INTRODUCTION

The Plenary Session of the Fall, 1980 Annual Meeting of the American Society
for Ethnohistory was dedicated to the recognition of "The Contribution of Robert F.
Heizer to California Ethnohistory. " William Clewlow chaired the session, William
Sturtevant, Martin Baumhoff, Lowell John Bean, Ed Castillo, Albert Elsasser, and
Polly Bickel read papers which they had prepared, and Calvin Martin, Dorothea

Theodoratus, and Elizabeth Colson served as discussants. William Simmons organized

the session and invited the participants. These five papers originated in this symposium,
which took place on the afternoon of Friday, October 24, in the San Franciscan Hotel,

San Francisco. The paper by Castillo, "The Impact of R. F. Heizer's Ethnohistorical
Publications on the Native Americans and California Ethnohistory" would have been

included had not the author been too involved in other areas to complete the manuscript

in time for publication. This collection only samples the full range of Heizer's contributions
to California ethnohistory and does not exhaust the numbers of friends and former students
who could have given valuable perspectives on his many and important research contri-
butions. We might add that the discussion following these papers also provided many

spontaneous insights and illuminating anecdotes regarding Heizer's career that were not

recorded. All who attended the symposium appreciated the immense and enduring impact
that Bob Heizer had on historical and ethnographic studies in California and the generous
extent to which he used his knowledge in behalf of the Indian people. In recognition of

these achievements the governing board of the American Society for Ethnohistory voted to
establish an annual Robert F. Heizer Award for distinguished research in ethnohistory.

William S. Simmons
Polly McW. Bickel

Berkeley 1981
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The editors wish to thank John Graham and the members of the Archaeological
Research Facility for publishing this memorial to Robert Heizer, and Suzanne Sundholm
for typing the final draft.

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