The Ventura County Archaeology Club’s November Speaker is Elias Castillo, a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and holder of more than a dozen awards in journalism. He is the author of A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the California Missions for which he spent seven years researching historic documents and letters written by the Spanish padres and explorers. He will present a reading of this book that documents the forces that ultimately destroyed the native communities and cultures and led to the deaths of more than 60,000 Native Americans held in the missions. As an explorer as well as a journalist, Castillo led the first scientific exploration of Mexico’s vast Copper Canyon under a grant from National Geographic. He has taught at several California universities and community colleges as well as Oklahoma State University, and his book has been used as the basis for college classes dealing with the Mission Period in California. He has also co-authored a chapter in Organized Crime & Democratic Governability: Mexico and the U.S. – Borderlands.

The meeting is will be held in Anderson Hall at the Museum.