Anita,

I personally communicated with Fritz Riddell, who with his brother, named
Owens Valley Brown Ware and he did not consider it related to the Spanish culture
of California missions. I stand corrected if new information has come to
light to prove Riddell wrong. However, you are beating a dead horse on the issue
of native pottery-making in the vicinity of Spanish mission and presidio sites
before the Spanish arrived (north of Orange County).

Harry S. Riddell and Fritz Riddell published Owens Valley Brown Ware in 1951
and 1957 as an extension of Great Basin Shoshone coil-scrape thinning
tradition. Harry suggested a connection to Southern Paiute Utility Ware from east
central Nevada. Both Riddells made the distinction between coil-paddle-anivil
tradition pottery from the Lower Colorado River and the Shoshone coil-scrape
traditions. In 1951, D.W. Lathrop and C.W. Meighan reported Owens Valley Brown Ware
throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In a letter to Alice P. Hunt on
October 13, 1957, Fritz Riddell stated: "Owens Valley Brown Ware, Shoshoni Pottery,
Southern Paiute Utility Ware, and Mono-Yokuts Pottery are all closely related
and ultimately may be determined to be the same ware." At that time, they
proposed the appearance of Owens Valley Brown Ware dates to around A.D. 1700. In
1957, William J. Wallace recovered Owens Valley Brown Ware in Death Valley and
proposed a relationship to Promontory Ware, noting the flat bottoms, which
Don Tuohy associated with basal-flange traits in his 1956 article on Shoshone
Ware from Idaho. Julian Steward described Promontory pottery in the Great Basin
in 1937 and B.R. Butler suggested it was more like Intermountain Ware and
Desert Gray Ware, which date from A.D. 400-1350 and called it "flower pot shaped"
(Butler 1979:1-5). This coil-scraped tradition centered around the California
Sierras and Nevada deserts, far to the east of Spanish occupation areas. Of
course, a few specimens could have been traded west and it is entirely possible
that Shoshone potters could have been pressed into service at one or more
Spanish missions.

And, while I have not yet read the source attributed by Anita, I feel Owens
Valley Brown Ware more likely developed from a Great Basin source far east of
the Spanish missions. Given Riddell's hypothesis the ware dates to around 1700,
it is even possible that mission potters introduced changes to Owens Valley
Brown Ware styles in the 18th century.

Butler, B.R.
1979 A Promontory Pottery Rnd at the Foot of the Lost River Range in Eastern
Idaho. Tebiwa. 20:1-5.

Lathrop, D.W. and C.W. Meighan
1951 An Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Panamint Mountains. University
of California Archaeological Survey Annual Reports. 11:11-32. Los Angeles.

Francis A. Riddell
1952 "Pottery From Owens Valley, California." Manuscript on file, California
Department of Parks & Recreation, Sacramento, California.

1957 Letter to Alice P. Hunt, October 13, 1957, Copy on file, California
Department of Parks & Recreation, Sacramento, California.

Riddell, Harry S., Jr. and Francis A. Riddell
1956 The Current Status of Archaeology Investigations in Owens Valley,
California. University of California Archaeology Survey Annual Reports, 33:28-33.
Berkeley.

Tuohy, Don
1956 Shoshoni Ware From Idaho. Davidson Journal of Anthropology. 2(1):55-72.

Wallace, William J.
1957 A Rockshelter Excavation in Death Valley National Monument. The
Masterkey. 31(5):144-157