K. Dowdall/O. Parrish: Tribal Cultural Landscape (TCL) Methods, a Kashaya Pomo Example

Katherine M. Dowdall, M.A., RPA, Co-Principal Investigator (California Department of Transportation) is a Senior Archaeologist and District Native American Coordinator in the Office of Environmental Maintenance Caltrans, District 4, Oakland. She has held her position for 33 years. Kathy meets the Secretary of Interior Qualifications for Principal Investigator in archaeology, meets the NPS Professional Qualifications Standards as an ethnographer, and OHA qualifications as an oral historian. Kathy’s original discipline was archaeology, but her education and qualifications later expanded to include ethnography and oral history. Kathy’s publications include Late Holocene Cultural Diversity on the Sonoma Coast (2003); A Meaningful Disturbance of the Earth (Dowdall and Parrish 2002); She is interested in community-based studies, living heritage, inclusivity, and collaborative knowledge production. Using place-based oral histories, she is currently the Principal Investigator of Santa Rosa’s West End Italian Neighborhood Project.
Otis Parrish, MA, Co-Principal Investigator (Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of Stewarts Point Rancheria) is a Kashaya Tribal and academic scholar. His mother, Essie Parrish, served as the spiritual leader of the Kashaya community for many years until her death in 1979. Numerous anthropologists consulted and collaborated with Essie Parrish. In this spirit, Otis Parrish carried forward parts of his mother’s work by consulting and collaborating as a tribal scholar. Further, he became a professional archaeologist and ethnographer himself. Otis holds a BA in Anthropology from Sonoma State University and an MA in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Otis has authored and co-authored numerous professional publications including Khela: A Father’s View (Parrish 1976), A Meaningful Disturbance of the Earth (Dowdall and Parrish 2002); California Indians and Their Environment (Lightfoot and Parrish 2009); and The Kashaya Pomo Tribal Landscape Project (Dowdall, Parrish, Purser, and Wingard (2016). Otis currently serves his Tribe as a Cultural Committee Advisor. His views and contributions have greatly expanded the field of California Bay Area anthropology, archaeology, and Tribal heritage preservation.