1. Mikel Hogan, Ph.D. Applied/ Public Anthropologist CSUF, 675 278 3309
Banning Ranch: a Sacred Landscape Archaeological Sites in Orange County, CA.
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.
Applied/ Public Anthropologist
CSUF,
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

2. The Channel Islands Provide Evidence for Prehistoric Occupation of California 13,000 YA

3. Southern California Native American Villages at the Time of Spanish Contact

4. California Tribal Territories

5. Mesa, Wetlands, and Ocean Provided Abundant Resources for Thousands of Years

6. The Prehistoric Economy was Based on Hunting, Gathering, Fishing

7. The Settlement of Orange County Coast
Context:
1. By 10,000 years ago most of the California coast
was occupied
2. The California coast is unique for studying coastal
prehistory because of the long expanse of
settlement over time
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

8. BR is Site of Early Ritual and Trading Center
Banning Ranch is an extraordinary archaeological site where the ancient Native American coastal village and trading hub called Genga existed for 0ver a thousand years
The whole area of Banning Ranch was comprised of a large village complex
Genga was the Village Hub for Newport Bay area, wherein the other villages were dependents—this extended from Banning Ranch south to Newport Bay
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

9. Banning Ranch Cultural Characteristics:
interdependence was a key cultural characteristic: they were not separate self-sufficient & self-reliant communities
they were part of long-distance networks of kin
groups and exchange partners across the state—
large gatherings met seasonally
In other words, Banning Ranch villages were part of a regionally-based cultural system.
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

10. What is a Sacred Landscape?
Landscape: refers to people’s engagement with the material world; landscapes are differently understood and experienced by people
Sacred Landscape: people “be” in the landscape, they don’t just “see it”—when “being in” the landscape, people experience no divide between nature and culture
A sacred landscape is made by the ancestral beings for the people who in their turn, through ritual, painting, dance, and song nurture both the ancestors and their land
Ancient people of BR and elsewhere had a “large view” viewpoint of the landscape evidenced by the solstice alignments with Catalina and Santa Barbara as reported in ethnographic accounts
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

11. Sacred Landscape
Ancient people of BR inhabited the land in ways that had long ancestry
Their tenure in the landscape was grounded in a sense of ancestry, sustained through origin myths and ritual cycles

12. Banning Ranch is a Sacred Landscape
Ethnographic studies suggest the ritual items—cogged stones and discoidals were sacred talisman
Talisman are portable objects that possess a concentrated form of supernatural spiritual or life-force essence
Banning Ranch had talismen (cogged stones and discoidals) that were buried in specific patterns in ancestor’s graves at BR
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

13. The stone sculptures we call cogged stones are mainly found at BC with the 2nd largest number found at BR
Cogged stones have been dated to 7,-8,000 years ago

14. Ritual was an Integral Part of Their Cultures

15. Specific Examples of What the Data Shows: Banning Ranch
What Does the Data Show?
Herman Strandt’s description of the camps and village sites Orange County in part 1 of his 1926 report:
“ The camp and village sites of the Canalino Indians in Orange County were close together, mainly along the coast of Newport Bay. They were often no more than a hundred yards apart. Forty-two villages have been counted in a radius of two miles…” (PCASQ, 1965, Vol. 1, No. 2, Pg. 5)
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

16. Data on BR as Sacred Landscape
Banning Ranch Data that demonstrates it is a sacred landscape:
Sacred ritual artifacts found in burials:
cogged stones, and near “perfectly round discoidals”
and the placement pattern of these sacred objects
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

17. Data on BR as Sacred Landscape
The Data:
Herman Strandt’s description of the camps and village sites Orange County in part 3 of his 1926 report:
“ During the many years of investigation and exploration, I have proved that the cogged wheel stone was found in very old burials… .In the year of 1926, a large village site was located on the Banning Land Company, two miles north of Coast Mesa.
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

18. Data on BR as Sacred Landscape
The Data:
“When this field had been plowed in 1926, the plow turned up some of these cogged wheel stones and a few human bones…”
“…and the next day, Sunday, they went there with shovels and started digging and soon came onto a skeleton. With this skeleton they found in all, 8 cogged wheel stones and 6 discoidals..”
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

19. Data on BR as Sacred Landscape
The Data: Placement Pattern
“… the stones were piled one on top of the other, and facing toward the evening star…. . in this case the stones were used in burial ceremonials,…”
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

20. Data on BR as Sacred Landscape
The Data:
In the year 1927, I had the privilege to excavate on this place, locating the main burial ground…
“Working with several men for six weeks, we discovered 106 skeletons. One day my attention was called by Mr. B. Sackett and I found a beautiful cogged wheel stone on the chest of a male skeleton; here it was a ceremonial stone. These skeletons were found in a plot of 40 by 50 feet”…
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

21. Preserve the Sacred Landscapes of BR
In closing, there is sufficient archaeological and ethnographic data that demonstrates BR needs to be preserved as a sacred landscape
There are eight known archaeological sites and all are listed as “Banning Ranch Cultural Properties and Landscape” on the Native American Heritage Commission Sacred Lands Inventory
The scaled down development plan for BR will destroy the character of the Traditional Cultural Landscape and five of the Traditional Cultural Properties.
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.

22. Preserve the Sacred Landscapes of BR
We urge you to uphold the Coastal Act and deny the development of Banning Ranch to preserve this last open space and sacred landscape of Native American descendants on the Orange County coast.
Mikel Hogan, Ph.D.