Betty Goerke

Chief Marin: Leader, Rebel, and Legend 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.