Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Contested Spaces and Spectrums of Resistance

Curran, Joseph B, Las Vegas NV

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of the NSF Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Tsim Schneider at the University of California Santa Cruz, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating how local Indigenous groups navigated contested spaces in the inland Southern California borderlands. Specifically, this proposed project seeks to illustrate the resilience of Indigenous communities and spectrums of resistance around peripheral mission satellite campuses, known as asistencias or estancias. Following the work of Indigenous scholars and others, we envision an Indigenous-centered community archaeology project to better understand spectrums of local resistance, resilience and survivance at asistencias/estancias. The proposed archaeological study seeks effective local engagement by consulting with Tribal community partners in the coproduction of knowledge. Thus, this archaeological study will adhere to the goals and needs of Tribes and build from ethnographic and archival research. The proposed archaeological study seeks effective local engagement by consulting with Tribal community partners in coproduction of knowledge. This project will be conducted over three phases. Each phase will be implemented in collaboration with Tribal community partners to prioritize the goals and needs of Tribes. The first phase would potentially include archival investigations to document the establishment, activities associated within, and the Indigenous/colonial interactions at asistencias. Contingent on the goals of the Native American community partners and the results of Phase 1, the second phase would consist of minimally intrusive archaeological investigations of the Asistencia San Bernardino de Sena in Redlands, California. These investigations involve near-surface and surface collection protocols such as pedestrian survey, a metal detector survey, a ground penetrating radar survey, and a catch-and-release study to identify and document architectural features, activity areas, and other relevant spaces. In consultation with Native American organizations, the third phase will consist of museum study analysis of extant collections from the San Bernardino County Museum to determine the presence of artifacts associated with Native peoples at the asistencia. This phase will also utilize a geographic information system (GIS) to analyze data and findings from the other phases reconstructing Indigenous history and resilience at the San Bernardino de Sena Asistencia. This project would work closely with Tribal organizations and volunteers from local historical communities to record evidence of ranching activities, identify the barracks/settlements of Indigenous labor, ascertain areas or features of the Asistencia and surrounding locale that might be associated with specific tribes/groups, and document evidence of Indigenous subsistence and technology. In addition, a GIS will be utilized to reconstruct the landscape and document the multiple attempts at settlement in the valley in relation to the Asistencia illustrating how Indigenous spaces still remain. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.