San Francisco 33 206 211 297 15 762
Santa Clara 400
San Jose 347 136 603 1,086
--- --- --- --- --- -----
Total 380 342 211 297 618 2,248
It must not be thought that each site represented on the map by a dot
was inhabited in 1769, or the years immediately preceding, for many of
the mounds are known to have been formed during the Middle Culture
period, which antedated modern times by several centuries. The chief
physical characteristic of these accumulations is the very high content
of mussel, and to some extent clam, shell. From this feature it has been
deduced that at one time a very large population existed along the shore
of the Bay.
The record of known sites, as shown on map 1, is valuable, not as an
indication of the size of population, but rather of its distribution.
Admitting that perhaps the majority of the sites along the Bay shore
from San Leandro to Crockett were abandoned before 1770, it is still
apparent that the areas designated on the map as Alamedan and Huchiun
contained a heavy concentration of inhabited spots. This conclusion is
in conformity with the waterfront habitat and the probable large food
reserves. Along the strait and the southern shore of Suisun Bay the
known habitation mounds are less numerous, but there are enough to
indicate a reasonably high population density. This area on the map has
been ascribed to Karquin.
Through the generally hilly interior of Alameda and Contra Costa
counties there are but two areas of sizable extent in which preconquest
village sites occur with relative frequency. One is the Lafayette-Walnut
Creek-Danville region and the other the Livermore Valley, west to
Pleasanton and Dublin. These provinces were inhabited in the late
eighteenth century by the Saklan and Seunen respectively, and are so
designated on the map. Indeed, the correspondence between archaeological
sites and the occurrence of rancherias in early colonial times is
remarkably close. The conclusion is permissible that the pattern of
occupancy found by the Spaniards had been established long previously
and was fully stabilized at the time of their arrival. This condition
in turn argues a mature balance between the natural environment and the
indigenous population.