Karissa Smathers, Dr. Rachel Olsthoorn, & Dr. Colleen Delaney
“Santa Rosa Island is a complex geographic, cultural and historical location shaped by the indigenous and ranching life ways that have long inhabited the island. Located in eight-island archipelago of the California Islands, Santa Rosa Island is a part of the Channel Islands National Park. Since the inception of CSU Channel Island’s Santa Rosa Island Research Station on the island in 2014, historic material has been discovered through field schools and regular maintenance by the students, professors, and the staff of the station. How does this historical material from the Santa Rosa Island Research Station reflect the daily life of the island’s inhabitants during the ranching period?
A study of place attachment has been essential to connect this relationship between the material culture and the ranching period’s inhabitants, in consideration with the island’s isolation from the mainland. Through artifactual interpretation and literature review, the expected findings from the research contributes to our understanding and ongoing knowledge of how women, children, and men may have interacted with the island’s landscape.”