When discussing Indigenous people through a historical lens, the history and identity of Indigenous people often become conflated with a “past”. In California, this is perpetrated through a colonial narrative of history moving from a period of “wilderness” and “savagery” to “civilization”. This is depicted in concepts such as the “Spanish Fantasy Heritage”. In addition to this type of retelling of historical events, Indigenous people often become locked into these exotic representations of “the past”. However, this idea of Indigenous cultures as representations of “the past” denies the individual histories of Indigenous people and judges Indigenous cultures against Western cultures and practices.

“The Indians of the past, when presented in the anthropological literature, seemed more like figures in a diorama than real, flesh-and-blood people. … when I pictured a woman weaving a basket, I knew from visits to museums and from studying academic papers what material she was likely using, what style of weave, how the basket was used”[1]

Additionally, Indigenous people and Indigenous practices are still alive today. Although cultures may have changed and evolved due to colonial influences, or been lost due to colonial acts of genocide, it is false to think of Indigenous people as only belonging to a historical past.