A Selective Bibliography of the California Indian, with Emphasis on the Past Decade

Any researcher who comes to the literature of the California Indian intent on preparing yet another bibliography confronts a consistent dilemma: what to include or exclude. To be sure, literature abounds, for the California Indian remains a viable subject not only for anthropologists but for historians, ethnohistorians, geographers and other scholars. In the 1970s several scholars produced bibliographical or documentary studies and these form the foundation of this listing. Grouped around somewhat traditional headings, the bibliography focuses on disciplinary and interdisciplinary writings mainly in the social sciences; I have excluded studies in physical anthropology, fiction, literary essays and poetry. I have also omitted references to foreign language sources. Moreover, because they are too numerous to cite herein, I have identified only a handful of the master’s theses produced in departments of anthropology, geography and history at all campuses of California State University and the University of California. Although the intent emphasizes the past ten years or so, at times I have dipped into the literature of the entire 1970s, especially when studies appear in less well known publications. On the other hand, to some extent I have tried to avoid duplicating some references appearing in the articles in this symposium or the book review section. Many of the items are, themselves, excellent bibliographical sources (e.g., California, vol. 8 of the Handbook of North American Indians [1978]). Moreover, some citations cover a larger universe than California, but are cited because they contain many applicable entries for the time period. In no way is this bibliography exhaustive within any heading, and some topics are regrettably lacking