Museum School Tour Over 60 Years Old!
By: Sarah Woodman
Topics: museum, yokuts, history, tour, native americans, Kern County
Posted by sawoodman Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:57:00 PDT
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For over 60 years, third and fourth grade students have traveled to the Kern County Museum to learn about the lifestyle and culture of the Yokuts Indians. The program has changed over the years, but the school children of today are still as enthralled as their great-grandparents!
According to museum records, the program was inaugurated sometime in that late 1940s by then museum director Frank Latta. The Native American Life program predates the creation of Pioneer Village; the museum’s first historic structure, the Barnes Log Cabin, wasn’t dedicated until 1950. It is unclear what Latta’s school tour program entailed, but it was likely very informative. In the 1940s, Latta was researching the history and culture of the Yokuts for his seminal book Handbook of the Yokuts Indians, published in 1949. He also employed Yokuts to construct a village near the Kern River in 1948 and made a movie documenting the Yokuts lifestyle in the reconstructed village.
In 1948, then assistant director Richard C. Bailey took over the program and admitted that the program was “still in its formative stages." Bailey took the program to Bakersfield schools, and outlying schools came to the museum. At that time, students walked down steep, concrete steps to view the program in the basement of the main museum building. Under the low roof that included pipes and beams under which Bailey had to stoop, students learned about the lifestyle of Yokuts Indians while looking at authentic artifacts.
Over the years, the program has moved a few times. It was conducted in the basement until the spring of 1952 when the program was moved to a former Kern County Fair Association building behind the main museum building. After the 1952 earthquake, the program moved into the north gallery of the main museum. The program stayed in the north gallery until the spring of 2009 when it moved to the newly renovated Three Oaks Lecture Hall.
Bailey was the primary docent for only one year. In 1949, the Barrios family began conducting the program. Pete Barrios, a member of the Tejon tribe of Yokuts, and his wife Clara, a member of the Tachi tribe of Yokuts, demonstrated acorn pounding, flour leeching, and basket weaving and spoke about traditional Yokuts lifestyle as they displayed a variety of artifacts including baskets, tools, beads, and weapons. During the five weeks that the Barrios first conducted the program, their sons Jimmie (age 2) helped grind acorns while Mark (age 7 months) slept in a traditional Yokuts cradleboard. Their third son, Willie, took his turn in the cradleboard in the spring of 1952.
The Barrios family continued telling the story of their people until the spring of 1956, when Elydia Gilbert Vasquez who grew up on the Sebastion Indian Reservation replaced the Barrios as the docent. Elydia Gilbert Vasquez conducted the program for a number of years, and she and the Barrios family have been joined by a number of dedicated docents including Shirley McFadzean, Phyllis Fieber, Richard “Dick” Heber, Thursa Revenaugh, Ken Griffin, Betty Wachob, LeAnna Dracup, Don Halbert, Gloria Dixon, Carol Henshaw, Dorothy McGee, Chris McDaneld, Barbara Adams, Dale Hopwood, Don Golden, and Barbara Kelly. Each docent has undergone extensive training to ensure a quality experience for the students.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the program was conducted twice a year for 5 weeks each session. The lecture lasted twenty minutes and an additional five minutes was allowed for questions. At that time, it was suggested that schools allocate 45 minutes for the program and to view the museum. Today, the program is offered every Tuesday and Thursday and lasts for an hour; it consists of a half-hour lecture and a half-hour hands-on acorn grinding experience. In the 2008-2009 school year, over 2,000 pupils participated in the program and spent, on average, 3 hours at the museum. That is quite an improvement over the suggested 45 minute museum visit of the 1940s!
As standards have changed in the schools, so have standards in museum education. In 1951, “free mimeographed Indian unit pamphlets” that “authoritatively cover the study of Kern county Indians” were available. A few years ago, Educational and Voluteer Services Manager Jackie Brouillette and docents revamped the program to meet the California State Framework for History and the Social Sciences. Program packets that include information about the Yokuts, as well as pre-visit and post-visit activities to enhance the local history curriculum are now offered to teachers. A learning guide is also available online!
In 1948, the Bakersfield Californian wrote, “Success of the program, [Bailey] believes, depends largely on the cooperation of the schools and teacher. Many instructors welcome the plan wholeheartedly, he says, and believe it is a vast improvement over the use of textbook since it brings the lesson much closer to the pupils.” The longevity of the program is evidence that the schools and teachers have cooperated! Over the years, other programs have been added to the museum’s school tour offerings including One-Room School Tour, Frontier Life Living History Day, California Living History Day, and Black Gold: The Oil Experience.
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