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The Hearst Museum's most important California ethnology collection from the last fifty years were the artifacts gathered by Samuel A. Barrett, as part of an elaborate project to film Native Americans of western North America, between 1960 and 1965.
In 1908, Samuel Barrett had earned the first doctorate in anthropology from the University of California. After several years working and collecting for the Anthropology Museum at the University, Barrett went on to a distinguished career as curator and later director at the Milwaukee Public Museum (1909-40). Returning to his alma mater, he spent the last years of his life researching the material culture of the Indians of Northwestern California and directing the American Indian Films Project (AIFP), funded by the National Science Foundation.
The primary goal of the project was to secure a series of "record films" and sound recordings to be used for the detailed study of ceremonies and arts and crafts processes. The original film footage, most of which remains unedited, is extensively supplemented by still photos (black and white, color slides), artifacts, and field notes. A secondary goal was to collect some of the artifacts that were the subjects of these films. Although Barrett was trying to preserve what he believed to be vanishing cultures, he was surprised to find that many of the customs and art forms had persisted, and even thrived, to his day.
The project produced fifteen educational films, including eight Pomo films: three on Basketry of the Pomo (Introductory Film, Forms and Ornamentation, Techniques, 1962), Game of Staves (1962), Acorns: Staple Food of California Indians (1962), Kashia Men's Dances: Southwestern Pomo Indians (1963), Dream Dances of the Kashia Pomo (1964), and Beautiful Tree: Chiskale (1965). There were three other California films: Buckeyes: Food of California Indians (Nisenan, 1961), Sinew-Backed Bow and Its Arrows (Yurok, 1961), and Obsidian Point Making (Tolowa, 1964). One film, Pine Nuts (1961), was shot among the Paiute of nearby Nevada. The series also included one film about the Lakota Sioux and another two about the Northwest Coast.
The Film Project started with documenting the construction of a Pomo canoe made of tule reeds. First with his own funding in 1955, which was then supplemented by small university grants in January 1957, Barrett's initial work resulted in a pilot film: The Tule Balsa (1958). The canoe (1-211583) was accessioned into the Museum's collection in 1958. Two years later, Barrett collected a second example (1-198147).
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