Heritage In-Between: Seeing Native Histories in Colonial California

Conventional accounts of missionary and settler colonialism in California have overemphasized the loss experienced by Native Americans. For indigenous Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people of the San Francisco Bay Area, a story of loss contrasts sharply with their casino–a symbol of prosperity–established in 2013. Each narrative is anchored to highly visible places that commemorate either loss or success. These places, examined here using two case studies, also conceal an important “heritage in-between”–that is, the critical time period, spaces, and things that reflect native resilience and transformation–that might serve to better contextualize both narrative projects.