Book Reviews
The
Indians
of
Chico
Rancheria by
Dorothy
J.
Hill
History
of
Indians,
mostly
Mechoopda,
before
and
after
they
were
relocated
to
Chico
Rancheria.
California Indian informants who experienced a full native way of life would of necessity have to have been born prior to 1850, for after that time (or earlier in some areas of the state) an alien society dominated their homelands. Much of California ethnography has, therefore, been gained from the descendants of these native people in the form of second person accounts. As time progresses, even the second generation people are becoming scarce or have now gone.
Strangely enough, some of the old traditions exist in memory form. These second, third, and sometimes fourth generation memories, when tapped, even today provide data which enrich our meager store of knowledge of the first Californians. Dorothy Hill has used these memory sources in combination with historic records and documents to shed more light and understanding on the Indians of the Chico Rancheria. She records the Indian reaction to and interaction with the alien people, whose numbers, power, and sophistication swept away the old traditions and caused those physical, cultural, and sociological charges from which there can be no return
Whereas much of Dorothy Hill's work has come from written records, she has interviewed a number of elderly Indian people over the years. This new information is a contribution to the knowledge of a past way of life. Further, her bringing together is the present work various documentary information and original research is a great service to the memory of the Maidu people. Local histories are invaluable in presenting to us today a time window through which we may glimpse a fragment of our historic heritage left to us by our Indian and non-Indian predecessors. --from preface by Francis A. Riddell, State Park Archaeologist, California Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento, California
