Anthropology 2030

Chawse
Indian Grinding Rock State
Historic Park
Miwok Indians, Amador County California

Jeremy Lerwill
4-4-2017
 As a child, my father would take me along during the summer to his Indian digs as he would

call them. My father worked for the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, and later Brigham Young

University in their anthropology and photography departments. He was called out to many of the

university projects to document them through film, as well as participate with the excavations themselves.

While other children would play in parks or watch cartoons, I would be out camping and hiking to remote

cliff dwellings in New Mexico, or in this case following my dad as he documents the discoveries and

plottings of a new area at the Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park.

The Park is located approximately 60 miles East of Californias Capitol, Sacramento, or 90 miles

North West of Yosemite National Park. It is nestled in a small valley in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada

mountain range. It is at an elevation of 2400, and covers 135 acres. It was established and protected by

the California Department of Parks and Recreation in 1962 and listed on the National Register of Historic

Places in 1971. Its English name is Grinding Rock, the Native name is Chawse. It is named Indian

Grinding rock due to there being 1,185 mortar holes found in the marbleized limestone in the area, the

largest grouping of such mortar holes in North America.

 The Miwok Indians (Mee-wuk) lived in and used this area for around 10,000 years. Due to the

vast amounts of acorns available from the Valley Oak trees. They would grind the acorns and other seeds

into meal, a step into making a flour from the acorns and seeds. From this flour they would make a simple

bread that was their main source of food. The foothills of the Sierra Nevadas are flush with wild life,

turkeys, deer, bear and rabbit, as well as lakes and tributaries full of fish. The climate being mild in

comparison to other Native lands in North America, they didnt have to worry about deep freezing

winters with an average winter temperature in the 40s, with little or no snow. The summers though

reach the mid 90s with highs as much as 110. Because of this heat index, the Miwoks built some of their

buildings under ground, or partially buried. The above ground structures were built using long strips of

cedar tree bark. They were called umacha (bark house).

With the discovery of gold in 1848, 45 miles north in Coloma, the world as the Miwok Indians

knew was disrupted. After surviving 10,000 years they were quickly surrounded in the area by

prospectors and pioneers, and in under 20 years were no longer using this land. The land was deeded and

sold and resold only to come back to Miwoks through preservation in the 1950s. There doesnt seem to

be an official or sponsored archaeological accounting for this site due to the transferring of private

ownership of the land, and it becoming a State Park in 1962. There is currently re constructions of
Miwok era buildings on site. A protective walkway and fence was erected surrounding the main grinding

rock around 1900 by the fifth land owner Serifino Scapuccino, who also opened the land back up for

Miwok use. With such a long and deep history of the area, there is very little in the way of preservation

and collection beyond the limestone mortars. A museum on site has recreations and basic information,

and on the grounds are re created bark homes, and roundhouses. The specimens collected are in film

form and stored with the OAC (Online Archive of California).

Due to how bedrock mortars are formed, there is no current process that can date their creation.

For this they cant be assigned to a particular prehistoric group, however its believed that they date back

to 7,000-8,000 years ago.

 Yet, despite their survivability, BRMs cannot be dated nor directly assigned to any one particular
prehistoric group due to their lack of detection. The rocks in which BRMs were ground on do not leave any
signal that an archaeologists tool, such as a radiometric clock, can identify. However, it is believed that
prehistoric Californians, dating back 7,000-8,000 years ago, made grinding tools such as
the pestle or mano that could have ground out BRMs. Therefore its difficult to decipher which primitive group
could have caused these markings. In addition, BRMs do not harbor any biological residue that can be
radiometrically dated, and simply because they are located inside of a site does not mean that the BRM was
used when the area was last occupied.

Miwok History Timeline

1579: Sir Francis Drake claims California for England and encounters
the coastal Miwok people. Chaplain Fletcher with the Sir Francis Drake
expedition wrote: They are of a free and loving nature, without guile or
treachery.
1800's: The Spanish began raiding Miwok villages for converts forcing
them to work as slaves in Spanish missions
1812: The Franciscan Mission San Jose is established and large
numbers of Miwok are forcibly moved to the mission (1812 - 1833)
1821: Mexico wins its independence from Spain and takes control of
California. Large numbers of Miwok people are indentured to Mexicans
1833: Cholera and Malaria epidemics kill many Miwok people
1838: Smallpox epidemic (1838-1839) ravages the tribe
1838: The Alta California missions were closed as religious and farming
communes - some Miwok return to their homelands
1841: The California Trail opens
1848: January 24, 1848: Gold is discovered at Sutter's timber Mill
starting the California Gold rush
1848: The white settlers and gold prospectors bring more diseases to
the Native Indians who lived in the surrounding areas of the westward
trails and start a series of conflicts and massacres against the Miwok
and other tribes
1848: Native Indians were forced off their lands and made to work in
mines
1850: California was admitted into the Union
 1850: The Mariposa Indian War (1850), led by under "Major" James D.
Savage against Chief Tenaya, was a final show of resistance by the
Miwok and the Yokuts against white incursions and atrocities