The Management of Grizzly Bears by Native Californians
The Management of Grizzly Bears by Native Californians
Session:
Historic Ethnobiology Date and Time:
Tuesday, 13 May, 2014 - 20:30 to 20:50
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">Grizzly bears are conventionally considered to have been the top predator in California prior to the Colonial period. Moreover, the native peoples are considered to have been ecologically subsidiary to these bears and accommodated them through ritual, subservience, and avoidance. This interpretation is grounded for the most part in Euroamerican observations made after 1769. This paper takes exception to the legitimacy of the specified evidence and argues that prior to the Columbian landfall Native Californians were the top predators and had long since vanquished their chief competitor, the Grizzly bear, from their primary resource environments. Indeed, the Colonial period reflected profound foreign disruptions and is, therefore, an inaccurate template for determining the traditional relationships between the Native Californians and their physical settings. These assertions will be supported by historical, archaeological, and biological evidence.