Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum
Jose Rivera
“Indian Mission Vaqueros:
The First Western American Cowboys”
at the Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum
220 Market Street
on May 18, 2019 at 11:00AM
There is no more iconic symbol of the old West than the American cowboy. But here’s a question: Who came first—the American cowboy or the California Indian vaquero?
From the founding of the first Spanish Mission at San Diego in 1769 to the industrialization of California in the 1930’s, California’s primary industry was cattle. Not only were California Indians instrumental in the development of the California cattle industry, but they were practicing their trade one hundred years before Jesse Chisholm blazed the cattle trail that bears his name and eighty years before the first Anglo American cowboy appeared in the 1850’s.
Jose Ignacio Rivera, who is Apache, Nahuatl and Huasteco, is the former Director of the Heritage Center at the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Director of Education at the Marin Museum of the American Indian in Novato, California; Curator of Exhibits at Heritage Square in downtown Phoenix; and a retired California State Park Ranger/Peace Officer. He holds an AA is Archeosophy (ancient history, ancient philosophy, & symbolic art) from D.Q. University, a B.S. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis, and an MA in History and Historical Resources Management from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Hueneme Museum Distinguished Speaker Events in May
May 4 Denis O’Leary “History of Cinco de Mayo”
May 17 Meet with your Ventura County Supervisor @the Museum
May 18 Jose Rivera ”Indian Mission Vaqueros: The First Western Cowboys”
May 27 Third Annual Memorial Day (City Hall) @8:30 AM
Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum
220 Market St, Port Hueneme 93041
805-488-0585
Hours: W, Th, Fri, Sat 9:00 AM-3:00PM Sun 12:00-3:00PM and MW by appt.
Picture Credit: Contra Costa County Historical Society
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