SAS Webinar
“Native American Village in Sierra Foothills– Excavation”
by
Kiana Hugins, University of California, Merced
Saturday, January 8, 2022
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. PST
Grandad Archaeological Field School has been conducted at the Native American village site (Polachi) in the Sierran Foothills between Oakhurst and Mariposa for 20+ years. The village was occupied for over 9,000 years and provides Fresno State students with a rich learning experience to gain basic skills in field work in archaeology as well as learn about Sierran pre-history. The property the site is located on is land owned by a Miwuk/Chuckchansi family, who asked them to dig at their village site. Kiana will discuss her experiences with this field school and how she expanded her knowledge of Indigenous people.

Kiana Hugins is a senior at University of California, Merced majoring in Anthropology and a 2021 SAS scholarship recipient. She co-founded and has been president of the Anthropology Society of UC Merced since 2018. In 2019 and again in 2021 she participated in a Fresno State Archaeological Field School, first as a crew member and then as a crew chief. Her archaeological interests lay in studying the transformation that colonialism had on North America’s ecosystems and how the process impacted Indigenous cultural perceptions of the continent’s landscape.