UCLA

This thesis investigates the reproduction of settler-colonial violence within human science discourse and its regulation of Native people. The manifestation of settler-colonial violence is reproduced within the hegemonic discourses that permeated early Anthropological and Archaeological study and research relating to Native peoples and Native places. The knowledge produced, about Native people and Native cultures, emanating from “salvage anthropology” created an authoritative voice that informs Anthropological research and Archaeological fieldwork. This thesis necessarily locates and positions a Native American voice within the context of cultural resource management (CRM) to disrupt the Western authoritative voice and to interrogate the function of power and control over Native bodies and spaces. By investigating one incident within Southern California involving the desecration of a sacred site, this thesis highlights how settler-colonial violence is manifested. The goal of this research thesis is to promote an approach to cultural resource management that incorporates Native worldviews to advance a more holistic context towards the protection of sacred sites and the understanding of Native-centric significance of traditional cultural landscapes found in Southern California tribal ancestral territories.