This subject is brought together and treated in depth for the first time. Drawing on the best scholarship of others and extensive personal research, the author uncovers the technology and the significance of paint in early Native California. Hundreds of rare photographs parallel the text. Many are of painted 19th century Indians. Others in full color depict an array of ochre-covered artifacts. Images from walls of remote caves transport the reader to a California long past and little known.

Author Paul Campbell reveals the knowledge he has spent 20 years learning and reproducing from California natives. Included are sections on the basic skills of survival, the tools of gathering and food preparation, and the implements of household and personal necessity, as well as the arts of hunting and fishing. Sample topics include: shelter; greens, beans, flowers and other vegetables; meat preparation; how to make and shoot an Indian bow.--From publisher description.

"Here for the first time are collected as many drawings and paintings of California Indians as the authors' search could discover, and constituting most of those presently extant and available for reproduction." Back cover.

Of all the books written concerning the Indians of North America, I don’t know of one which treats of the Indians’ great knowledge of medicine, the vast store which was theirs of plants and herbs which possessed curative and healing qualities, many of them far superior, even today, to the medicine used by the white physician. There is a reason. In some instances the white man did not get the correct information from his Indian brother due to the latter’s inability to make himself understood—this was, of course, also true of the former. Again, some information given was intentionally wrong due to the ill-feeling the Indian had for the white man. And again, many of those healing plants were held in such veneration by the Indians, that to impart their virtues to a white man was an unpardonable crime, and the punishment meted out to the offender was of the severest form. I am an Indian, proud of it and of my forefathers, whose bitterness toward the white man was only too well justified. But time changes all things and bitterness and hatred never made for understanding nor happiness. In this spirit I wrote this book, in the spirit of doing good. And in this I have the help and permission of my dear uncle, Chief Pablo, of the Mahuna tribe of Indians of Southern California, who permitted me to describe certain plants whose curative properties have been kept a secret by the Indians for over one hundred years. This is the first time they are made known. The Indian, living close to and with nature—the greatest teacher of all for those who have eyes to see—became nature’s most intelligent pupil. Gifted with the keenest observation and the ability to reason, he searched the discovered plants which nature herself had provided for any ailment, sickness, or mishap which might befall him. I am sending this book out into the world not for fame, but as a messenger of goodwill and peace. May it be received in this spirit and accomplish its mission.

This monograph provides a glimpse of the Kumeyaay cosmology with worldview, observatories, constellations and stories, including modern interpretations of the calendar. Kumeyaay cosmology was traditionally intertwined with ceremonies, harvest & hunts, burning schedules and the acquisition of spiritual power. Personal conduct was subject to cosmological constraints and rewards. Cosmology was so important that Spanish priests and subsequent U.S. government agents worked hard to repress and expunge the beliefs from Kumeyaay society.

"The book describes the many ways California Indians used oil they gathered from natural oil seeps across the state. These include in baskets and water bottles; knives, spears, and arrows; mortars; decorations; mending; personal adornment; games; money; plank canoes; and legends."

Bridging the fields of conservation, art history, and museum curating, this volume contains the principal papers from an international symposium titled "Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice" at the University of Leiden in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from June 26 to 29, 1995. The symposium—designed for art historians, conservators, conservation scientists, and museum curators worldwide—was organized by the Department of Art History at the University of Leiden and the Art History Department of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam. Twenty-five contributors representing museums and conservation institutions throughout the world provide recent research on historical painting techniques, including wall painting and polychrome sculpture. Topics cover the latest art historical research and scientific analyses of original techniques and materials, as well as historical sources, such as medieval treatises and descriptions of painting techniques in historical literature. Chapters include the painting methods of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Dutch 17th-century landscape painting, wall paintings in English churches, Chinese paintings on paper and canvas, and Tibetan thangkas. Color plates and black-and-white photographs illustrate works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.