoff. The Archaeology of California. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984.
  This is a great "first book" for those interested in what the archaeological record reveals about the history of the California Indians. It is eminently readable, well illustrated, and offers an integrated overview rather than a site-by-site survey, emphasizing the interpretation of archaeological evidence rather than technical details. The history of the Native Peoples is broken down into four periods and each account of the four begins with a brief reconstruction, based on the archaeological record, of the everyday life of the people of the time. These are followed by thorough descriptions of sites, ecological and sociological adaptations, cultural diversities, and analyses of the cultures' economy, technology, and society. And one of the nicest features of the Chartkoff's presentation is their constant linking of the history of one part of California to that of other parts.
  
• Colson, Elizabeth. Autobiographies of Three Pomo Women . University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1974.
  
• Cook, Sherburne F. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1976.
  This is the most thorough account of the substantial disappearance of most of the Indian population of California, and the almost utter extinction of its civilization under the influence of Spanish and American culture. Detailed descriptions are provided of the reactions of California Indians to the Spanish Mission system, to the civilian and military inroads, and to the American invasion, along with analyses of trends in population, marriage, divorce, and dietary adaptation among the native people.
  
• Costo, Rupert; and Jeannette Henry Costo, eds. The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide . San Francisco: Indian Historian Press, 1987.
  
• Cuero, Delfina. The Autobiography of Delfina Cuero As Told to Florence Shipek. Morongo Indian Reservation: Malki Museum Press, 1970.
  This book should be read by all who are interested in the often tragic tale of the descent of the Native Americans into the ranks of the poverty-ridden. Unlike many other works dealing with this subject, this is the Indian telling about the Indian. Mrs. Cuero was one of the few members of her people (the Southern Diegueño or Kumeyaay) who survived the decades of cultural stress upon California's coastal Indian populations. She tells of Indians surviving from hand to mouth, belonging nowhere, owning nothing, unrecognized as part of governmental responsibility and exploited as the cheapest form of labor supply, the final result of which was to "relegate them to the status of Orwellian non-persons."
  
• Dozier, Deborah. The Heart Is Fire: The World of the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. Berkeley: Heyday Books.
  Five Cahuilla elders describe their world, past and present, providing the reader with an unparalled view of, and rare insights into, the life and times of the Cahuilla people.
  
• Eargle, Jr., Dolan H. California Indian Country: The Land &The People. San Francisco: Trees Company Press, 1992.
  This lavishly illustrated book is useful introduction to California's indigenous people, liberally supplemented with commentary of art, architecture, sacred places, music, food, ecology and other subjects, with an emphasis on present-day concentrations of native populations, rancherias, reservations, etc.
  
• Emanuels, George. California Indians: An Illustrated Guide. Walnut Creek, Calif: Diablo Books, 1990.
  The body of this book is comprised of 16 short chapters, each describing a particular California Indian nation, and weaving together information from both the "ethnographic present" and the European and American periods. Black and white photos, along with a few line drawings, accompany each of the essays.
  
• Frank, L. Acorn Soup. Berkeley, Calif: Heyday Books, 1999.
  This book is a collection of the drawings of the TONGVA / AJACMEM artist L Frank, and is, in the artist's own words, an "amusing horror," a raucous, thought-provoking plunge into Native American humor. L. Frank's drawings have appeared frequently in News From Native California The book also contains an interview with the artist and an annotated appendix.
  
• Forbes, Jack D. Native Americans of California and Nevada. Healdsburg, Calif.: Naturegraph, 1969.
  A very nice and compact summary of California Indian history, especially on relations with the federal government. Dr. Forbes does a splended job of dispelling many of the erroneous beliefs held by non-Indians about the California and Nevada native peoples. He graphically describes the cruel conquest of the natives which was brought on by white prejudice and selfishness and suggests plans and projects for integrating the native peoples into white consciousness.
  
• Geiger, Maynard, and Clement W. Meighan, eds. As the Padres Saw Them: California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by the Franciscan Missionaries, 1813-1815. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Santa Barbara Mission Archive Library, 1976.
  
• Gendar, Jeannine. Grass Games and Moon Races: California Indian Games and Toys. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1998.
  This book is written in such vivid prose that the games literally leap from the page and into the mind of the reader. With affection and humor, Ms. Gendar combines personal accounts, historic and contemporary photos, anecdotes, and drawings of gaming equipment, and provides the reader with an unparalleled view of the lively games which were such an integral part of the California Indian life for children and adults alike.
  
• Gibson, Robert O. The Chumash. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991.
  For thousands of years the Chumash inhabited a territory along the southern coast of California, creating a social system that included class divisions, the use of shell-bead currency, and an elaborate material culture. Then in 1769 the Spanish came and the Chumash world began to deteriorate. Mr. Gibson's book presents an overview of Chumash lifeways before, during, and after the coming of the Europeans and serves as a useful introduction to these once numerous people and their very sophisticated culture.
  
• Gifford, Edward Winslow, and Gwendolyn Harris Block, comps. California Indian Nights Entertainments: Stories of the Creation of the World, of Man, of Fire, of the Sun, of Thunder, etc. Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1930.
  Folklore and mythology were to the Native Californians as history and science are to many twentieth century societies: the means for explaining how the world and what it held came to be. While many popular collections exist, they are poorly done and often misleading, and frequently contain racist stereotypes. Gifford's and Block's work does not - it is excellent and draws examples of the main types of tales from all regions of the state.
  
• Goodrich, Jennie, Claudia Lawson, and Vana Parrish Lawson. Kashaya Pomo Plants. Berkeley: Heyday Books.
  This is one of only a handful of ethnobotanical references written primarily by California Indians. It is based upon the knowledge and teachings of Essie Parrish, a nenowned Kashaya Pomo spiritual leader and premier ethnobotanist, this book describes in detail 150 common plants growing in Kashaya Pomo territory (coastal Sonoma County) that were, and still are, important part of Kashaya culture.
  
• Grant, Campbell. The Rock Paintings of the Chumash: A Study of a California Indian Culture. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1965.
  This is a magnificent book lavishly illustrated with photographs of the rock art sites, coloured transcripts of the paintings, and inventories of the pictographic elements used. Additionally, the author gives an in depth historical and anthropological account of the Chumash and their territory.
  
• Heizer, Robert F., ed. The Destruction of California Indians: A Collection of Documents from the Period 1847 to 1865 in which Are Described Some of the Things that Happened to Some of the Indians of California. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Peregrine Smith, 1974.
  It's believed that between 1847 and 1865, some 50,000 California Indians died, many as the result of simple and direct homicide on the part of Americans who believed and acted as though their continued existence depended upon the total removal of the "Indian menace." Heizer's book is a unique collection of rare primary documents providing graphic evidence of the destruction of California Indians at the hands of the Americans.
  
• Heizer, Robert F., ed. The Eighteen Unratified Treaties of 1851-1852 between the California Indians and the United States Government. Berkeley: U. of California Archaeological Research Facility, 1972.
  
• Heizer, Robert F., ed. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 8 California, ed. by William C. Sturtevant, Washington D.C., 1978.
  A collection of essays by leading authorities, comprehensively reviewing all aspects of indigenous life in Califoria, including language, prehistory, social organization, relationship with the U.S. government (e.g. treaties), and more. A strength is that each of the sketches covers a region or native tribe in California and has an extensive list of references for further research.
  
• Heizer, Robert F. The Indians of California: A Critical Bibliography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976.
  This is an excellent guide to reliable sources and studies in the field of California Indian research and is immensely useful to both beginning students and scholars. The book has two main parts: an essay and an alphabetical list of all works cited.
  
• Heizer, Robert F. They Were Only Diggers: A Collection of Articles from California Newspapers, 1851-1866, on Indian and White Relations. Ramona, Calif.: Ballena Press, 1974.
  
• Heizer, Robert F., and Albert B. Elsasser. The Natural World of the California Indians. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1980.
  This compact, information-packed book is an excellent survey of Native Californian ethnohistory and technology, with special emphasis on the relationship between culture and environment. It discusses how Native Californians defined territories, describes the patterns of village life, and explains the nature and uses of Indian artifacts in procuring and preparing food and other necessities. It analyzes the richness and stability of the subsistence base (acorns, salmon, shellfish, etc.) and describes the various subsistence strategies and technologies. Also, it summarizes the destruction of Indian cultures and the decimation of the Indian population.
  
• Heizer, Robert F., Karen M. Nissen, and Edward D. Castillo. California Indian History: A Classified and Annotated Guide to Source Materials. Socorro, N. Mexico: Ballena Press, 1976.
  Many histories of post-contact California include the Native People merely as backdrops to European and American events - the Indians are viewed as an unnecessary part of the landscape. Furthermore, many anthropological works dealing with the California Indians attempt to depict them in their pre-contact state. The unfortunate upshot of this is that the Indians almost disappear from history. This work attempts to redress this by emphasizing the substantial literature which recounts California Indian history rather than that of the European and American colonists. In addition to providing an annotated listing of the older historical literature, many of the listings indicate that problems of the California Indians in the 20th century are still live issues. For anyone interested in Native Californians, this is an invaluable resource.
  
• Heizer, Robert F., and M. A. Whipple, eds. The California Indians: A Source Book. 2d rev. ed. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1971.
  The essays in this volume provide the reader with a general survey of California Indian native cultures as well as cultures in transition. It is intended for the general reading public, not scholars. There is a very useful and extensive bibliography listing hundreds of published works arranged by culture areas and subjects.
  
• Hinton, Leanne. Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1994.
  Before the coming of the Europeans and Americans, more than 100 distinct langues were spoken in California, many of them still in use today. Each of these represents a unique way of understanding the world and expressing that understanding. Dr. Hinton's book captures the range, beauty, and delight of these languages in four basic sections: Men's and Women's Languages; Counting Systems; Language and History; and Keeping Languages Alive.
  
• Hurtado, Albert L. Indian Survival on the California Frontier. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988.
  In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of whites poured into California, devastating the native Indian population. Dr. Hurtado's book focuses on the Indians and whites who lived during this time, using household reconstruction and analyses of Indians' occupations and sex and birth ratios. The result is a revision of long-held ideas about the Indian experience - stereotypes of docile native slaves are replaced with portraits of working and raiding Indians, women and men who helped to shape California history. In this book the Native Californians emerge not as victims of white rapacity, or backdrops in the drama of white history, but as active participants in their own, and white, history.
  
• Indians of California. California History, The Magazine of the California Historical Society. San Francisco: California Historical Society, Fall 1992.
  This is a collection of essays on a variety of topics relevant to understanding California Indians in the past and present: the diversity and complexity of their cultures; the nature of the people who studied them; the California mission as symbol and myth; sexuality in the missions; contemporary Native American art; Indian life in the city; and an essay on a contemporary Ohlone tribal revitalization movement.
  
• The Indians of California. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1994.
  Richly illustrated and well written overview of pre-European lifeways, the impact of the missions, and the struggle to survive during the American conquest.
  
• Jackson, Robert H., and Edward Castillo. Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission System on California Indians. Albuquerque: U. of New Mexico Press, 1995.
  The overriding goals of the Spanish missionaries in California were to mold Indians into a work force and to regulate their moral conduct and religious practices. This ethnohistory, drawing on previously unused sources, examines Indian life in the twenty-one missions established in Alta California and analyzes both change and continuity in Indian material culture and religious practices in the period from 1769 to 1848.
  
• Keeling, Richard. Cry for Luck: Sacred Song and Speech among the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok Indians of Northwestern California. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1992.
  Little has been known about the music of the Native Californians, except that it was very important. Dr. Keeling's book remedies that for the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok peoples. Drawing upon his own field studies, earlier ethnographic studies and mythological narratives, he demonstrates how singing has been shaped by aboriginal practices quite different from what non-Indians regard as music-making, recounting how medicine songs and spoken forumulas were applied to a range of activities from hunting to curing or gaining power over an uninterested member of the opposite sex.
  
• Keyworth, C. L. California Indians. New York: Facts on File, 1991.
  This brief work describes the life ways and surroundings of many California nations, recounting their history from the time they first appeared up to the present day. The essays are accompanied by many photographs (black and white and color).
  
• Kroeber, Alfred L. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin no. 78. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1925 (republished by Dover Publications, 1976).
  This was, and in some ways still is, THE starting place for learning about the Native Californians, detailing for 105 tribal groups their pre-White cultural backgrounds, the nearly infinite details of making a living, the social customs, technology, material culture, etc. But the reader needs to bear in mind that over the last 75 years, many scholars and Native Californians have called into question much of the data, and the interpretations of that data, found in this work.
  
• Kreober, Theodora. Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1961.
  
• Krober, Theodora; Elsasser, Albert B., and Robert F. Heizer. Drawn From Life: California Indians In Pen and Brush. Socorro, New Mexico: Ballena Press, 1977.
  This is a wonderful collection of some 322 oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, lithographs, drawings and pencil sketches of California Indians, covering a period of something over 200 years. They reveal individual Native Californians as the artists saw or conceived them to be, and in some ways tell us more about the artists than the Native Californians. Nonetheless, they are a valuable visual resource about the California Indians.
  
• Latta, Frank F. Handbook of Yokuts Indians. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Bear State Books, 1977.
  
• Lang, Julian, editor and translator. Ararapikva: Traditional Karuk Indian Literature from Northwestern California. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1998.
  This is a welcome addition to the growing body of bilingual material on the California Indians. The text is written in both Karuk and English, and along with the introductory material which helps the reader in understanding the language, culture, and oral literature tratiions of the Karuk people, "offers an in-depth experience of the beauties and mysteries of Karuk literature at its best."
  
• Krober, Theodora, and Robert F. Heizer. Almost Ancestors: The First Californians. Edited by David Hales. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1968.
  
• Margolin, Malcolm. Monterey in 1786: The Journals of Jean Francois de La Pérouse. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1989.
  In September, 1786 two French ships put into Monterey Bay, the first foreign vesseles to visit Spainish California. Aboard was a party of scientists, navigators, map makers, illustrators, and physicians. The commander was La Pérouse who took detailed notes on the natural and cultural environments, especially the customs of the Indians recently drawn into the mission. His journal provides a startling portrait of the brutal conditions under which the Indians existed within the mission system. Margolin's introduction and commentary place La Pérouse's writings within the broader context of both Indian and white culture history.
  
• Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco - Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1978.
  A little more than two centuries ago, the San Franciso - Monterey Bay areas were lands of "inexpressible fertility", home to over 10,000 Ohlone (or Costanoans as they are often called). This book vividly recreates their world and their lives in a prose style that is both scholarly and sensitive, allowing the reader to savor the extraordinary texture of Indian life in the Bay area.
  
• Margolin, Malcolm, ed. and commentator. The Way We Lived: California Indian Reminiscences, Stories, and Songs. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1981.
  Here is the story of California Indians in their own words. Mr. Margolin has chosen a collection of reminiscences, stories, and songs that reflect both the diversity of the California Indians, as well as the richness of their cultural traditions. These selections will fill you, as they did Mr. Margolin, with wonderment and give you a "deeper understanding not only of Native Californians, but of all humanity."
  
• Margolin, Malcolm, and Yolanda Montijo. California Indian Stories and Memories. Berkeley: Heyday Books.
  Written for children, Margolin and Montijo have created one of the most authentic resources on California Indians. Using a clear, easy-to-read style, the authors vividly describe various aspects of traditional and contemporary Indian life, supplementing their text with photos.
  
• Mayfield, Thomas Jefferson. Indian Summer: Taditional Life Among the Choinumne Indians of California's San Joaquin Valley. Introduction by Malcolm Margolin. Berkeley: Heyday Books. 1996.
  This is an eyewitness account of the life of the Choinumne at the middle of the nineteenth century and offers a "rare window into a complex culture few outsiders were ever privilieged to see intact."
  
• McCawley, William. The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Banning, Calif.: Malki Museum Press, 1996.
  This is the definitive study of the Gabrielino, a work blending thorough research with skillful writing.
  
• Norton, Jack. Genocide in Northwestern California. San Francisco: The Indian Historian Press, 1979.
  
• Phillips, George Harwood. Chiefs and Challengers: Indian Resistance and Cooperation in Southern California. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1975.
  Much of California history has been written as if only whites were the important instigators of events and trends, while Indians are usually viewed as passive and helpless witnesses to their own destruction. In Dr. Phillips' book he has assembled a large body of historical and ethnographical data demonstrating that Indians were often of crucial importance in shaping early California history.
  
• Phillips, George Harwood. The Enduring Struggle: Indians in California History. Sparks, Nevada: Materials For Today's Learning, Inc. 1990.
  In this slender volume Dr. Phillips summarizes and interprets what is known of California Indian history. He discusses the initial Spanish conquest and settlement, the missionization along the central and southern coast, and the aftermath of the breaking up of the missions. He then turns his historical lense on the violence carried out against the Indians with the coming of the Americans at mid-nineteenth century, and the long period of deprivation and dispossession which characterized their life during the latter part of the nineteenth and early half of the twentieth centuries. This is followed by a summation of the federal Indian policies of the mid-twentieth century and ends by discussing the contemporary scene.
  
• Phillips, George Harwood. Indians and Intruders in Central California, 1769-1849. Norman, Oklahoma: U. of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
  With the arrival of the Spanish, the lives of the California Indians changed dramatically and drastically. Brought into the mission system, they were forced to abandon their traditional cultures and become Hispanizied serfs, working for their European overlords. However, many Indians chose not to participate and fled into the interior, only to be followed by armed soldiers. Joining forces with the Indians of the interior, who never had been colonized, they resisted Spanish incursions and by the time of the American conquest they were on the offensive, raiding the Mexican ranchos and towns. In this book, Dr. Phillips demonstrates how the Indians of the interior were active members of independent, evolving societies, and that their raids on the coast contributed to the decline of the Mexican economy. In so doing, Dr. Phillips reveals the profound effect the Indians had on California history before the American conquest.
  
• Powers, Stephen. Tribes of California. Introduction and notes by Robert F. Heizer. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1976.
  Powers, a journalist of great perceptiveness, carried out the first serious and systematic ethnography in California.
  
• Quinn, Arthur. Hell With The Fire Out: A History of the Modoc War. Faber and Faber Inc., 1998.
  "This book is about human passivity, how sometimes, especially in war, human beings seem but the playthings of the demonic." This book is also a good place to begin examining the post-Civil War "holocaust that descended upon Native America."
  
• Rapoport, Roger, and Margot Lind. Indian Museums: A Directory. Motorland: California State Automobile Association, March/April 1992: 36-37, 74-76.
  This is a convenient list of museums which focus on northern native California Indian cultures, as well as cultures in Nevada. The emphasis is on the continuing cultural traditions of the cultures interpreted. An adaptation of Malcolm Margolin's introduction to The Way We Lived preceeds the directory.
  
• Rawls, James J. Indians of California: The Changing Image. Norman: U. of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
  This doumentation of the demise of California's native peoples at the hands of the Europeans and Americans is thoughtful and very well written. The bibliography is splendid.
  
• Reid, Hugo. The Indians of Los Angles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852. Southwest Museum Papers, no. 21. Ed. by Robert F. Heizer. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum, 1968.
  Written by a Scot who was married to a Gabrielino woman, this collection of twenty-two letters originally published in the Los Angeles Star in 1852 is an authoritative description of tribal customs and mission life at San Gabriel.
  
• Sarris, Greg. Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1994.
  This biography of a great Pomo basketweaver and healer is "wonderful, and is urgently needed in these days of confusion over Native American identity and Native American spirituality. As charlatan 'medicine people' proliferate, and make huge profits from their chicanery, Mabel's story shows us the truth about the ways in which the spirit voices manifest themselves." In the telling of Mabel's story, Dr. Sarris also recounts how Pomo culture has continued despite the ruptures it has faced in the twentieth century.
  
• Shepherd, Alice. In My Own Words: Stories, Songs, and Memories of Grace McKibben Wintu. Berkely: Heyday Books, 1998.
  This is the only bilingual collection of Wintu oral literature and "marks a milestone in Indian linguistics." Dr. Sheperd's rendering of the Wintu storyteller Grace McKibben's songs, stories, and memories brings the Wintu world alive for the reader.
  
• Shipley, William, editor and translator. The Maidu Indian Myths and Stories of Hanc'ibyjim. Berekely: Heyday Book, 1998.
  Dr. Shipley's translation of this world-class collection of Maidu myths is a "stunning combination of master storytelling and deft translation.
  
• Teixeira, Lauren S. The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco Bay Area: A Research Guide. Ballena Press, 1998.
  This book is an excellent research tool for those who already possess some familiarity with the seemingly ever expanding Costanoan/Ohlone database.
  
• Vane, Sylvia Brakke and Lowell John Bean. California Indians: Primary Resources, A Guide to Manuscripts, Artifacts, Documents, Serials, Music, and Illustrations. Menlo Park, Calif.: Ballena Press, 1990.
  This is the definitive compendium of research materials for California's indigenous people. Of greatest usefulness is a county-by-county list of resources; however, the volume also includes a directory to California materials found in other states and even other countries.
  
• Walker, Phillip L., and Travis Hudson. Chumash Healing: Changing Health and Medical Practices in an American Indian Society. Banning, Calif.: Malki Museum Press, 1993.
  This is one of the first works solely devoted to the medical knowledge of California Indians.
  
• Wilson, Darryl B. The Morning the Sun Went Down. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1998.
  This autobiography by a member of the Achumawe/Atsugewi nations is a gripping story "that will change the way we think about Native California people of the past and present." Mr. Wilson "deftly interweaves Native American myths with stories of youthful innocence and experience to produce a richly textured, lyrical, and poignant memoir."

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