Elem Historic Feature Interpretation

The following table lists the historical features, their probable age, function, and general characteristics.  This information suggests a historic Native American community that was maintaining their traditional lake resource economic focus and their traditional religious focus while taking on some of the agricultural practices of the colonizing European culture.  The features indicate differences between households in economic focus as well as traditional focus.

Features 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 all included Chinese related materials suggesting that most Elem households accepted the Chinese mine-working pioneers into their families.   The features indicate that different households specialized in different economic activities. Feature 4 had an abundance of fishing related material where Features 5 and 6 had more agricultural related material.  Some features (particularly Feature 4 but also 5 and 6) had more “traditional” cultural items suggesting that older or more traditional individuals lived in these households.  Children’s items used by both girls and boys were found in two of the features (5 and 6).  A striving to be self-sufficient and not tied to the market economy introduced by the colonizing Europeans was evident by the existence of canning jars in most of the features (2, 5, 6, 7).

Fea.DateType of
Deposit
RepresentingTraditionalUse of
Lake
ChildrenHome
Canning
Chinese
Material
1pre
1917
Trash PitGeneral
Household
Refuse
????yes
21903-
1934
House   
Feature
General
Household
Refuse
Stone
Tool
Making
??yesyes
3Pre
1917
House   
Feature
General
Household
Refuse
?Fish bone??yes
Many
4Pre
1917
House   
Feature
Fisherman
Household
Refuse
Shell
Bead
Making
Boat
parts,
fish bone
and shell
???
51900-
1960
House   
Feature
Agricultural
Household
Refuse
Shell
Bead
Making
Shellboys &
girls
yesyes
61880-
1958
House   
Feature
General
Household
Refuse
Shell
Bead
Making
?boys &
girls
yesyes
71880-
1930
Sheet
Deposit
General
Household
Refuse
?Boat parts?yesyes

It is likely that these historic features contained information that could have been used to define specific families and the economic and cultural differences each family brought to the community as a whole.

The study of these features could have provided documentation on the rate of acculturation that was occurring in the community following European colonization of the area.  

A study of the Chinese materials contained in these features could have provided a timetable for the arrival of Chinese pioneers in Lake County as well as an indication of what part of China they came from.  The Chinese materials could have indicated their cultural status in the community and when and if they were forced to return to China following passage of the 1888 Scott Act (any Chinese who returned to China could not return to the U.S.) or the 1892 Geary Act (all Chinese in the U.S. must carry certificates of residence).

Unfortunately, all the historic features described on this page were destroyed by EPA grading without any data recovery or mitigation as required by the National Historic Preservation Act.

All historic features destroyed by illegal EPA project grading.