Food Politics of Alliance in a California Frontier Chinatown Charlotte K. Sunseri Published online: 6 March 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract Archaeological investigation of Mono Mills (1880–1917), a pluralistic com- munity in California’ s mining frontier, is beginning to reveal how immigrants mobi- lized or mitigated power inequalities through identity expression, community cohesion, and labor relations. Archival records, coupled with the archaeology of household foodways in the Chinatown neighborhood, reveal how social inequalities, labor orga- nization, and identities reflect the impacts of racialization and strategies of resistance. Multicultural objects and aspects of cuisine were intimately entangled in the practices of laborers’ daily lives. The research highlights impacts of late nineteenth-century legislation to discriminate against Chinese immigrants, the agency of marginalized groups, and the long-term effects of discrimination. Keywords Social identities . Foodways . Chinese-American . Discrimination Introduction The end of the nineteenth century was an era of great social change. While miners, prospectors, and merchants of European descent found opportunity to be self-made in the Golden State of California, immigrant populations from China, Native Californians, and African Americans were relegated to a non-white category of exclusion in the racial hierarchy of the European American social world (Aarim-Heriot 2003, p. 9). New images of life in communities of the post-Gold Rush era may be glimpsed through joint consideration of material and documentary evidence for experiences of all groups within eastern California’ s mining frontier. These perspectives elaborate how pluralistic communities thrived in California’ s Gilded Age as well as how residents mobilized or mitigated power inequalities through their daily experiences of identity expression, community cohesion, and labor relations. Interethnic coalitions were a vital strategy to build economic and cultural ties across ethnic boundaries and increase opportunities for Int J Histor Archaeol (2015) 19:416–431 DOI 10.1007/s10761-015-0294-5 C. K. Sunseri (*) Department of Anthropology, San José State University, San José, CA 95192-0113, USA e-mail: charlotte.sunseri@sjsu.edu