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Deana Dartt
Anthropology

Jon Erlandson, Mentor
Torrey Rick, Mentor

Wimat, the Place of Origin and Unanswered Questions: Archeological Investigations at Santa Rosa Island, California.

The second largest of the five northern Channel Islands, Wimat was home to thousands of Chumash people and, as told in oral tradition, is the place of their origin. The rich marine environment, with fresh water streams, and a landscape much like the Santa Monica mountain range, allowed the islanders to flourish. Now owned and managed by the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy, these islands have remained virtually undeveloped. Thus, the archeological record and the context of the Channel Islands is well preserved, and, aside from early blunderers of the 1960s whose work has remained largely unpublished, Wimat has seen limited archeological investigations. Using survey, total station and GPS mapping, limited excavation, unpublished notes and maps, and the stories of Kitsewpawit (a Chumash informant) we will create a more comprehensive story of the people of Wimat. That story, however, will remain incomplete until the people exhumed from burial sites and still at a museum in Santa Barbara are returned to their homeland.