California Lutheran University’s College of Arts and Sciences hosted historian and co-author of “We Are the Land: A History of Native California” Damon Akins for a lecture on California’s Indigenous history on Wednesday, March 19.
Last year, Akins received the Ray Allen Billington Visiting Professorship from Occidental College and the Huntington Library. He said he is using the fellowship to research Huntington’s archives for his upcoming book, “Las Californias Indígenas.” The book will focus on 12 sites where Indigenous peoples have lived throughout Alta and Baja California.
On Wednesday, Akins gave a presentation, followed by a Q-and-A session, to discuss his book-in-progress and highlight the lack of research on Indigenous peoples’ history during the Mexican period from 1822 to 1846.
“What this project was, for me, was trying to do was think about the stories, the histories we tell about the Mexican period in California and how that focuses on the approximately 15,000 non-Native people who lived about 50 miles in from the coast, from the Bay Area down to San Francisco,” Akins said.
Akins presented a short history of three sites including Guadalupe Valley, San Emigdio Canyon, and Yosemite Valley. He illustrated each location with original maps that he adapted in his research to understand relationships between Indigenous groups and these regions.
“I’m having to literally take a map that shows where the ranch is and move it to 40% opacity and overlay it onto a map that shows where the Native villages were, and line up the coast to geolocate everything, and then take another one to layer that on top of that,” Akins said.
In addition to assembling materials for his book, Akins plans on reaching out to Indigenous groups to hear their historical accounts of these locations.
“I haven’t done that yet because I need to make sure I’m doing my due diligence,” Akins said. ”It’s very easy to ask for help and not do the work to build the relationships.”
Akins said the book’s structure will be difficult to navigate due to the variety of geographical differences he has discovered in his research. Due to these obstacles, he encouraged the audience to share their feedback and reactions to his work.
“The challenge at this point is, because these places are so different, it is difficult to construct chapters with such radically different sources,” Akins said.
Bryan Rasmussen, chair of the English Department, helped coordinate Akins’ lecture. He said he was introduced to Akins’ work after using “We Are The Land” as context for his Literature of California in the West class, which discusses Indigenous activism for civil rights. Rasmussen said listening to Akins’ research methodology was a highlight for him.
“I think what I really connect with a lot was his visiting of places, and thinking about mapping as also kind of an archive,” Rasmussen said.
Akins hosted a student discussion in Rasmussen’s Environmental Literature class before his lecture, during which students explored the relationship between national parks and Native land to critique wilderness as an erasure of Native culture.
Rasmussen said the discussion took place during the “perfect intersection” of his curriculum, as the first half of the course celebrates the National Park Service System and the second half critiques national parks as an instrument of settler colonialism.
“I think that’s hard for students to hear, right? Because it makes you feel somehow like responsible or implicated,” Rasmussen said.
Junior Emma Caputo said Akins’ overview of the conservation movement resonated with her after being taught about missions without the inclusion of Indigenous peoples growing up.
“In California, people learned about the missions, but, like, you don’t get that Indigenous perspective when you’re in elementary school,” Caputo said.
Sophomore Alison Meissner said Akins’ dedication to his research, by visiting libraries, archives and the locations themselves, made the presentation interesting.
“It had a really good effect on me. I think him traveling for his research and being able to show people, like, his, the relationship from the Natives and the land and the non-Natives of the land, through not just facts, but also imagery,” Meissner said.
Meissner, who will be a research student in environmental studies next year, said Akins’ appreciation and recognition of the land will influence her mindset going forward.
“Research is explaining past lives and how the land is experienced, and it helps you uncover how everything is today,” Meissner said.
