To Upgrade the State Park's Native American Component
2001 Commentary
by Dr. John Anderson
Readers of my web pages ask me how they as state taxpayers can expect improvement in the Fort Tejon State Park public displays, when California is undergoing economic stress due in large part to its desperate electricity problems that include blackouts and soaring utility bills?
I answer them that the ideal time to address the neglect of native California history by public agencies, even in times of energy crisis, is when new development projects are proposed for nearby Native California sites.
American laws mandates careful monitoring of native sites designated for negative impact or even destruction. As a result, a great deal of old and new information is routinely collected and studied, new digs are undertaken, and contemporary native communities are consulted with new ethnographic data collected.
So much is learned during this process, yet too often existing road signs remain as they were writtin decades ago, historic markers are unchanged, state park information is not undated, reports are not made available in local public libraries, booklets are not sold to the public through parks and museums, etc.
What this means is that a closed system of information is perpetuated, excluding meaningful public participation. Too often information on the native sites are censored from books and newspaper articles in the name of protecting them from vandals. Yet, how can the public fairly judge the importance of destroying a native historic or archaeological site if they have never before had adequate knowledge of its existence, of the drama of events that led to the native's absence from such sites, and of the ongoing efforts of native California groups to preserve thier heritage from the obvious negative impacts of development?
Development projects on the Tejon Ranch particularly interest me at this time, as someone studying the historic impact of Fort Tejon and the Tejon Ranch on the Chumash Indians. New projects include the construction of the Pastoria power plant in Tsipowhi canyon [on the 1851 Tejon Treaty lands, and still on the 'reduced' 50,000 acre Sebastian Indian Reservation], potential plans for developing historic Castac lake [oddly stripped of its Chumash name and renamed Tejon], and plans for a business district near Matapkwelkwel at the foot of the Grapevine Grade [interstate 5].
It would be appropriate if each of these large development projects contributed adequate funds for revamping the Fort Tejon park displays, associated freeway and roadside public displays, and state historic markers, so that the vast amount of information made available through legally mandated impact reports on these sites could fully benefit the public. The amounts of money involved would be trivial, compared to the vast sums expended for development.
To continue to fail to make such information avialable to the general public, is to leave the Park Service open to criticism that it is catering to big business interests and neglecting its duty to faithfully document the native history of Tejon region "[ John Anderson, June 6, 2001].
"The Fort Tejon State Park is located on interstate highway 5, in the mountains overlooking Bakersfield, California. My criticism of the park's public history program dates back many years. Unfortunately, from everything I can learn, the park still neglects its Tejon Indian programming.
johnandersonlibrary.org
