Chief Marin: Leader, Rebel, and Legend

By Betty Goerke

A rare biography of a California Indian leader that weaves together the story of a legendary figure.

It's a little known fact that the San Francisco Bay Area's Marin County is named after a Coast Miwok chief who achieved notoriety for defying Spanish authority over his people. Anthropologist and archaeologist Betty Goerke has pieced together a portrait of the life of this Native American leader, using mission records, ethnographies, explorers' and missionaries' diaries and correspondence, and other material.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1597140538
• ISBN13: 9781597140539
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Heyday Books
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Must Read for Anyone Interested in the Natural World and Miwok Culture

I am a naturalist and a student of Native American cultures and I love this book. I'm reading it now. It is rare to find an author so expert in the natural world, the specific local and the Miwok culture. She takes you to the time of Marin with her descriptions of the plants, sights and smells of that time. I've already given this book to several friends.

Comprehensive and Objective

This book is well written and provides a comprehensive and fair handed assessment of Native American history in the Bay Area. This book is long overdue and well worth reading.

Any resident of Northern California well knows one of its richest counties is Marin County

Marin County, California, is named after a Native American tribal chieftain of the Coast Miwok who resisted Spanish colonization at a time when the infamous system of Spanish missions collapsed and California was being rapidly transformed by the Americans. "Chief Marin: Leader, Rebel, And Legend" is a compelling biography of a hitherto obscure figure by anthropologist and archaeologist Betty Goerke who drew upon her seminal research efforts with mission records, ethnographies, the diaries and correspondences of missionaries and explorers, and other source materials. Of special note is the section of thematically relevant photographic illustrations. An enthusiastically recommended addition to academic and community library Native American Studies and American Biography reference collections, "Chief Marin" is a vividly written, informative biography of a remarkable man and his epic struggle to emancipate his people from the Spanish colonial system in an ultimately doomed effort to preserve his people's aboriginal lifestyle.