Tag Archives: Rock Art

The Plunder and Peddle

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Jack Elliott

“Pocketing potsherds is erasure. It is the worst of colonization, the taking of the land. If you believe the stealing has ended, it has not.” –Craig Childs Why Potsherds Matter On this, the last day of Native American Heritage Month. … Continue reading →

Posted in Santa Barbara | Tagged Adventure, Archaeology, Artifacts, backcountry, Chumash, History, Indians, Los Padres National Forest, Rock Art, Wilderness | 10 Comments

Native American Cupule Boulder Discovered

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Jack Elliott

Mortar No trail leads there. A careless body could fall along the way and be bloodied up, break a bone, die busted and splattered across the sharp angular stones of canyon rip-rap and jumbled boulders and bedrock slabs. Such has … Continue reading →

Posted in Santa Barbara | Tagged Adventure, Anthropology, Archaeology, Chumash, Hiking, History, Los Padres National Forest, Native Americans, Rock Art, Santa Barbara, Wilderness | 2 Comments

Koso Shoshone Native American Rock Art, Ghost Dance and Hunting Magic

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Jack Elliott

Trona Pinnacles. Enter, if ye dare. The Trip Out Yonder Some monstrous industrial ramrod ferociously hammered at long intervals some unseen target of progress, the metallic slamming a devilish metronome, the concussive impact reverberating off a pinch of rolling mountains … Continue reading →

Posted in California | Tagged Adventure, Hiking, Hiking (2), History, Native Americans, Nature, Pictographs, Rock Art, Shoshone, Travel, Wilderness | 2 Comments

From Graffiti to Graffito, Trash To Treasure

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Jack Elliott

The old black board inside Manzana Schoolhouse, a free-for-all graffiti panel. (Manzana Creek Schoolhouse Circa 1893) Inside the old Manzana Creek schoolhouse within the San Rafael Wilderness of Santa Barbara County one hundred years worth of names and dates cover … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Archaeology, Hiking, History, Landscapes, longreads, Nature, Non-fiction, Pictographs, Rock Art, Santa Barbara, Writing | 5 Comments

Desert Pictograph Boulder

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Jack Elliott

The thermometer bounces between 108 and 111 degrees as I drive into the Mojave Desert on a recent June afternoon. Several days earlier in 115 degree heat, not all that far away, a middle-aged man had left a tour bus … Continue reading →