There is no beaver news today, honestly. But today is an important day, so I thought I’d share with you that it’s the day Don Perryman’s Ohlone collection is given to the Martinez Museum. Museum director Andrea Blachman and member Cathy Ivers are driving to my parents home in volcano to make the transfer. My father willed it to the museum before he died and was eager to have this collection shown to the public.
My dad, who never graduated from highschool, served as a merchant marine because he was too young for the army during WWII, later pursued his GED and an AA degree in night school. He worked his way from an oiler to the top of management at general office in steam generation for PGE. In his spare time, as a shift work operator with 6 children he managed to become an amateur archeologist, researching, spotting and excavating Ohlone (he called Costanoan) sites around the Bay Area before the asphalt was poured over every piece of once tribal land.
One of these sites was the Fernandez Ranch in Franklin Canyon (unincorporated Martinez) which is where much of the collection was found. He was shadowed at the dig by UCB archeology students who later wrote up the findings in Archeological Survey No 49, papers 75 & 74 published in 1960.
My father was meticulous and would tag and record every item, even if they just got placed in a shoebox later. Although he had stopped digging by the time I was born, he taught me how to recognize midden piles from Ohlone sites, and spot the glint of obsidian in the soil. Parts of his collection have hung before in the museum, and even in city hall when I was in Kindergarten. He was very proud of his work, and loved to talk to you about it, explain what it was used for or tell you how it was found. His primary resource was the beloved red massive tome of Kroeber’s Handbook of the California Indians, and it seemed fitting to me that this was the first place I looked for data on the historic prevalence of beavers and sits on my bookshelf now.
I grew up surrounded by arrowheads, ear pugs, charm stones and mortars. They are among my earliest memories and seem like the borders of my childhood. My father died in February of 2013, and it is a solemn and fullsome feeling to pack them up this morning. I know he would want it to happen and delighted that more people would see the treasures, but I think I’m glad he doesn’t have to be here when it does.
Apparently Perrymans will make a difference in Martinez for years to come.
