Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: On Arborglyphs and Arborgraphs Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 3 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropolegy . Vol. 38, No. 2 (2018) . pp. 301-303 On Arborglyphs and Arborgraphs THOMAS BLACKBURN 900 E. Harrison Ave. B-25, Pomona CA 91767 In 1846, an arborgraph drawn on a cottonwood tree near Kern River was recorded by a member of the Frémont party; it may well be the only such record still extant. The scene depicted appears to involve vaqueros roping tule elk, and possibly represents a traditional native response to initial contacts with Euromericans. Some years ago, Saint-Onge et al. (2009) published a description of an apparent Chumash arborglyph incised or carved into the trunk of a live oak tree in San Luis Obispo County, pointed out its striking similarity to motifs present at a number of important Chumash pictographs sites, and advanced the hypothesis that it had significant archaeoastronomical implications. In the course of their discussion, they cited Fr. José Sefian’s 1815 observation that the Indians “on barks and on tree trunks do sometimes draw the figures of certain animals,” drew attention to ethnographic accounts of trees being painted or decorated and used as shrines, and suggested that the arborglyph might “be representative of a type of ritual site that once was more widespread than is currently recognized” (2009:49-50). The purpose of the present brief note is to call attention to what I believe to be a well-documented, historically-significant, and probably unique rendition of a Native Californian arborgraph that seems to have been generally overlooked in earlier discussions of the topic. The arborgraph in question was originally sketched by Edward Kern in 1846, somewhere along the Kern River. Edward Kern accompanied the John C. Frémont expedition of 1845-46 as an expeditionary artist, and he was a member of the detachment that Frémont sent through Walker Pass into the San Joaquin Valley, with orders to rendezvous at Kings River. The party’s leader, Joseph Walker, mistook the Kern River for Kings River, and the group waited unsuccessfully for Frémont’s arrival for some time before departing (Spence and Jackson 1973: 57-8, 61). Kern’s original sketch was redrawn in 1853 by his brother Richard Kern and submitted with other drawings to Henry Schoolcraft for inclusion in the 301 latter’s famous six-volume compendium of information on the Indians of North America. Richard Kern’s drawing (Fig. 1} was subsequently turned into a lithograph by Seth Eastman and published (Schoolcraft 1854: 252-53), along with the following comment by Richard concerning its provenience: “Of the accompanying copies of Indian drawings, Fig. A, Plate 33, was found on the trunk of a cotton-wood tree in the valley of King’s river, California, and evidently represents the manner of catching different wild animals with the lasso. ..” Although the arborgraph was obviously created sometime between 1771-2 (when the first local missions were established) and 1846, since it depicts vaqueros roping animals from horseback, it closely resembles pictographs typical of the region and shows little stylistic evidence of Euromerican influences other than the subject matter. It is interesting that the animals depicted are clearly cervids (deer or elk) and not (as one might expect) cattle, and are most likely—judging from their apparent size and the shape of their antlers—tule elk, which were particularly abundant in the marshlands in the Tulare Lake region. As Stine (1980:21-32) has pointed out, prior to Mexican independence in 1821, elk were hunted in relatively small numbers, and primarily for leather and tallow; the Spanish appeared to prefer the meat of domestic animals over that from wild game. However, by the 1820s the establishment of ranchos in areas farther inland from the missions, the relaxation of strict Spanish trade policies, and the accessibility of rapidly expanding herds of cattle and other domestic livestock led to an increasing emphasis on hides and tallow as the primary commodities available to the Californios for export, and elk also began to_be. exploited on an almost commercial scale. Beginning i in 1826, groups of vaqueros would travel into the San Joaquin Valley during the spring and sur pring and summer to rope and slaughter considerable numbers-of tule elk, primarily for their tallow, which was greatly prized in the United States for making candles and in both Peru.and California for cooking. Why was such a seemingly mundane activity as elk hunting depicted in an arborgraph, and when and by whom was it created? It might be suggested that the scene was drawn by individuals familiar with horses with riders, such as former neophytes or-refugees from the missions, who were simply depicting or commemorating a secular activity and a way of life with which they were relatively familiar or that they had personally observed.